Fisher Era Ending at FSU: The Unlikely Became the Inevitable

The Jimbo Fisher era at Florida State is expected to come to a close just shy of the end of the FSU head coach’s eighth season as the guy in Tallahassee. The latest report from the Houston Chronicle has Fisher being announced as the new head coach of Texas A&M by Sunday.

Leaving Florida State for Texas A&M at one point seemed highly unlikely for Fisher, who had previously turned down LSU where he served as an assistant from 2000 through 2006. As time wandered on however, it became inevitable and most of it was Fisher’s doing.

As mentioned in the Tallahassee Democrat earlier this week, Fisher had seemed to burn his bridges with athletic director Stan Wilcox and the higher-ups with Seminole Boosters.

FSU president John Thrasher has always been an ally for Fisher, but even his statement in the story was viewed as damning for the head coach of the Seminoles.

“This structure has been in place since the Boosters were founded,” Thrasher said in the story. “It has served us well, and I don’t see any issues that reasonable adults could not work through. How many football coaches have we had in the last 40 years?”

The saga seemed to come to a head on Wednesday night. During Fisher’s television call-in show, one man was escorted out after questioning Fisher’s loyalty. Later in the evening, three members of FSU’s 2018 recruiting class decommitted within a 2 1/2-hour span.

That amounts to 1/6 or almost 17 percent of the class gone, including the second highest rated member in 4-star cornerback Houston Griffith. The second highest rated member of the Seminoles’ 2019 class, Wanya Morris, decommmitted over the weekend. Fellow 2018 commitment and FSU legacy Amari Gainer told the Tallahassee Democrat that recruits had become frustrated with the lack of communication from the FSU coaching staff.

No matter what Fisher’s intentions are at this very hour, it has become painfully evident that the odds are against the relationship between he and FSU being salvaged. With that being said, few should forget what Fisher did over his eight years with the program.

When Fisher was promoted from offensive coordinator to head coach in 2010, the Seminoles were coming off three 7-6 seasons in four years. FSU hadn’t won the ACC in five years; it hadn’t won a national championship or BCS bowl in 11 years; it hadn’t won 10 games in seven years; it hadn’t defeated rival Florida in six years.

It did not take long for Fisher to begin chipping away at those droughts. In his first season as head coach, Fisher coached the Seminoles to their first ACC Atlantic crown in five years and even though they were unable to beat Virginia Tech for the title, they were able to knock off SEC East champion South Carolina in the Chick-fil-A Bowl to cement the school’s first 10-win season since 2003.

The regular season ended that year with a resounding 31-7 victory over rival Florida in what would be Gators’ head coach Urban Meyer’s final regular season game with the program. FSU’s second-biggest rival, Miami, also let head coach Randy Shannon go after that season. FSU defeated the Hurricanes 45-17 that year.

After a disappointing start to 2011, FSU won seven of its final eight games to finish 9-4. The following year saw the Seminoles win their first ACC crown in seven years and first BCS bowl victory in 13. FSU tied a school-record with 12 wins en route to a 12-2 finish capped with a 31-10 Orange Bowl victory over Northern Illinois and an AP top 10 national ranking — its first since 2000.

The following season would be the one for which Fisher will be most remembered as Florida State capped a 14-0 season with a thrilling 34-31 victory over Auburn in the final BCS National Championship. Led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston and a defense that yielded the fewest points per game in the country, FSU had one of the more dominant seasons in college football history. The Seminoles won by an average margin of nearly six touchdowns and scored more points than any team in FBS history.

From there, things have never quite been the same. After an undefeated regular season that featured many close calls in 2014, the Seminoles reached the College Football Playoff before losing to Oregon 59-20 in the Rose Bowl — one of college football’s first semifinals.

With a plethora of attrition, a down year was expected in 2015 as the Seminoles finished 10-3 with a loss to Houston in the Peach Bowl. It was the first year that FSU did not win the ACC since 2011.

Florida State was expected to contend for a national title again in 2016, but an 0-2 start to ACC play by the early parts of the October eliminated any hopes of that happening. FSU was again able to win seven of its final eight games, including a thrilling 33-32 Orange Bowl victory over Michigan, to finish 10-3 and ranked No. 8.

Expectations were again sky high at the start of this season as the Seminoles began the year ranked No. 3. Since then however, it’s been a perfect storm. FSU lost starting quarterback Deondre Francois in the season-opening loss to Alabama and the offense has never gotten on track.

FSU began the year with a 3-6 record with three losses coming at home to N.C. State, Miami and Louisville by a combined 13 points. The worst performance of the year came in a 35-3 loss to Boston College on Oct. 27.

As the season has spiraled downward, the Fisher to Texas A&M rumors begin to pick up steam and the frustration among Fisher, the players and the fan base became evident. In a 31-28 loss to Louisville on Oct. 21, Fisher cursed at a fan who demanded new assistants — a sentiment that was popular among the fan base.

An FSU program that had the look of again becoming an perennial juggernaut on college football’s landscape instead is just 10-10 in its last 20 ACC games and just 16-12 in its last 28 games against FBS competition. The light at the end of the tunnel is that through the tumult, FSU is one win away from bowl eligibility and that can come on Saturday with the Seminoles as a heavy home favorite against Louisiana-Monroe — a contest Fisher vows to coach.

For as bad as the 2017 campaign has been — on and off the field — there’s no denying that Fisher brought the program, which thrived under legendary Bobby Bowden, out of the dark ages and back to college football’s pinnacle. Maintaining that level of success however, has not been in the cards, even if FSU did win at least 10 games in six of Fisher’s eight seasons.

Overall, Fisher’s eight years in Tallahassee were great ones, but the ending to an otherwise productive tenure was a messy one. Fisher ended up burning key bridges, seemingly losing control, creating chaos and losing important members of recruiting classes for 2018 and 2019 at an alarming rate. The only thing at this point that could seemingly make things worse would be losing on Saturday and letting the nation’s longest bowl streak die at 35 years.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson