Sports

Colleges

A place for everything, everything in its place

By Brian Landman
Published August 31, 2007

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Shortly after assistant Chuck Amato returned to FSU, he made sure the players understood exactly how he planned to help instill discipline and order. In fact, he drew them a picture. ¶ "He had a diagram of how our lockers had to look," senior defensive tackle Andre Fluellen said. ¶ Ankle braces in the upper left shelf; knee braces in the upper right. Towels on the back hook on the right. Helmet on the front hook on the right. Shoes tucked neatly against the front wall. Any dirt or trash had to be swept up pronto.

"At first," junior tailback Antone Smith said, "I thought it was dumb."

But if he or any Seminole didn't have his stall looking like Amato's diagram, there were consequences. A third strike meant the offender would be exiled to the dank visitor's locker room to dress for each practice.

"You don't want to go down there," Smith said.

Said Amato: "We did it here years ago. I can remember (baseball coach) Mike Martin was in the cafeteria one night and a graduate assistant handed me a bunch of names of kids whose lockers were screwed up and he (Martin) said, 'What's that Chuck?' I told him what it was and he said, 'No wonder you guys are good. You make them do everything right.' I said, 'No, but we try. We try.' It's a discipline thing. If they can cut down one penalty or two penalties a game, we're going to win. There's no question, it's about the little things."

Globe trotter

If he were the typical student-athlete, sophomore safety Myron Rolle would have spent his summer taking a few courses to ensure his eligibility and working out with his teammates in Tallahassee.

Instead, Rolle spent six weeks in London as part of FSU's International Programs. He earned nine credits, including from a course dealing with politics, and enters his second football season as a junior academically.

"My trip was fantastic; I had a great time," he said. "I got to travel to different places, like the Czech Republic and Morocco, and I saw some historic sites like Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle and Stonehenge."

He worked out, too, lifting weights at his school there and running at a local park. Not quite the same as if he were back in Tallahassee. Of course, there were other differences, too. A coffee at Starbucks was about 3 pounds ($6) and he had no HBO or ESPN.

"But I definitely want to go back to Europe whenever I can," he said.

Whose bright idea was this?

Coach Bobby Bowden insists this is the toughest lineup of road games he's faced since the "murderous" one in 1981 when his Seminoles played perennial national powers Nebraska, Ohio State, Notre Dame, Pittsburgh and LSU in successive road games, then ended the year at archrival Florida. Here's a reminder how that year went:

1981

Date Opponent (AP ranking) Score Result

Sept. 19 Nebraska (17) 34-14 L

Oct. 3 Ohio State (7) 36-27 W

Oct. 10 Notre Dame (unr) 19-13 W

Oct. 17 Pittsburgh(13) 42-14 L

Oct. 24 LSU (unr) 38-14 W

Nov. 28 Florida (unr) 35-3 L

Superstitious writing on the jersey

Redshirt junior quarterback Xavier Lee has traded No.9 for No.1. That was what he wore when he put up gaudy numbers Daytona Beach Seabreeze High.

"I wanted to go back to how I got here," he said.

But No.1 has been an ominous number at FSU in recent years. In the 2003 season, junior receiver Craphonso Thorpe saw a stellar season end with a broken leg. In 2005, the No. 1 belonged to heralded freshman receiver Fred Rouse, who was kicked off the team shortly after the Orange Bowl and is now at Texas-El Paso. Last year, tight end Brandon Warren wore that jersey, earned freshman All-America honors then abruptly left school in February.

By the numbers

5 - New coaches, in an unprecedented staff shakeup under Bobby Bowden.

19 - Preseason AP ranking, lowest since also starting No.19 in 1985.

26 - Total margin in five last-minute losses (Clemson, N.C. State, Boston College, Maryland, Florida).

He said it

"It'd be unfair for me to stay here and put out mediocre football teams. I'm determined to get back on top. So, it's that important to me." - Bobby Bowden on what it means to him to restore FSU to prominence.

[Last modified August 29, 2007, 09:31:47]

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