TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Florida State’s Bobby Bowden has been coaching since Dwight Eisenhower was president. In all that time, he can’t remember his team playing any worse than it did in the first half of its 24-18 loss to Clemson in Monday’s season opener.
“I’ve never seen us so inept on offense … but then you go look at the film and see why,” said Bowden, who is 5-4 against son Tommy Bowden after losing four of the last five games to his son’s Clemson club. “It seemed like everything (we) did was wrong. We missed assignments. We lined up incorrectly. The play was supposed to go right, the backs went left.”
As the game went south, so did the Seminoles’ brief return to the national rankings.
The defeat sent Florida State, no. 19 in preseason, spiraling out of The Associated Press’ weekly poll. Meanwhile, Clemson moved into the rankings at No. 25.
“We really wanted this one, we really needed this one,” Bowden said. “It’s one of those family deals. Both of us can’t win. I’m glad for him, sad for me.”
Sad, too, are the four new coaches Bowden brought in during the offseason to get his offense back on track.
Still, the Seminoles (0-1, 0-1 ACC) were just about as dreadful in the loss Monday night as they were a year ago when Clemson beat them 27-20.
Junior quarterback Drew Weatherford, who passed for only 102 yards last year wasn’t much better Monday when he passed for 142 yards, 57 on a handful of short passes out of the backfield to tailback Antone Smith.
New offensive coordinator, Jimbo Fisher, said he’s staying with Weatherford and never had any thoughts of replacing him against Clemson.
“We have to play well around him,” Fisher said Tuesday.
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