Jimbo Fisher’s Five Biggest Accomplishments as FSU Head Coach

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher is entering his seventh season as head man in Tallahassee. In six seasons at the helm, Fisher has compiled a 68-14 record and brought FSU back to national prominence. There’s no question that Fisher has accomplished a lot during his time at Florida State. Here are his five biggest:

5. Bringing the Big Game Back to FSU
With the exception of a Labor Day contest against a ranked team in Miami or Clemson, big games for the final parts of the Bobby Bowden era had become uncommon at Florida State. With Fisher at the helm, the Seminoles are regularly one of the teams participating in prime time and on the national stage. In his time at Florida State, Fisher has not only brought the big game back to FSU, but his team has performed admirably in them. Against ranked opponents, Fisher is 14-8, including an even 5-5 against the top 10. In the six years prior to Fisher’s arrival, the Seminoles were a combined 11-12 against ranked opponents.

4. Reclaiming the ACC
For years, Florida State was king of the ACC. The Seminoles won the conference in each of their first nine seasons as a member and in 12 of their first 14. From 2006-2011 however, the Seminoles went without an ACC title. Though FSU was unseated by Clemson in 2015, the Seminoles have claimed the conference crown three times in six years under Jimbo Fisher and played for it on another occasion. In the six years prior, FSU was 27-21 against the ACC in the regular season. Under Fisher, it is 40-8. In 2012, FSU topped Georgia Tech to win its first conference crown in seven years. The Seminoles repeated that feat the following two years with wins over Duke and Georgia Tech in Charlotte.

3. Reclaiming the State
When Fisher became Florida State’s head coach in 2010, FSU’s in-state rivals had enjoyed recent success against the Seminoles. Three of Florida State’s six losses the year prior had come to in-state schools. FSU had lost six straight to rival Florida and eight of 11 to Miami. In the nine years prior to Fisher’s arrival, the Gators and Hurricanes combined to play for four national championships, winning three. Under Fisher, the Seminoles are a combined 11-1 against their in-state rivals and 14-1 overall against Florida schools with the lone blemish being a 37-26 loss to Florida in 2012. History has shown that teams that win the state of Florida usually go on to bigger championships and for the Seminoles that has proven true. FSU has won three ACC championships and one national title over the last four years.

2. Winning 29 Straight Games
A streak that began with a 21-15 victory over Georgia Tech in the 2012 ACC Championship would span more than two calendar years. From December 2012 until New Year’s Day 2015, Florida State went 29-0, winning three ACC titles and the 2013 national championship. The 29-game winning streak saw the Seminoles take down nine ranked opponents, including four top-10 foes. The streak bested the previous longest streak in school-history by 12 games, which is pretty remarkable considering FSU finished in the top 5 in 14 straight seasons from 1987-2000 and won a pair of national championships during that span.

1. Winning a National Championship
Fisher’s best team was unquestionably the 2013 Seminoles, who went a perfect 14-0 to capture the school’s first national championship in 14 years. Led by Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston and future NFL players at virtually every position, Florida State scored more points than any team in FBS history while yielding the fewest points per game in the country. FSU overcame a 21-3 deficit in the BCS National Championship to top Auburn, 34-31. The national title came in Fisher’s fourth year as head coach. Winning a national championship is something that an all-time greats like Bo Schembechler and Bill Snyder never accomplished and a feat that took legendary Tom Osborne more than two decades to attain.