Florida State can’t get over their ex, continues to blame Jimbo Fisher for everything

Jimbo Fisher left Florida State at a low point, but the school is blaming him for the current lackluster state of the football program.

Willie Taggart’s first season as Florida State football coach didn’t go well, with a 5-7 record as a 36-season bowl streak ended. Things weren’t any better during the final year of Jimbo Fisher’s tenure, with a 5-6 record when he resigned and eventually took the job at Texas A&M.

If not for winning a game late in that 2017 season against Louisiana-Monroe due to a hurricane-forced rescheduling to get to six wins, the Seminoles’ lengthy bowl streak would have ended then.

Last year was Florida State’s first losing record since 1976, also known as Bobby Bowden’s first year as head coach. Add in a 922 APR (Academic Progress Rating) for 2017-18, the lowest of any Power 5 school, and it’s easy to place Taggart on the hot seat entering his second season. An APR mark that low puts the program in the crosshairs for penalties if a four-year average comes in lower than 930, with Florida State is barely above right now at 936.

There should be plenty of blame to go around for the lackluster state of Florida State’s football program, on and off the field. According to Bleacher Report’s Matt Hayes, the blame is being placed entirely at Fisher’s feet.

"We were 5-6 in Jimbo’s last season when [Fisher] pulled the ripcord,” FSU athletic director Dave Coburn says, “If we didn’t buy that hurricane makeup game, the bowl streak would’ve ended then.”."

According to Hayes, others around the program point to Fisher’s coddling of Jameis Winston amid his off-field issues and an eventual hands-off approach to academics as the launching points for some of the issues that have come. One former assistant suggested a simple mandate from Fisher by the end of his tenure–“keep the players eligible.”

Fisher’s run at Florida State included a national title in 2013 and playoff appearance in 2014 over a  run with a 39-3 record from 2012-2014. Two more 10-win seasons followed before things went off the rails in 2017.

It was pretty clearly time for a change though, even without yet knowing some of the behind-the-scenes turmoil too specifically. Fisher landed on his feet with a 10-year, $75 million deal from Texas A&M, but Florida State apparently isn’t quite ready to let how his tenure ended go.