Colleges

Lee hits books in Seminoles' QB race

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden has said Drew Weatherford and Xavier Lee are fourth-year juniors who are now ready to produce big-time.

By Brian Landman
Published July 30, 2007

TAMPA - Florida State coach Bobby Bowden has said Drew Weatherford and Xavier Lee are fourth-year juniors who are now ready to produce big-time.

But which one will get the time?

Bowden said both will continue to compete throughout the fall practice for the starting job and offered this quick hint of where the two stand as the Florida Sports Writers Association wrapped up a second day of interviews with the 12 state football coaches Sunday:

"I think Xavier has made some improvement this spring," he said. "He's just got to work hard. He's got to study hard. He's got to study the game. People talk about quarterbacks, 'Oh. He's got a great arm.' So what? They've all got great arms, you know it. It's who can make the decisions of who to throw the ball to. And that comes through study, study, study. He's done a lot more of that this last year and I saw improvement this spring. But at the same time, Drew Weatherford has improved."

UNDERSTANDING BILLY: Former Florida quarterback Kerwin Bell had just signed his deal to leave Ocala Trinity Catholic High, a program he had built into a state power, to become the coach at Jacksonville in January when he "felt a sickness in my stomach."

Though excited about his first collegiate head coaching job, he asked himself painful questions; questions Florida basketball coach Billy Donovan would be asking himself months later after signing with the Magic.

"It hit me that day when I drove away, 'Did I really make the right decision? Should I not have done that?' " Bell said, ultimately realizing it was the right move. "I understood exactly what he Donovan went through because you commit so much of your life building something and then to just try to separate from that and go on with your life ... is very difficult."

SCHEDULING PHILOSOPHY: Some might call it crazy for the coach of a fledgling program to line up nonconference home games against Minnesota and USF and nonconference road games against Oklahoma State, Kentucky and UF. Florida Atlantic coach Howard Schnellenberger calls it "advanced training."

Facing top-shelf teams, he insists, will help his group develop, mentally and physically.

It's a strategy that worked for him at Miami and later Louisville.

"We have to go through what we're going through," he said, adding that by next year, the Owls will drop to two big-name opponents.

As for playing the defending national champion Gators in the Swamp: "I'm scared to death. No, I'm not scared to death of anything."

LOCAL TIES: Florida A&M has quite a few bay area products on the roster, but coach Rubin Carter pointed to three who might be standouts: linebacker Victoriano Arboleda (Middleton); and defensive lineman Bryan Peoples and punter/kicker Wesley Peoples (Riverview).

HE SAID IT: "I've never had so many Alabama people write me for tickets in my life. They think I'm going to give them tickets to go sit on the Alabama sideline. Noooo." - Bowden on the Sept. 29 game against Alabama in Jacksonville, which is expected to draw a record crowd of more than 85,000.

Brian Landman can be reached at landman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3347.

[Last modified July 29, 2007, 23:41:25]