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FSU Football Update with Ira Schoffel · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Literally turning the page on the rundown. It's hour number
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: three on the morning show with Preston Scott. Jared running
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the radio program for us today. It is Monday, September 28th,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: show 5685. And it's time to talk a little FSU football.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: And he is our guru of the gridiron. He's Ira Sheffel,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: managing editor at Warchant.com. Good morning, Ira. How are you? Uh-oh,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: your phone's breaking up. Try that again.
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: Take two. You there, Ira? Can you hear me now?
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Yes, I can hear you now. Thank you.
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: Sorry about that.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Sounds like we're doing a commercial for one of those
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: telephone companies. Ira, how should people feel after that game
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: on Saturday?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: I think people should feel how they want to feel,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: and I think most people felt like it was just
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: a waste of time and not encouraging. I think every
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: week people are kind of hoping– that something is going
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: to give them some reason to be confident about this team.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: And it was just another week where that didn't happen.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: You know, I think there's some positives on offense. I
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: like the way Javon Boggs played, you know, a couple
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: of the other young offensive players were impressive, but as
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: a football team, you want them to start looking like
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: there can be a dominant football team against a weaker team.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: And we, we again, didn't see that.
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I walked away thinking my first reaction was, well,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: this offense scored 34 points against a pretty good Alabama
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: team on the road and could only muster 34 points
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: against a below-average FCS team at home. But that's not
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: all the story. You have written on Warchant.com, I thought,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: a very insightful piece about why maybe only 34 points.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Give us your thoughts.
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I get Central Arkansas's approach. When they play these
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: money games, the way this works is, A school like
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: Florida State, they want a home game, and they want
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: to play a team that they're not going to be
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: challenged by too much. They want to work on things.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: And so you schedule a Central Arkansas, an FCS team,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: and you give them– I can't remember the number. It
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: was $ 700, 000, $ 600, 000, $ 800, 000 to come in, bring their team,
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: and basically you get a glorified scrimmage. Well, the problem
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: is Central Arkansas, a lot of these teams, they don't
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: want to get their players hurt. So they don't want
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: to run– 80 or 90 plays in that game. They
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: want to keep the game as short as possible. So
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: central Arkansas was taking every second of the snap count.
• 2:39
  Speaker 2: Every time they snapped the ball, And then they got
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: a few first downs early in that game and extended drives.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So even a five- or six-play drive, which only went
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: 20 yards, took three or four minutes off the game clock.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: And then when they had later in the game, they had,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: thanks to penalties, they had a 20-play drive. They took
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: nine minutes off the game clock. But anyway, Central Arkansas
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: had the ball for 40 minutes and only scored seven points.
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: And you could say, well, that's terrible defense, and I
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: would give it to you. But also... why are we
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: doing this? You know, like what, you know, I don't know.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: I just feel like if, if you're going to pay
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: the school to come play, I feel like they should
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: try to play as much of the game as possible
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: because nobody really got much out of that. Florida state
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: had the ball for 40 something snaps. They scored. Basically,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: every time they had the ball except the one time
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: Ashton Daniels threw an interception, but they only scored 34
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: points because they only had the ball six or seven times.
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: I get it from the smaller school standpoint. They want
• 3:40
  Speaker 2: to shorten the game and not get too many players
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: hurt and things like that, but on the other side,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: the other school is paying you a lot of money
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: to come here and have this practice, but really they
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: didn't get many opportunities.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: What would you say if we held up the FAMU-Miami
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: game as, well, here's the other way it can go?
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, 100%. That is the concern, without question. And that's
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: the extreme on the other side where if you're not careful,
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: it can turn into not just an embarrassment where you're
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: giving up close to 100 points, but also more chances
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: for you guys to get hurt. I just feel like
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: there could be a happy medium. To me, it really
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: felt like Central Arkansas was going to try to take
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: every second off the clock. And listen, Florida State could
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: have done something about it. They could have gotten some
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: three and outs. They only got one three and out
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: the entire game. So that's another reason why fans have
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: reason to be frustrated about this defense.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: When you look at the offensive performance, obviously there was
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: a very, very frustrating interception Ashton Daniels threw before halftime.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: But what interested me, Maybe concerned would be the word,
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: but I'm hearing, you know, Jared had mentioned that there
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: was some rumblings that last week in practice that Kevin
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: Sperry was elevated because of some issues with Malachi Marshall.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I was really surprised Malachi Marshall did not get into
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: that game.
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it is disappointing. And I don't think
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: it's anything bad. From what I hear, it's just kind
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: of typical Malachi. you know, players going through, you know,
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: a tough time, not playing, you know, Malachi Marshall is
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: a guy who, you know, has been a star, you know,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: wherever he's been, he was a star in high school.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: He went to a small school cause he's, he's kind
• 5:26
  Speaker 2: of undersized. He's not very, he's not built like a
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: big time college quarterback. So he went to a small school,
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: a division one school where he won a starting job
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: as a freshman. Then he goes to junior college and
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: he's the junior college national player of the year. It
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: is one season of junior college leads his team to
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: a national championship and Then he comes to Florida State,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: and I know this because he told people this. He
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: expected to win the job at Florida State because he
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: thought he was better than Ashton Daniels, and he thought
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: maybe Ashton would start early in the season, but that
• 5:54
  Speaker 2: he would beat him out. And it sounds like from
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: what I hear, he was frustrated with that and kind
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: of sulking and just not being– not handling it the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: way you want to handle it. And so they moved
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: Kevin Sperry ahead of him, I think, to kind of
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: reward somebody being a better team player and being more
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: supportive of his teammates and those types of things. And
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: so does that mean Malachi Marshall's out of their plans long-term? No,
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: I don't think so. But I think he does have
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: to learn and kind of mature because, again, I don't
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: think it was anything serious. I think it was more
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: just an attitude adjustment. We'll see how he handles it.
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: When you watch the tape of that young man, his
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: skill set is undeniable.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he can definitely throw the football. There's no doubt.
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: He is the best passer they have. There's no question
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: about that. Now, one issue he had, I know, in
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: practice sometimes was forcing the ball into tight spots. He's
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: very confident. He's kind of like Jameis in the sense
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: that there's no throw he thinks he can't make. Um,
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: but so I think there were some turnover issues, but yeah,
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: in terms of making plays. And I think that leads
• 6:57
  Speaker 2: to the frustration when you feel like you're a, you know,
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: if you're a basketball player and you, and you, you're
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: a better shooter and somebody else is playing ahead of you,
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: that could be frustrating, but you also need to realize
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: that there's more to the game than just shooting. You
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: have to defense, you have to guard, you have to rebound,
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: you have to, you know, be able to handle the ball.
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: And so, um, you know, I think that's something they're
• 7:15
  Speaker 2: gonna have to work through.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: What, what do you expect to happen? Um, as Virginia
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: comes to town?
• 7:22
  Speaker 2: It's a great question. I, you know, I honestly is
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: mad as everybody was about that game, uh, against central Arkansas.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: And I'm going to write something about this, uh, for
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: our website. Um, you look at these last two games
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: offensively and I'm, I'm impressed by the offense. What they
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: did at Alabama, I think is under, I think we
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: underappreciated what the offense did in Alabama because of how
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: bad the defense was. Right. And that's understandable. The defense
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: was atrocious. And then in this game, they basically scored
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: every time they had the ball, except the one interception
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: from a miscommunication. So it's, I feel like this offense
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: is pretty darn good, especially at home. So I think
• 7:57
  Speaker 2: Virginia is going to have– it could be a track meet.
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: You know, Florida State's defense is as bad as we
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: think it is. I believe that now. We've seen four games.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: But I think it's going to be a well– played
• 8:11
  Speaker 2: offensive game, probably for both teams. And then it may
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: come down to either who has the ball last or
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: who makes the biggest mistake. But, you know, I think
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: the offense is going to play. Well, I do not
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: think Florida, there was a couple weeks ago, I thought
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Florida State may just lay down and play poorly against Virginia.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: I don't think that's going to happen.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: Last segment here with Iris Shafell from Orchan.com talking FSU football.
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Virginia comes to town. first ACC game since the SMU loss,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: a game that FSU should have won but did not.
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: And here's Virginia, a team that is maybe the most
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: experienced team in college football all told.
• 8:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely a veteran team. And after what they did
• 8:58
  Speaker 2: last year, they had such a great season last year
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: under Tony Elliott. Tony Elliott, their head coach, was kind
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: of the offensive mastermind when Clemson was rolling at a
• 9:09
  Speaker 2: high level. His first couple years at Virginia were not great,
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: but last year they really turned it around. This year
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: they looked great early in the season, the way they
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: beat NC State. But then they didn't look good against
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: West Virginia, and they haven't played another good team since then.
• 9:23
  Speaker 2: So we're not really sure what Virginia is, how good
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: they are. But You know, they have a pulse. They
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: have a quarterback. They have an offensive line. And based
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: on what we've seen so far, that could be bad
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: news for Florida State's defense just because everybody has a
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: good day against Florida State's defense.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Why is that? I mean, is it just lack of talent?
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: We talked about it last week. Are they just not
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: grasping the intricacies, as Johnny Unitas used to call them, uh,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: the intricacies of, of a Tony white defense. What's the problem?
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: Uh, yeah, I think it's, it's, uh, I'm going to
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: put it mostly on Tony white at this point. Uh,
• 10:04
  Speaker 2: the talent's not great, but it's not as bad as
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: it looks. Um, I just think that, you know, the
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: one thing Mike Dorbell kind of hinted at this past
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: week was that maybe they scaled some things back, which
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: is something they tried to do last year because guys
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: weren't really grasping the defense. But again, you know, and
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: I know that modern football has changed a lot. You
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: can't just sit there in a 4-3 and, you know,
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: play press man, you know, the way Mickey Andrews might
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: have back in the day. You can't really do that today,
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: but he has so many sub-packages and player groupings. I
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: don't know. It looks to me like a defense that's
• 10:42
  Speaker 2: very tentative, not really sure what they're supposed to be doing,
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: and it's not overly talented. It's just a terrible combination.
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: I do feel like they've tried to scale things back
• 10:52
  Speaker 2: this week, and they were hoping to see a team
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: play faster and more aggressive because that's usually what happens
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: when you do that. But we didn't really see that. So, yeah,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: I don't know. They looked okay in the first early
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: against Alabama, looked pretty good. But they just also don't
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: have much depth. And it's just a bad defense.
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: Ira, most outside the program would look at it and
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: say Coach Norvell has to find a way to cobble
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: together seven or even eight wins to keep his job going.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: that 500 or certainly below 500, that's that. If you
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: look at what's happening at Florida and the turnaround under
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: a new coach in one season, are there any lessons
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: there for Florida State?
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I think the biggest lesson is going to be
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: that time is ticking and you can't just you know,
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: hope for the best and kick, kick in down the
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: road and assume things are going to get better because
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Florida did make a change. And one of the things that,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: you know, Florida state's administration said privately, they didn't come
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: out and publicly say this, but, you know, they were
• 11:58
  Speaker 2: letting people know privately. Part of the reason they didn't
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: fire Mike Norvell last year was because they didn't feel
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: like their place in the market was good enough to
• 12:08
  Speaker 2: go get one of the top targets, and they would
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: be left to go get somebody from another group of
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: six school, another mid-tier school, and hope for the best.
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: That's what Florida did with John Summerall. They got a
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: guy from Tulane, and now they look like one of
• 12:20
  Speaker 2: the best teams in the country. And now they had
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: a talented roster. They did a good job of keeping
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: that roster when they made their coaching change. So he
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: walked into a good situation. And I also think Florida
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: got a great– they got Ole Miss in a great
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: spot this past week, but they've looked good pretty much
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: this whole season. And so I just think what it
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: does is it amps up the pressure. Uh, you know,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: if Florida state's administration, which I know they don't, they
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: still don't want to fire Mike Norvell. They're still hoping
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: and hoping that he can turn this around so they
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: don't have to fire him. Cause I think they like him.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: And I think they think, you know, they'd rather not
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: spend all that money, but I just think the, the, the, the,
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: if this season continues to go south, uh, and you
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: look at Miami and Florida being two of the top
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: teams in the country, I just don't think how is
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: an administration, a caretaker of the school, you can tell
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: people you're looking out for your best interest by not
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: doing anything while those two schools are off to the races.
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: What do you make of the split in the fan
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: base and maybe even in the alumni base and maybe
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: even among boosters and board members about Jimbo Fisher?
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: I understand some of the emotional parts of why people
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: would be attracted to him. He was here during good times.
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: I was telling somebody this over the weekend. My parents
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: were married for 16 years. They split up for a
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: long time. And later on in life, they tried to
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: give it a shot again. And then they realized, oh, wait,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: we still don't like each other. And it didn't work out.
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: And I think that that's a common thing. You remember
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: the good times. You don't always remember the bad times.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: there were a lot of bad times. And I think
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: there's so many concerns about Jimbo Fisher that I'm not
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: a proponent of it. I don't know what kind of
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: staff he could put together. He had a terrible reputation
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: in terms of how he handled his assistant coaches after
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: he left Florida State, too. Same thing at Texas A
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: & M. So he's got to assemble a staff. He's
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: never coached in this world with the money the way
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: it is. Players are making all this money. He hasn't
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: had to recruit in this world, in this environment. So
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: to me, his offense was bad at Texas A & M,
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: and it was bad his last couple years at Florida State.
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: So there's so many red flags and so many other
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: coaches out there. I don't understand it. I think it's
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: a bad idea, but I understand why some people want
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: to hold on to that because It's been bad most
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: of the last 10 years, and he obviously had some
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: good years here at Florida State.
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: Personally, if we're going to look for a head coach sometime,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: whether it's sooner or later, I'm looking in the mid-major
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: world and a guy who can make a lot out
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: of little. That, to me, is the recipe when you
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: look at what's happened at Indiana and now what's happening
• 14:57
  Speaker 1: in Florida.
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, it can be. The problem is, you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: you look at some of these other coaches who, you know, again,
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: Florida State got a guy from a school like that
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: at Memphis, and Mike Norvell, and it hasn't worked out.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: And I think the big thing to me is, you know,
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: the problem I think a lot of these schools have
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: is when you have people who don't really know football
• 15:16
  Speaker 2: making these hires, and when I say know football, I mean, like,
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: really understand that world. uh... you know in the nfl
• 15:23
  Speaker 2: you have an nfl general manager major baseball even mlb
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: general manager who's hiring the coach usually and those people
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: live in that world Most colleges now, it's a president,
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: it's a board of trustees member, it's a board of
• 15:36
  Speaker 2: trustees committee that are making these hires. And I don't
• 15:39
  Speaker 2: know if they really know what they're looking for. Not
• 15:42
  Speaker 2: every hire is foolproof anyway, but I think that's part
• 15:45
  Speaker 2: of the problem. I really would like to see Florida State,
• 15:48
  Speaker 2: whenever that time comes, make sure that they've got some
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: real people that are very in tune with the football
• 15:54
  Speaker 2: industry making these hires. Because, again, the biggest one I
• 15:57
  Speaker 2: go back to is Willie Taggart. There were whispers throughout
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: college football saying, that that was kind of a wild hire.
• 16:03
  Speaker 2: A lot of people had red flags about Willie Taggart
• 16:05
  Speaker 2: from his previous schools, and Florida State just kind of
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: raced in because he was the flavor of the month,
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: and it was a disaster.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: As always, Ira, great insight. Thanks for the time this morning.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: We'll talk again next week, and hopefully we'll talk about
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: something positive.
• 16:18
  Speaker 2: Thanks, Preston. Take care.
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: Ira Sheffel with us from Warchant.com. It's The Morning Show
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: with Preston Scott.