Colleges

Players getting a feel for Fisher's full offense

By BRIAN LANDMAN, Times Staff Writer
Published November 8, 2007

First-year coordinator Jimbo Fisher wanted his players to understand all of the concepts of his offensive scheme so they could successfully adapt on the fly and execute variations on a theme.

It's like trying to pick up the guitar. If you learn all the chords, you can play any song. Learning how to play one song doesn't mean you can play any or many others.

"Jimbo came in here and threw the whole offensive package at them," coach Bobby Bowden said. "It was entirely different than what they had been doing and it is a package that, if you execute it, it has the answer to everything you can do. They didn't grasp it at first. They were trying to grasp it. They were grasping parts of it, but they couldn't get the whole picture. What's happening now is they're beginning to get the picture."

The Seminoles averaged 343 yards on 67 plays and 23 points in the first six games.

They've averaged 451 yards on 81 plays and 27 points in the last three.

"It was difficult to handle for a while and it was even difficult to handle the first couple of games of the year," quarterback Drew Weatherford said. "But all of that hard work and all of things that he has thrown at us has really benefited us. We went through a lot of growing pains early on, but the benefits are huge. If we wouldn't have done that, there was a lot of things in the Boston College game we would not have been able to do."

Fisher said he saw flashes before this recent stretch, but from the feedback he's gotten from players after a play and how they've reacted under duress, he's seen the "consistency level" you want.

They get it. They know all the chords.

"If they understand the concept of protection and the route, the play, and the whole general thing that you are trying to do," he said, "then those adjustments just kind of naturally come."

That's going to have to continue this weekend at No. 11 Virginia Tech, which is 11th nationally in total defense 300.3 yards and fourth in scoring defense (14.3 points).

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU ASK FOR: After he began the season struggling to hold onto the ball, a number of fans wanted to see senior receiver De'Cody Fagg benched. The coaches stuck with him. How's that worked out?

Well, he had nine catches for 134 yards against Duke and then six for 111 and a touchdown against Boston College. With one catch Saturday, he'll have 37 for the year to match his career high.

"He's making plays now and it sure is good," Bowden said.

BIG DAY FOR DELRAY BEACH: FSU sophomore receiver Preston Parker and Virginia Tech junior cornerback Brandon Flowers have been the closest of friends for much of their lives. They've always been football teammates, including at Atlantic High, and you have to go back to when they played T-ball to find them on opposite sides.

"It'll be nice for our families seeing us go against each other on the collegiate level," said Parker, who talks with Flowers on the phone often. (Flowers, in fact, is someone Parker sought advice from last year when he considered transferring; Flowers told him to stay put, work hard and wait for his chance.) "It'll be nice for our city, too. It might be a Delray showdown."

NATIONAL PUB: Seminoles, both present and past, got some attention in Sports Illustrated. In the Nov. 5 issue, sophomore Susan Kuijken appeared in "Faces in the Crowd" for winning the prenational cross-country meet and all four races she's run this year. A week earlier, former basketball star Al Thornton, now a rookie with the Clippers, is one of the four athletes on SI's "Pop Culture Grid." Did you know his favorite comfort food is cube steak with gravy? In that same issue, former linebacker Buster Davis is part of a story on the Lions' practice squad.

BIRTHDAY BOY: Bowden will celebrate turning 78 today, but what can you give a guy who has 372 wins (the most in major college history), two national titles and a statue? "He doesn't need anything," said son Tommy, the Clemson coach. "I usually call him and send him a card and there's ain't nothing in that card, either. I ain't putting a check in that card; one of those $2 cards with some glitter."

Brian Landman can be reached at landman@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3347. Read his blog at www.blogs.tampabay.com/seminoles

[Last modified November 7, 2007, 21:21:54]