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Puzzling Scenario

[Times photo: Joseph Garnett Jr.] Redshirt freshman quarterback Chris Rix will be calling the signals for the Seminoles this season.

By BRIAN LANDMAN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published August 30, 2001

For the first time in years, FSU has holes at many crucial positions. How well the fill-ins play will make or break the season.

TALLAHASSEE -- Florida State coach Bobby Bowden often likens building a national championship team to assembling a puzzle.

Both require the vision of the completed picture. Both require patience to experiment with possible combinations. Both require having all the pieces.

This season, Bowden is missing far more pieces than usual, and he is hoping to find them somewhere, anywhere.

"It's not just one piece we're missing," he said. "We've got 12 pieces to fit together."

That's no mere puzzle.

That's a Rubik's Cube.

The No. 6-ranked Seminoles lost 14 senior starters, including Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Chris Weinke, tailbacks Travis Minor and Jeff Chaney, Lombardi Award winning defensive end and first-round NFL draft pick Jamal Reynolds, Butkus Award finalists Tommy Polley and Brian Allen, cornerbacks Tay Cody and Clevan Thomas and safety Derrick Gibson, another first-round choice. Then, they lost standout receivers Anquan Boldin and Robert Morgan to season-ending knee injuries in fall practice. Yipes.

Still, don't discount another run at the Bowl Championship Series finale, which the Seminoles have played in for all three years of its existence. The BCS, the imperfect system that pairs the nation's top two teams, will be played at the Rose Bowl this season.

As recently as 1997, Bowden had to replace 15 starters. His Seminoles nonetheless were poised to at least share the title before a last-minute loss at Florida in the regular-season finale.

"We've got talent now," Bowden said, flashing a grin.

The talent, however, is unrefined, beginning at the most crucial position of all: quarterback.

With Weinke moving on to the NFL, Marcus Outzen graduating and Bowden dismissing rising junior Jared Jones from the team in January, the job has fallen to redshirt freshman Chris Rix, 20.

He has yet to throw his first collegiate pass. He has yet to line up under center for the first time in a collegiate game. Yet Rix, who had been battling Boldin since the spring, is set to become the first redshirt freshman quarterback to start the season opener in the Bowden era. The last freshman to start was Chip Ferguson in 1985 against Miami.

"If we had a veteran quarterback coming back, I'd feel about like I always do," Bowden said. "Quarterback is the main piece (of the puzzle), but it's beginning to shape up."

Rix, 6 feet 4 and 205 pounds, has a powerful right arm (he has flung the ball 70 yards) and powerful legs (he runs a 4.45 in the 40). He should give the Seminoles a dimension they've lacked since 1993 with Charlie Ward, a mobile quarterback capable of turning a busted play into a gain.

"Hopefully, passing wise, people will say, "Hey, that looks a lot like Weinke out there,' " said Rix, who switched from No. 15 to Weinke's No. 16. "Running-wise, I plan on people being able to tell the difference."

In a good way.

"I would think he's going to step up and do a great job," Ferguson said. "People are concerned, but when has Florida State not had somebody step up, whether he's a junior or a freshman? You can't even go back and remember that. They've just not had people not step up. They recruit that kind of athlete, that kind of talent."

Plenty of folks, not just Rix, must demonstrate that FSU didn't miss the mark during the recruiting process.

Youth must be served at receiver, especially with Boldin and Morgan out. Look for freshmen Craphonso Thorpe and P.K. Sam and even sophomore walk-on Joey Kaleikini to have expansive roles.

Nick Maddox, once one of the nation's most heralded tailbacks who moved to receiver last year, needs to lead a stampede of neophyte backs, including sophomore Greg Jones, oft-injured senior Davy Ford and freshman Eric Shelton. Bowden wants a far more effective running game to take some of the pressure off Rix.

Of course, the running and Rix's passing success hinge on the play of an offensive line that's been infused with last season's understudies, junior tackle Todd Williams and senior center Antoine Mirambeau.

Defensively, sophomore linebackers Kendyll Pope and Michael Boulware, sophomore cornerback Stanford Samuels and junior cornerback Malcolm Tatum, senior safety Abdual Howard, redshirt freshman cornerback Bryant McFadden and freshman cornerback Dominic Robinson must blossom.

Bowden also is hoping freshman kicker Xavier Beitia, the former Tampa Jesuit star, will solidify the most troublesome spot on last season's team.

"There are a lot of guys who are ready to play and have been waiting for their turn," said sophomore defensive tackle Darnell Dockett, who emerged as a star last season. "I think those guys are getting mad because everybody talks about me and Jeff (Womble) and that those guys can't get the job done, too. But those guys can, and they're going to come along and a lot of guys are going to see that."

Bowden hopes to see that by the Sept. 15 showdown against No. 10 Georgia Tech. If FSU is undefeated after that game, Bowden said, "You'd be thinking, "Hey, we've got a shot at this thing.' "

That's seeing the big picture. That's possessing patience. That's having the pieces, all of them, fall neatly and precisely into place.

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