Jimbo Fisher Talks To Joe
May 15th, 2010
Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher — damn, that’s weird for Joe just to type that — came to Tarpon Springs yesterday and Joe had a sitdown with the new Seminoles coach (along with good guys Brian Landman of the St. Petersburg Times, Gene Williams of Warchant.com and local sports TV and radio personality J.P. Peterson).
No, this is not a Florida State post. Bucs fans recognize there are all sorts of connections between Florida State and the Bucs.
First, there’s Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn. Also, there are two and potentially three new Bucs who are from Florida State. Fisher spoke about the aforementioned players and what Bucs fans can expect from newcomers linebacker Dekoda Watson, wide receiver/return man Preston Parker and if he can pass a physical, tight end Caz Piurowski.
Though this is Fisher’s first year as the Seminoles head coach, he was Bobby Bowden’s offensive coordinator the past three seasons so he is familiar with FSU players of recent history.
(Fun fact: Fisher and Raheem the Dream have a mutual best friend: Steelers coach Mike Tomlin. Fisher and Tomlin coached together at the University of Cincinnati. In 1999, Fisher was the Bearcats offensive coordinator and Tomlin was the defensive backs coach.)
JoeBucsFan: As you know the Bucs signed one of your former players Preston Parker. Parker seemed to be a special player. Having to play his senior year at North Alabama, a Division-II school, how much did that hurt his development?
Jimbo Fisher: I don’t know if that set him back. You’ll be amazed sometimes at how many Division-II level players and the quality of athletes that play there when they transfer in and do some things. I think what may have set him back was structure-wise. He had to learn a new offense. Anytime you don’t know what you are doing as well as you did before, it slows you down from doing what you are capable of.
As a competitor, I don’t know if that slowed him down. But it was probably just the change.
Joe: Joe calls Parker a poor man’s Dexter McCluster. Your thoughts?
Fisher: Probably because [Parker] doesn’t have the blazing speed. He may not have the top end speed but I tell you what the guy is now: He plays in a game as fast or faster than he runs in a 40. He is extremely competitive and he is extremely tough and he’s not going to shy away from anything or what you want him to do. I think that’s where he makes up for his lack of true blazing speed.
Joe: What made [Bucs seventh round draft pick] Dekoda Watson such a tough linebacker?
Fisher: First off, his athletism. He can run, jump, has size, you know what I mean? He can rush on the edges — a very good pass rusher. I mean he can get those hips and sink and run. He can run with you in space and he can hit you.
Joe: Was there anything in particular that Watson did that gave you fits in practice, was there something he did that your offense in practice was never able to overcome?
Fisher: Dekoda drove us more crazy when he was pass rushing. He did a great job in other things but he had that natural knack as a blitzer and a pass rusher to cause us a lot of problems.
Joe: What do you know about Caz Piurowski’s situation? The Bucs signed him as a free agent and he couldn’t pass his physical due to a bad knee. It seems the Bucs still want to sign him and Piurowski still wants to sign with the Bucs but the physical exam is the problem. Do you have any update on Piurowski?
Fisher: It’s a shame. He can be a really good player. He’s big, he has size, he can block, he’s got ball skills. He was really coming into his own — it’s a shame he got hurt when he did. He was having a great season. He can play in the NFL. I don’t think there’s any doubt. He’s an NFL player. I think he just needs an opportunity.
Joe: I don’t know if you had a chance to talk to him or his family [Piurowski’s father, Paul, was a linebacker for Bowden at Florida State] or Caz about his status? It sounds like he still wants to play for the Bucs.
Fisher: He does, but since I’ve been on my [golf] tour, I haven’t had any contact with him. He has a great family, great mom, great dad and he’s a great kid himself.
Joe: Joe knows that Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn are very involved with your program — Brooks is on the school’s board of trustees. A lot of your players obviously grew up watching those two. How much do those former Bucs mean to your players?
Fisher: [leans back in his chair and spreads his arms wide] (Brooks and Dunn) are their heroes. I mean they are heroes to the kids. When you talk about, “This is the way you act off the field. This is the way you act in the classroom. This is the way you conduct yourself… ” They are both carbon copies [of each other]. They are both poster men for how you want your players to act in all facets of life. I mean they are complete people. To have two guys of that caliber and to have played at the high level they played and to conduct themselves as men to the level they have done it, I don’t know if there’s any better ambassadors as Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn.
Brooks of course is back on campus a lot and I’ve seen Dunn a number of times on the golf tour. At different times he will come by and speak and he’s still very associated with us.
May 15th, 2010 at 4:57 pm
Joe,
When Jimbo turns the FSU program around in the next year and you see an uptick on the record and competitiveness as well as what’s already happened in recruiting, what are you going to attribute it to?
I know you loved Saint Bobby and were fully against him losing the ability to be a figurehead and roam the sideline without any real purpose but to cash a check on his legacy.
I know you felt, and posted here, that Saint Bobby was such a swell guy that 7-6 record after 7-6 record was fine because of what had occurred decades earlier. But, will there be anything in the upcoming season to make you admit you were wrong about your belief that Bobby should have been allowed to get paid millions for the best seat in the house while the foundation around him crumbled?
May 15th, 2010 at 5:10 pm
As an FSU Alum and Booster I would have permitted Mr. Bowden to coach until he was 100 or as long as he “dang” well wanted.
Why?
There is no FSU Football without Bobby Bowden and all true Noles know this.
May 15th, 2010 at 6:56 pm
Tom:
Looking around the college landscape, I don’t see that FSU “crumbled” in past decade. Slipped? Of course.
The old man wanted one more year. After all the hundreds of millions of dollars he made for that school, I cannot see what harm one more year could have or would have done. It’s not like they were posting losing seasons.
For example, Joe can think of five SEC schools off the top of his head where fans would have cut their nuts off to have had what Bowden produced in what some FSU fans referred to as a horrible decade.
May 15th, 2010 at 7:08 pm
That would be known as “The Lost Decade” Joe. I too am an FSU Booster and truly bleed garnet and gold, but I respectfully have to disagree about the coaching till he is 100 or what harm could one more year have done. The time to make a move was when the Admin. made it. I love Bobby and appreciate all he did for the program and University itself. But when you constantly make bad decision after bad decision over the course of a decade on top of circumventing state laws in order to hire your under qualified children and unemployeed good buddies than you yourself are putting the writing on the wall for your dismissal. Name 1 program in the country this past decade that has the same or worse record than FSU and still has the same head coach. No other credible program would tolerate the travesties that have taken place @ FSU in the “Lost Decade”, so why should FSU be any different?!
May 15th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
I view it as different because Bobby saved the Florida State Football program and brought it to a magical level unprecedented in college football history.
Without him, there would have been no “lost decade” as it is likely the program would have folded. Nor would two national championships belong to the Noles and countless top five finishes and Bowl wins.
Thus, he thoroughly earned the right to go out on his own terms.
If you are a Booster you ought to be ashamed.
May 15th, 2010 at 10:57 pm
Glad to see such glowing quotes attributed to Brooks and Dunn. They are indeed both great athletes and human beings. It is a shame when the press concentrates on losers like Pac Man and thier antics instead of real men like Brooks and Dunn.
May 15th, 2010 at 11:18 pm
drdneast:
Whenever possible, Joe will write about Brooks and Dunn. Joe knows how much Bucs fans care about those two… and for good reason.
May 15th, 2010 at 11:39 pm
No one should be ashamed Eric. No matter how irrational your argument is, that because Bobby did great things for the FSU program decades before that he should be given a lifetime contract, I would not say you should hold your head low. As Joe points out, Bobby made the university a ton of money in years past, so apparently the university should be willing to lose money and games for a decade or more because of their supposed debt of gratitude to him. Never mind the fact that it counters the entire concept of competitive sports.
Hugh Culverhouse brought the NFL to Tampa right? I have to believe that Joe and Eric were both completely and totally fine with his ownership and tenure that lasted into the early 90’s because without Culverhouse there are no Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The same thing could be said for Vince Naimoli and the Rays, Joe must have been very disappointed when Stu Sternberg bought control of the team after all Naimoli did to get baseball in Tampa…err St Pete. 😉
FSU is going to turn around this year. Had a competent head coach been in place four year ago it would have turned around then too. But I guess to Joe it doesn’t matter about the product on the field, in Joe’s world sentimentality should rule in competitive sports.
May 15th, 2010 at 11:55 pm
Friends don’t let friends got to FSU.
May 16th, 2010 at 1:23 am
Tom;
FSU was not losing cash with Bowden. To invoke Hugh Culverhouse is beyond the pale.
Feel free to document Bowden’s losing seasons.
Penn State went through a worse period and the school stuck with JoePa.
May 16th, 2010 at 12:41 pm
Culverhouse is 100% analogous. The man brought football to Tampa, the same way people feel Bobby brought competitive football to Tallahassee. In fact that’s Eric’s argument to a tee. But apparently in one case performance doesn’t matter, but in the other it does? You do realize if another coach was there and didn’t have the sentimentality factor they would’ve been canned midway through the 2000’s, look at Mike Shula as an example. I don’t think Bama fans were thanking their lucky stars they had a slightly above .500 program his four years there (26-23) including a 10 win season; he lasted 4 years.
Most children are taught no one person is greater than the team. In Joe’s eyes, it would appear there are exceptions to this rule.
May 16th, 2010 at 4:01 pm
“Friends don’t let friends got to FSU.”
How’s that DeVry education working out for you?
May 16th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
“Feel free to document Bowden’s losing seasons.”
Says someone who clearly doesn’t follow major college football. How many losing seasons did Larry Coker have at Miami? None, and the guy won the National title in 2001 before he was canned in 2006…for a 7-6 record.
Remember how beloved a coach Ron Zook was at UF? Everyone should love the guy right? No losing seasons in 3 years there, with his worst record being 7-4. How do you get rid of a guy like that?
In college football you get to schedule a number of cupcakes every year and even in the SEC there are also ran teams you get to play on a yearly basis (Vandy, Miss St, Kentucky), hell, half of the ACC is composed of cupcakes who ate up Bowden’s teams in the 2000’s (Maryland, BC, NC State, Wake Forest etc).
May 16th, 2010 at 7:54 pm
Tom:
You are comparing Ron Zook and Larry Coker to Bowden, really?
May 16th, 2010 at 10:13 pm
For Crying Out Loud! I love Bobby Bowden, and I still admire him for his character and for what he accomplished. But football coaches are HIRED to meet the expectations of the school and it’s fan base.
Initially, for Bobby, that was to field a competitive team and have more wins than losses. But after his initial success, the expectation became to win conference titles and challenge for national championships if at all possible.
Bobby did all that – it was a great 20+ years. He did his job well and became one of best in all of college football – and he was rewarded handsomely for it.
But when a program languishes in mediocrity for 10 years, it is time to remember that the coach is accountable. When the on-field product does not match expectation for nearly an entire decade it is time to make the change.
Given the circumstances and the time involved, there was no disrespect to Coach Bowden. He had a 10 year grace period to show he had returned FSU to prominence. I know he didn’t want to retire until he had one more championship. Unfortunately, he refused to recognize his methods were moving the team further away from competitiveness with each season. They had hired Jimbo as a replacement, and it was time.
Bobby admires Bear Bryant so much, it is fitting that he will ALWAYS be remembered in the same way in Tallahassee. Fantastic success, wonderful coach but stayed just a tad too long. My bet is JoPa has the same idea – ready to retire, but wants to go out as a Champion. Don’t we all?