Florida media has moved on to acceptance - "Clark: Too proud to beg"

quote:

---

It’s not just Thanksgiving Week anymore. Or Florida State-Florida week for that matter.

No, this stretch of days at the end of the regular season has now apparently become Jimbo-Fisher-to-LSU Week as well. With rumors now surfacing for a second straight November it’s like a new tradition!

Last year at this time, when it looked like Les Miles was going to be fired at any moment, I wrote that Fisher is the only coach in the United States that would leave Florida State for that job.

He has such an affinity for that place. He won a national championship there with Nick Saban. His sons were born there. He loves Cajun food. Whatever the reason, Fisher has a special bond with LSU.

And he might end up going back there. I truly don’t know.

He’s not denying interest in the job. And we can all agree that LSU is very interested in him. So maybe this is the year that Fisher bolts Florida State and heads back to the bayou.

Last week during Fisher’s weekly radio show, multiple callers made sure to tell the FSU head coach they wanted him to turn down the LSU job.

Here’s my advice to FSU fans. And administrators for that matter.

If he wants to go, let him go.

You’re Florida State. You’re one of the elite programs in the country. You’re a better program than LSU actually. You don’t need to plead with a coach to not leave. You don’t need to offer another enormous raise. You don’t need to be used for leverage.

If the one coach in the country who would leave FSU for LSU actually does it – then so be it.

With your resources and recruiting base you should be just fine.

What you can’t be is in a yearly bidding war to convince a head coach who has one of the very best jobs in America to stay at one of the very best jobs in America.

You’re above this.

Seriously. This is one of the premier jobs in the country. Maybe the premier job outside of Saban’s Death Star.

Need proof?

Since1980, Florida State has won more games (358) than any program in the country.

Nebraska is second with 356.

Ohio State is third with 352.

Florida and Miami are both tied for fourth with 333 each (only one of those wins, it should be pointed out, actually came against Fisher).

In that same span LSU has won 290 games.

In the last 40 years LSU has had 10 head coaches, including two interim coaches.

Florida State has had two head coaches. And those two have combined for 39 straight winning seasons, 35 straight bowl games, 25 bowl wins, 15 conference championships, four perfect regular seasons and three national titles.

No other program in the country has a resume like this over the last four decades. That’s not blind luck. Or a coincidence.

Even if they were 34 years apart, FSU managed to make two straight great hires at head coach. And with the list of names athletic director Stan Wilcox would have to choose from there’s no reason to think that streak wouldn’t be extended to three.

So, you know, fret if you want to. Worry that Fisher is going to leave.

I understand that sentiment. To an extent.

Because Fisher has done great things at FSU. He did build the program back into a national power after the lost decade. He was a terrific hire for Florida State coming off the ugly end to the Bowden Era.

Fisher modernized the program. He changed a stale culture. He did give FSU fans one of the all-time great teams in the history of the sport. That should always be appreciated no matter when and how he leaves.

But let’s not act like he performed some holy miracle to make Florida State good again.

He is just one of the reasons — along with the facilities, the fans, the 14 straight Top 5 finishes, Charlie Ward, the TV ratings, the insane amount of high school talent in Florida, Peter Warrick, the weather, the student body, the cool uniforms, the spear on the helmet, Warrick Dunn, the Warchant, the “Puntrooskie,” Jameis Winston, Osceola, Renegade, Deion Sanders, Mickey Andrews and Bobby Bowden — that FSU remains one of the elite programs in all of college football.

Florida State is a truly great job.

Mainly because of what Bowden built in the 80s and 90s — but also because of how his successor refurbished it in the last decade — it’s going to remain a great job for a long, long time.

So keep this in mind over the next week as the rumors swirl and the FSU head coach continues to “no comment” the question: If Jimbo Fisher doesn’t want to coach here anymore, I can promise you a lot of other really good coaches do.

---