Big Bad Neighbors To the South

When Florida State joined the ACC in 1993, the Noles took the Tigers’ spot as conference bully without much of a fight. The Tigers were a program in total disarray. With coaches like Ken Hatfield and Tommy West and increasingly obsolete facilities, the Tigers were barely competitive with the Noles on the field or in the conference standings, routinely being blown out by the Noles and even dropping behind North Carolina and Virginia in the conference hierarchy.

However, around the turn of the century, things started to change with both programs. Clemson brought in Tommy Bowden, who improved Clemson’s recruiting and brought the Tigers their first win over FSU since 1989 when he upset the Seminoles in 2003. Clemson went on to beat the Noles again in 2005, 2006, 2007 and then again in 2009, during Dabo Swinney’s first full season.

Over the last 5 to 7 years, Clemson became competitive with the Noles not only on the field and in the standings, but also in recruiting. During the 1990s and even into the early part of the 2000s, FSU was regularly able to come into South Carolina and land players like Peter Boulware, Jamal Reynolds, Alex Barron, Greg Jones, and Lawrence Timmons. However, FSU’s appeal to South Carolina born prospects appears to have diminished. Since 2005, when FSU signed the state’s top prospect, Northwestern DB Jamie Robinson, the Noles have only signed three prospects from SC. Linebacker Dekoda Watson, defensive lineman Everett Dawkins and safety Justin Bright.

Meanwhile, in that time period Clemson has been able to go into Florida and South Georgia and beat out the Noles for several top prospects, including running backs CJ Spiller and Jamie Harper and defensive linemen Tavares Barnes and Brandon Thompson. The Tigers also out-evaluated the Noles for several players in the Noles’ back yard, landing Florida born prospects like DeAndre McDaniel, Jacoby Ford and Rashard Hall that grew up FSU fans but for whatever reasons were not recruited by the Seminoles.



CJ Spiller grew up an FSU fan

While the improved coaching and recruiting brought forth by Bowden and Swinney (and also Clemson’s recent facilities improvements) deserve a lot of credit for Clemson’s 5-2 record against the Noles since 2003, it must also be mentioned that during that time, FSU was in disarray themselves. Bobby Bowden’s bunch fell on hard times, losing at least 3 games every year from 2001 on, and losing 6 games in the 2006 season, 2007 season and last year in the 2009 season. To put that in perspective, the Noles lost 6 games total between 1992 and 1996. They did not lose 3 games in a season at all between 1987 and 2000.

2010 marked Bowden’s final season in Tallahassee. The man they hired to replace him, Jimbo Fisher, served as FSU’s OC for the past three seasons. Prior to that he was the OC at LSU, where he coordinated the offense for Nick Saban when LSU won the national championship in 2003.

Fisher plans to bring a Saban-esque offseason regimen to the FSU program in an effort to turn their in season fortunes around. He has already begun to overhaul FSU’s strength and conditioning program, bringing in new coach Vic Viloria, who worked as an S&C assistant for Saban at LSU. He has also mentioned his plans to implement a Saban style overhaul of everything from nutrition to academics to team psychology, with the eventual goal of replicating Saban’s programs at LSU and Alabama. Those new offseason programs require substantial support staff additions, which FSU’s administration has provided.

Fisher has also asked for a brand new indoor practice facility, which has been planned and will begin construction soon. In fact, he is already showing plans to prospective recruits.


Rendering of FSU’s planned indoor practice facility

Interestingly enough, Clemson coach Dabo Swinney had many similar ideas when he was hired. Swinney expressed an interest in overhauling Clemson’s offseason training program by adding several new full time strength and conditioning staff members that would work as “player development specialists” and assist with on campus recruiting. Former Clemson and NFL players Levon Kirkland and Patrick Sapp were two names that were mentioned. However, those positions were not created, and instead Swinney was given several extra part time graduate assistantships. The initial positions Swinney asked for were $60,000 a year salaried jobs, while the graduate assistantships he received are hourly minimum wage positions.

Swinney has asked for a training table, which he has not yet received, and Swinney has also made a request that the practice fields be moved to Lot 5, in the shadow of the west endzone, and that a full size indoor practice facility be constructed there as well. To date, there has been no action there.

While Fisher’s proposed changes have certainly been much more Saban influenced than Swinney’s were, the bigger difference between the two so far is the support they’ve received from their respective athletic administrations. Florida State’s administration has been much more agreeable to Fisher’s requests, giving him the new positions he has asked for(according to the FSU blog Tomahawk Nation, the size of FSU’s support staff has nearly tripled under Fisher) and beginning on his
new indoor facility.

Meanwhile, Clemson’s administration has been less forthcoming, and has frankly not provided the support that Swinney was promised when he was hired.

Of course, the appearance of Fisher does not mean all is right in Tallahassee or that FSU’s dominance of the 1990s is on the way back. Those FSU teams were really good, and those Clemson teams were pretty bad. But it does look like Clemson’s primary competition in the ACC Atlantic is about to get a lot tougher and the fairly easy road a down FSU provided for Clemson in the Atlantic division may be closing.

This is not necessarily a bad thing. In the late 1970s, when Clemson made their first commitment to a winning football program in the modern era, the Tigers played the University of Georgia every year and used the Dawgs as their measuring stick. Wins over UGA in the late 70s and early 80s on the field and in recruiting propelled the Tigers to their first and only MNC and to their most outstanding decade of football success.

If the Tigers show the same commitment to football now, a strong FSU could be what they use to propel themselves back into the national spotlight.

The key is for athletic director Terry Don Phillips and for that matter the Clemson administration all the way up to the Board of Trustees to commit to giving Clemson and Dabo Swinney the support it takes to be a championship program.