TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Seminole Nation is restless, hungry for Florida State to return to collegiate football prominence.
It’s been a rough decade for the once-feared program and Bobby Bowden. The revered, aging coach put the school on the map during an unprecedented 14-year run of top-five finishes that produced a pair of national titles and narrowly missed another half dozen crowns between 1987-2000.
But now there’s more talk here about archrival Florida quarterback Tim Tebow than any Seminole player. During a decade of mediocrity. Florida State has seen a precipitous drop-off in talent while the hated Gators have enjoyed their greatest prosperity with two national titles in three years.
describe as a young, yet experienced team readying for 2009.
“I think we can,” said Bowden, who is scheduled to give way to Fisher in January 2011. “The good thing is they’re back another year. We’ve got a chance to improve, improve both years.”
Florida State’s best returning player is junior guard Rodney Hudson. Few others have done enough for fans to boast about, at least not yet.
The Seminoles best player last year was placekicker-punter Graham Gano, who took his Lou Groza Award-winning toe to the NFL.
While a national championship had been the preseason goal for more than a decade, just reaching the Atlantic Coast Conference title game for the first time in four years is more realistic for a team almost bereft of stars with the notable exception of the 285-pound Hudson.
Junior quarterback Christian Ponder, who was given the starting job a year ago by Fisher, will have to rely on a running game to help out early while a new receiver corps gets established. His top threats from last year – Greg Carr and Preston Parker – are gone.
“I’m just not worried about that part,” said the always-optimistic Bowden. “You’ve got some that are experienced and some that are young, but there’s talent there.”
s or run-ins with the law.
“We had a lot of things hanging over our head,” said receiver Bert Reed, who was suspended three different times. “We’re focusing on leaving that in the past.”
Ponder was counted on to manage games last year and avoid mistakes, but he’ll have to show he can make plays regularly if Florida State wants to match or improve on last year’s 9-4 record.
“I’ve gotten a lot more confident,” Ponder said at the school’s media day. “I think it’ll be a totally different year.”
Carr and tailback Antone Smith and their 55 career touchdowns have departed along with Gano’s 105 points from last season alone.
Wide receiver Jarmon Fortson and tailback Jermaine Thomas, both sophomores, are candidates to replace them.
Both, like Ponder, should get some help from an improving offensive line that played as a unit for the first time last season. Hudson and center Ryan McMahon are the veterans.
Bowden’s coaching future is also a hot topic among the Florida State faithful.
difficult for him to catch Penn State’s Joe Paterno, who has a one-game lead in their race to be major college football’s winningest coach.
But neither age, small infirmities nor the NCAA have diminished Bowden’s optimism. He is aiming for one more national title.
Fisher is calling the plays and making plenty of the decisions as successor-in-waiting.
“We’re in the best condition of any of the three teams since I’ve been here,” said Fisher, who – like Bowden – bubbles with optimism.
The Seminoles won national titles in 1993 and 1999 and narrowly missed in 1987, 1988, 1991 and 1992 before losing two BCS title games in 1998 and 2000 that they were favored to win.
And while fans may be split on whether they want Bowden or Fisher in charge, they agree on wanting to win again.
It starts at home with an Atlantic Coast Conference game against longtime nemesis Miami that’ll be nationally televised on Labor Day night.
South Florida is on the Florida State schedule for the first time, Sept. 26, as the final nonconference test before the rest of the ACC schedule that features visits from Georgia Tech, Maryland and North Carolina State. ACC road dates take the Seminoles to Boston College, North Carolina, Clemson and Wake Forest.
Two nonconference road dates are Sept. 19 at Brigham Young and Nov. 28 in Gainesville for Tim Tebow’s career home finale. Florida has defeated the Seminoles five straight times along the way while outscoring Bowden’s boys 90-27 in their last two meetings.
And that’s the game that Bowden uses to gauge where his rebuilding program stands and perhaps whether he wants to coach that 2010 season.
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