TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Florida State opens its season Saturday with a new quarterback and a bunch of backups filling in for suspended starters.
After successive 7-6 seasons, Seminoles coaches are eager to see what they’ve got against Western Carolina.
The Seminoles will go without more than a half dozen of their best players for the first three games because of suspensions for academic reasons or misconduct.
That prompted school officials to schedule the Catamounts and Chattanooga, another Football Championship Subdivision team, before the Seminoles’ Atlantic Coast Conference opener Sept. 20 against No. 20 Wake Forest.
“We’re going to have to rely more on new faces than in the past,” Bowden said.
Going into the game, Bowden is tied with Penn State’s Joe Paterno at 373 victories, the most in major college football history.
Bowden, though, has turned over many of the big decisions, including the selection of a starting quarterback, to offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, Florida State’s head coach in waiting.
Fisher is going with Christian Ponder, a sophomore from Colleyville, Texas, who’ll be making his first career start and has thrown only 18 passes in relief. He chose Ponder over senior Drew Weatherford, who’s had 33 starts in three years, and another sophomore, D’Vontrey Richardson, the likely backup.
“I’ve always said I think Christian is a big-time player,” Fisher said after announcing his decision Wednesday.
Ponder is the seventh Seminole to a start at quarterback since 2002. That’s as many as during the 1990-2000 span, when Florida State won two national championships and contended nearly every year.
“Obviously, I am very disappointed,” Weatherford said. “I am always willing to do whatever helps the team win, whether that’s starting or helping from the sidelines. I will be ready and able when my opportunity comes.”
Western Carolina, a Southern Conference school and part of what was formerly known as Division I-AA, matched its 2007 victory total with a 35-0 win last weekend over tiny Shorter, a small Georgia college of a little more than 1,000 students. Andy Horn threw for 254 yards and two touchdowns in Western’s season opener.
The schools have met twice before with Florida State winning easily both times, 56-10 in 1981 and 50-10 in 1985.
Most of Florida State’s missing players are sitting out suspensions from an academic scandal in early 2007. Some 50 athletes in several sports have been penalized and the school is awaiting likely NCAA sanctions.
The Seminoles’ defense was particularly hard hit with at least five starters suspended. The offense will go without tight end Caz Piurowski and receiver Preston Parker. Parker will miss the first two games because of a run-in with the law. He pleaded guilty to misdemeanor firearms and marijuana charges.
Parker, though, will be back for Wake Forest, which has won the last two meetings and is among the favorites to win the ACC this year.
In the meantime, Bowden, Fisher and the Florida State faithful are hoping Ponder and the other new faces can come of age quickly in what amount to a pair of warmup games.
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