Samford @ Florida State preview
Doak S. Campbell Stadium
It certainly won’t be the same at Florida State without the venerable Bobby Bowden, but that was just the point behind his unceremonious ouster in January following yet another lackluster season from the Seminoles.
Despite winning two national championships and posting 14 consecutive top-five finishes, Bowden hadn’t guided the ’Noles to a 10-win season since 2003 and his squads had compiled mediocre 7-6 marks in three of the past five seasons, including 2009.
The discontent was such that not even Bowden’s iconic coaching status or his trademark folksy charm was enough to keep him around for another season.
Enter Jimbo Fisher, who makes his debut when Florida State hosts Samford on Saturday.
After three seasons as the offensive coordinator and head coach-in-waiting, the 22-year career assistant assumes the helm with the intent of restoring the Seminoles to their former glory. But FSU’s first new head coach in 35 years has plenty of questions still to be answered, including a suspect defense that has betrayed the school in recent seasons after having been the strength of the program during the Seminoles’ heyday.
Defensive coordinator extraordinaire Mark Stoops was lured away from Arizona in the hopes of repairing a sieve unit that last year ranked 108th in rushing defense, 110th in passing-efficiency defense, 108th in total defense and 94th in scoring defense.
Big-play cornerback Greg Reid returns after a stellar freshman campaign that saw him emerge as one of the few bright spots on defense and special teams.
He led all Football Bowl Subdivision teams in punt returns with an 18.4-yard average while also averaging a robust 25.5 yards as the primary kickoff returner. Reid is now a full-time player, starting at cornerback after being limited to the Seminoles’ nickel package a year ago.
No such problems are expected on offense. Florida State welcomes back 10 offensive starters from last year’s group that ranked second in the Atlantic Coast Conference in total offense at better than 420 yards per contest, most notably quarterback Christian Ponder – a likely Heisman Trophy candidate - and his entire offensive line.
Despite suffering a season-ending shoulder injury in the ninth game of the season, Ponder posted the sixth-best season ever for individual total offense in league history with his average of 321.8 yards per game.
The senior three-year starter was the conference’s only quarterback to average more than 300 yards passing per game and was well on his way to surpassing the 3,000-yard plateau before getting hurt while making a tackle at Clemson. He finished the season with 2,717 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions while completing just under 69 percent of his attempts.
The game should be little more than a tune-up for Florida State as the Bulldogs, a Football Championship Subdivision team that went 5-6 a season ago, don’t figure to offer much of a real challenge. The Seminoles must avoid looking ahead to their Week 2 showdown at No. 8 Oklahoma.