Uh-oh Jimbo

It's really surprising that we continue to exaggerate accomplishments after so many instances of those exaggerations falling flat on their faces.

Jarvis Jones was "the best player in college football" until he played someone other than Buffalo and Missouri. Now Jadeveon Clowney is "the best player in college football," and he plays on a team that's poised to punk Alabama in Atlanta.

That's not a shot at Clowney or South Carolina at all. The former looked like another Lawrence Taylor or Bruce Smith. The latter looked like BCS contender material.

But sheesh, let's let this thing play out a little. Let's see if they can duplicate it in Baton Rouge and Gainesville.

Clemson fans have experienced this numerous times before. After the pummeling of Georgia Tech in 2006, the consensus among the media was: "This team looks unbeatable." Five days later, they looked quite beatable in a 24-7 dismantling in Blacksburg.

At 8-0 last year, there was no way Clemson's offense was going to be stopped ... until Clemson's offense started turning it over and looking downright ordinary.

And that brings us to Florida State. I completely understand the desire to fall in love with this team. They have so many freakish, fast athletes. They looked unstoppable in back-to-back weeks against Wake Forest and Clemson.

That's the point people started saying: "This team can beat Alabama."

Well, gotta prove you can beat mediocre -- check that, below mediocre -- teams on the road first. The Noles failed that test in Raleigh when they coughed up a 16-0 lead.

And now Jimbo Fisher is catching some serious heat. This column in the Tallahassee paper says the loss was indictment of his management style.

If this had been a one-time deal — if we hadn’t seen this same, agonizingly exact scenario play out during each of Fisher’s first two seasons as head coach — then the quickie postgame format would have worked perfectly.

But the real problem wasn’t this play call or that one. Those are just symptoms.

The problem is with the overall approach.

Jimbo Fisher isn’t coaching football. He’s trying to improve efficiency in a manufacturing plant.

He doesn’t rejoice in big plays. He doesn’t celebrate brilliant improvisations or individual efforts. He wants all 11 pieces of his machine to work in perfect unison.

I’m convinced it’s why, even when his team is struggling mightily in the red zone, he refuses to throw fade patterns near the goal line. He has twin towers at wide receiver in 6-foot-6 Rodney Smith and 6-5 Kelvin Benjamin, and he refuses to give them a chance to go up and make a play.

It’s why he has a quarterback in EJ Manuel, who has the talent to be one of the most dynamic players in college football, and tries to turn him into a game manager eight or nine times a year.

We can talk all we want about a play here or a decision there, but the reality is the offensive attack FSU used against Clemson was not the same approach it took against USF or N.C. State.

It's to the point that even the Associated Press, typically known for vanilla, opinion-free reporting, laced this piece with second-guessing of his play-calling.

The most mystifying call may have been Fisher’s decision to not attempt a 51-yard field goal that would’ve given the Seminoles a nine point lead and virtually sealed a win at North Carolina State. Instead of giving Dustin Hopkins a shot at his fourth field goal in Saturday’s game, the Seminoles punted and moments later watched their 16-point lead completely disappear in a 17-16 loss.

“Could he have made the field goal, yeah,” Fisher said during Monday’s news conference. “It had nothing to do with that.”

Eh, not that mystifying. Questionable? Yes. But the punt put N.C. State at its 8-yard line, and the Wolfies eventually punted back.

Fisher also doesn’t feel the loss can be pinned on questionable play call on third down, which cost the Seminoles 15 yards.

Instead of playing it safe, the Seminoles ran a play on third-and-two at the N.C. State 19 that resulted in quarterback EJ Manuel being sacked for a 15-yard loss — a play called during their second timeout of the game.

Fisher blamed his team’s failures on poor execution.

“A technique issue,” Fisher said. “Offense and defense. There’s no one guy. They’re costly.”

This one may have cost Florida State a shot at the national championship. The Seminoles dropped nine spots in the poll to 12th.

I don't know the AP reporter who thought such a call was so "mystifying," but it seems a little unfair that Fisher is being criticized for his lack of aggression on the second-to-last drive (when N.C. State had three timeouts) and then he's slammed for his lack of conservatism on the bootleg that resulted in a sack.

I'm fully on board with the belief that Fisher was too conservative on the last drive. But the sack never should've happened, and it wasn't Fisher's fault. The quarterback should throw the ball into the 10th row in such a situation ... every single time.

That's not to say there's not room for some justified grumbling and questions about Fisher. Is he assuming too much responsibility by being the offensive play-caller? He's a first-time head coach, and there's a certain first-time head coach from this neck of the woods who made the best decision of his young career by going out and hiring a stud coordinator.

And goodness, how about the lengthy trend of losses as double-digit favorites? It was a bit of an epidemic under Bobby Bowden in his last several years, and it's continued under Fisher.

He's been the head coach for 33 games, and here are the losses as double-digit favorite:

2010
at North Carolina (10-point favorite): 37-35 loss

2011
at Wake Forest (10-point favorite): 35-30 loss

Virginia (17-point favorite): 14-13 loss

2012

at N.C. State (14.5-point favorite): 17-16 loss

Beating Alabama? Got to play Alabama to beat them, and FSU probably isn't going to be doing that this year.

LW