Thad Busby?

Before we get started. Roger Federer quote of the day.

In reference to playing his next opponent in the US Open, Nikolay Davydenko, Federer said this last night after beating Andy Roddick:

"I've got a pretty good record against him. Never lost. But let's not get ahead of ourselves."



Before I went to UT, I was a Florida State fan. All of my friends had their own teams: Florida, Miami, Michigan, etc. I took Florida State as I was fascinated by this guy called Prime Time who played two ways.

I am very open about admitting that I rooted for FSU in '98. I don't claim the Vols title that year as I didn't root for them. That was before my time. I also freely admit that had anyone been playing quarterback for FSU that wasn't Marcus "The Rooster" Outzen, the outcome would have been different.

That year, Florida State's starting quarterback was a 45 year old sophomore by the name of Chris Weinke. Florida State lost Weinke for the season and luckily slipped into the championship game behind losses on the last week of the season by UCLA (what's Cade McNown doing these days?) and Kansas State (Michael Bishop where are you?). In the inaugural BCS Fiesta Bowl, Tennessee's defense was seemingly too fast and too good for the weak armed Rooster.

The following year, Florida State won the national title; running the table amidst a Dillard's incident, a blown Heisman Trophy and a dog murdering freshman quarterback in the Sugar Bowl. The next year, Florida State again played in the BCS Championship game at the Orange Bowl (I was there). Their Heisman winning quarterback, now a 58 year old senior Chris Weinke couldn't get anything done against the Oklahoma defense without Snoop Minnis, who was academically ineligible.

It's been all uphill from there for the Seminoles. It's really been unbelievable to see a program drop off so quickly. I quickly pointed my finger at Mark Richt's departure as the reason. Richt, who left the Noles for the head coaching position at Georgia, was the Noles offensive coordinator for many years during their great run. His schemes always found ways to get the Peter Warricks, EG Greens, and Ron Dugans' open. Wide open. Florida State was always just so much faster than anyone else, even their in state rivals.

With Richt's departure and the promotion of Jeff Bowden to his spot, it was easy to put the blame on the lack of strength in the offensive coordinating spot. Then Monday night, it hit me.

As predicted, Florida State dominated the second half against Clemson. They had the ball, fourth down on the Clemson side of the field. Quarterback Drew Weatherford was sacked. Game over. They showed Bobby Bowden after the play but what was most interesting was the chord man standing behind who said the following, "You've got to throw the @%$&*#$ ball," in a calm and collected manner.

After Chris Weinke left for the NFL and started collecting social security, Florida State began a new era with red shirt freshman quarterback: Chris Rix. Rix was more mobile than any of the Florida State quarterbacks before him besides Charlie Ward. He also was the most trigger happy. Rix had an unbelievable arm but thought it was even better than that. I've never seen a guy make poorer decisions than Chris Rix. Four years of Chris Rix later, no BCS title games.

After Rix's departure, Florida State had another quarterback issue. This time, two highly tauted competing freshmen: top 15 recruit Xavier Lee and somewhere in the top 100 recruit Drew Weatherford. Weatherford, the less mobile and weaker armed of the two won the job. He's been so bad that he has been in and out of games since his freshman year, splitting time with Lee with neither getting the job done. Weatherford seems to be the exact opposite of Rix. Though his numbers are just as bad, he is so afraid of throwing interceptions that in crucial times, he just doesn't get rid of the ball, best shown on Monday night. Most notably is the frustration shown by the FSU receivers for Weatherford's troubles. Weatherford, I believe, is a junior, so Florida State has about two full season left of him.

That's going to be eight years of embarrassing play from the quarterback position for Florida State following twice the years of dominance. I've said before, being a good quarterback is about being a good manager, when I talked about David Greene. Did David Greene have the talent that any of these FSU quarterbacks had? Not a chance. But he got the job done. Just like Thad Busby, Casey Weldon and Brad Johnson did for the Noles in the 90's. Guys who aren't doing anything now, but did just enough to get the ball in the right places in order to win games.

Florida State's problem is evaluation of quarterbacks. It's not the system or the play calling. I once saw an interview with coach Bowden where he was asked about recruiting. He said he leaves all that to his staff...except he takes on the quarterbacks himself. I don't know if this is still the case, but it for sure got him Rix. Rix was a good talent though, just poorly coached which could go back to the offensive coordinator. It could also go back to playing freshman too soon. The pressure at FSU seems to kill their careers. Any way you look at it, Florida State is going to have a quarterback controversy for the next 4-6 years, and it's not going to matter who's fighting for the spot. It's the evaluation of their maturity level. Joe Mauer still has an offer from Bobby to come back. That's worked out for FSU before. Unless they can figure something out at quarterback after this Weatherford era, they are going to be dormant for a long time.

Did I mention that David Greene was coached by Mark Richt?