Fisher's Former Pupil Continues to Struggle

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Following Wednesday evening's practice, Florida State offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher discovered a gift waiting for him when he greeted his wife as he left the field: a framed and autographed poster of Oakland Raiders quarterback JaMarcus Russell.




Fisher coached Russell at LSU, helping Russell develop into the top overall pick in the 2007 NFL draft. A lot has changed since their last season together at LSU in 2006.

Fisher left Baton Rouge for Tallahassee after the season, and Russell soon began his quest to find the same success in the NFL that he enjoyed at LSU. So far, Fisher is having better luck as FSU's coach-in-waiting.

Meanwhile, Russell continues to struggle finding his place in the NFL. In the Raiders' 13-10 victory over Kansas City in Week 2, Russell completed only 7 of 24 passes for 109 yards, leaving Oakland officials concerned.

"We're working through trying to get a confidence level with everybody involved from routes, from his footwork, his decision-making, the protection and all of it right has left us all extremely disappointed because it's very easy to pick one guy," Ted Tollner, Oakland's passing-game coordinator, told AOL FanHouse. "It never is quite that way. It's a package of things. For his position, when you're playing as poorly as we did last week, a lot of it falls on the quarterback. That's what happens in the game."

Russell's lack of accuracy -- his 35.2 percent completion percentage is the lowest in the league -- is Oakland's biggest concern.

Fisher remains high on his former star pupil and plans to find a nice place for the framed photo on the wall in his home office.

Mickey Andrews Press Conference

Hey, after an unexpected absence last week, SSC is back and ready to roll. Florida State fans have a renewed sense of hope after the Seminoles crushed No. 7 BYU 54-28 on the road Saturday.

The Seminoles jumped to No. 18 in the polls and host South Florida on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. I'm here at the coordinators' weekly press conference inside the Moore Athletic Center.

Defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews is at the podium. Here is what he is talking about:

* "Our emphasis was really to get to the football this week,'' he says. FSU intercepted BYU quarterback Max Hall three times, including a 63-yard interception return for a touchdown by freshman Greg Reid. "Some kids just have a knack of making big plays. He can do that.''

Reid was named ACC Freshman of the Week on Monday for his performance at BYU.

Andrews liked the way the young FSU defense played at a high energy level after a disappointing effort in a 19-9 win over Jacksonville State the previous week.

I'm going to listen in and ask a few questions of Andrews, and later offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher and quarterback Christian Ponder.

I'll post an update later today discussing what this victory really means for the Florida State football program.

A Pair of Interesting Storylines

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- If there ever was a game I'm glad to own a press pass for, this is it. The sky opened up above Doak Campbell Stadium just as Jacksonville State and Florida State came out for the coin flip, turning the field into an outdoor shower.

What a mess.

The wet weather didn't stop Jacksonville State from marching down the field on its opening drive. Gamecocks quarterback Ryan Perrilloux tossed a 28-yard touchdown pass to Jamal Young to put Jacksonville State up 6-0. The extra-point attempt failed when the snap was bobbled.

There are two storylines that really intrigue me for this game:

1) How will FSU respond after Monday night's heartbreaking 38-34 loss to Miami? The Seminoles travel to BYU next week and desperately need to take some positives out of today. The Noles should obviously beat the less-talented Gamecocks, but they don't need to struggle.

2) How much of an impact will Perrilloux have on the game? The former LSU quarterback, who played there for current FSU offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, is making his season debut after serving a one-game suspension last week. The Seminoles must apply more pressure on Perrilloux than they did Miami's Jacory Harris to keep out of trouble.

Check back later for more.

Miami-FSU Rivalry Goes Old School

This was Miami-Florida State the way we remember. You know, when the 'Canes and 'Noles mattered. When they staged some of the greatest games of the 1980s and '90s. When the winner often played for the national title, and the loser rarely lost to anyone else.

Yep, seemed like old times at Doak Campbell Stadium on Monday night. To make sure, I checked a calender and my waistline. Both assured me it was 2009, not 1989 or 1999.

Miami 38, FSU 34. An instant classic and perhaps the best game of college football's opening weekend. FSU coach Bobby Bowden called it "a great game,'' the third-best game he could remember being a part of behind FSU's 1987 home loss to Miami and a loss at Notre Dame.

ACC officials immediately filed prayer requests for a rematch in Tampa in the struggling ACC Championship Game come December.

The game wasn't decided until the final play when Seminoles quarterback Christian Ponder rolled to his right with five seconds left and threw a pass to Jarmon Fortson in the end zone. The ball was low but catchable. It went through Fortson's arms, and hit the ground.

Not until the officials reviewed the play did the 81,077 in attendance finally take a breath. It was that kind of night.

"We had a chance to win it, and we couldn't come up with the ball,'' Bowden said.

While FSU failed to score a game-winning touchdown in the final seconds, the Seminoles walked off the field confident.

"This is a good team,'' receiver Bert Reed set. "We lost this game, but we're not going to let this drag us down. We're too good to let one game get us down.''

What did the Noles learn Monday?

* Ponder looks like the real deal. The redshirt junior finished 24 of 41 for a career-high 294 yards and looked poised and confident.

* True freshman Greg Reid could be that playmaker that Bowden says FSU has missed of late. Reid picked off a pass, had 100 yards in kickoff returns, and caused Miami quarterback Jacory Harris to throw an interception on a hit.

* FSU's secondary is a mess. Harris threw for 386 yards and faced little pressure.

* Defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews has a lot of work to do before the Seminoles host Jacksonville State on Monday; meanwhile, for the first time since he arrived at FSU in 2007, offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher is comfortable with the starting quarterback and it showed by his play-calling.

More analysis to come on Tuesday from FSU's performance against Miami.

Are FSU Coaches Being Candid or Coy?

As I walked off the field at Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday afternoon, I had two initial thoughts following Florida State's final preseason scrimmage before hosting Miami on Sept. 7.

1) FSU's coaches should send thank-you letters to the Atlantic Coast Conference and ESPN for giving them a couple of extra days this week to prepare for the Labor Day evening showdown with the Hurricanes, or

2) The Seminoles' coaching staff is working overtime at building a huge smoke screen in preparing for Miami.

Here are some of the coaches' comments after Saturday's scrimmage, which focused primarily on clock management and other in-game situations involving personnel changes:

"I didn’t see anything real exciting happen," said head coach Bobby Bowden. "If I was criticizing, my first criticism would be too many yellow flags – penalty after penalty after penalty."

"I don’t know if there was anything I liked,'' offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher said. "It was just a very average day, very ho-hum. We’ll be ready when the time comes, I promise.''

Defensively, the Seminoles remained without defensive tackles Kendrick Stewart, Budd Thacker and Justin Mincey due to injuries. While Bowden said he hopes to have Stewart and Thacker back at practice this week, defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews sounded as if he preferred Peter Boulware, Marvin Jones and Deion Sanders back in garnet and gold.

"The thing that you notice right off the bat is we weren’t ready to play a football game,'' Andrews said. "We couldn’t have beaten Miami today defensively. It would have all been on the offense. I guess they had something more important to do today than to go out there and simulate whipping Miami."

The good news: freshman kicker Dustin Hopkins, competing with James Esco to be the starting place-kicker, made all four of his field goals. He was good from 44, 43, 34 and 26 yards.

Who'd thunk it? The kicker actually getting rave reviews Miami week.

Here are more quotes:

“Mainly, to try and get these doggone mistakes corrected and try and execute better. [Next week] will be preparing more for what Miami does. The whole key now is taking the next week and correcting these yellow flags. If we don’t do that, we’re going to have a hard time winning." -- Bowden on the primary focus starting Monday.

"[This team] needs more time. We need to clean up little things and make their minds up how to do it." -- Fisher on the overall mentality entering Miami week."The most disappointing thing to me is that we didn’t knock anybody down. There weren’t many people put on their back. That meant we were hitting anybody. That’s not a good sign for a defense. Somehow or another, we’ve got to regain the enthusiasm that you are supposed to have on defense. We act like it’s a chore instead of a fun opportunity." -- Andrews on his unit's sub-par effort.

So what do I make of all this? The coaches obviously have some concerns they will address this week in practice, highlighted by the mental mistakes leading to the large number of penalties Saturday. And no doubt, Andrews is not happy with his unit's overall progress, but then again, he rarely is. That's his nature and his way of keeping constant pressure on his players, one reason he is considered one of the finest defensive coordinators in the modern era.

As for Fisher, he has been mostly positive this preseason when talking about his unit's play, but with the game quickly approaching, he is entering game mode (i.e. saying little of significance and playing possum to keep Miami guessing).

What I know for certain: Players, coaches, fans and us media types are ready for the season to begin.