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Which direction? College football programs across Florida face a crossroads

 
Coaches, from left, Willie Taggart of USF, Al Golden of Miami, Jimbo Fisher of Florida State and Jim McElwain of Florida. [Getty Images]
Coaches, from left, Willie Taggart of USF, Al Golden of Miami, Jimbo Fisher of Florida State and Jim McElwain of Florida. [Getty Images]
Published Sept. 3, 2015

TALLAHASSEE

The morning after winning his first national title as a head coach, Florida State's Jimbo Fisher still wasn't satisfied. • With championship trophies nearby, Fisher said he didn't want to build a great team. He wanted to build a great program. • As the college football season kicks off today, Fisher's Seminoles enter the year at a fork in the road between the two. The 'Noles will either veer toward the path of a great team defined by now-departed Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston or toward becoming a great program that can sustain national success. • While the expectations are highest at FSU, the rest of the state's major programs find themselves facing their own crossroads. • At Miami, coach Al Golden enters his fifth year with no guarantee of a sixth, if the Hurricanes' production doesn't begin to near its potential. The same holds true with USF's Willie Taggart, whose much-hyped bus has stalled through the first two years and is in danger of needing to find an exit ramp. • In Gainesville, first-year coach Jim McElwain takes over a Florida program that has alternated between home-run hires (Steve Spurrier, Urban Meyer) and flameouts (Ron Zook, Will Muschamp). If McElwain ever needs a reminder of the path fans expect him to follow, he can stop to gaze at the three statues of Heisman winners he drives by every day. • "I just think it is an honor to be able to pursue that," McElwain said. "That's the expectation you get in this business. … You have to constantly go, because someone is getting better. You have to go, man."

FSU players and coaches insist this year's challenges are nothing new for a preseason Top 10 program.

"People were asking these same questions last year," linebacker Reggie Northrup said. "You can see what happened."

But much has changed since the Seminoles won their third consecutive ACC championship and earned a spot in the national semifinals.

Start with the quarterback. Winston is gone, leaving one of the most decorated careers in program history to become the Bucs' choice with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft. Ten other FSU players were drafted, bringing the total to a modern-record 29 over the past three seasons.

That core helped the 'Noles win 29 of their past 30 games, and this is the fall where its absence will be felt the most. The offensive depth chart has only one senior — quarterback Everett Golson, a graduate transfer from Notre Dame.

"I set expectations high," Golson said, "and I think this culture, this program does, as well."

But how realistic are those expectations, given the attrition?

FSU lost four starters on the offensive line, its top two receivers and the defensive linemen who led them in sacks and tackles for a loss. Even the team's leading tackler, Northrup, is returning from a torn ACL. All-conference defensive back Jalen Ramsey is one of the roster's few sure-things.

Whether the Seminoles take the path to a second straight semifinal appearance will depend on a tremendously talented but somewhat unproven roster. FSU has reeled in back-to-back top-four recruiting classes and will need production from many of them, including receiver Travis Rudolph, linebacker and Dade City native Jacob Pugh and five-star freshman Josh Sweat.

"There's a lot of potential," Fisher said. "Like I say, potential means you haven't done it. It also means you have the ability to do it."

The same could be said for Taggart, who remains upbeat, even as his seat begins to warm.

"I don't know any other way," Taggart said of his good-natured vibe.

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The Bulls are 6-18 on Taggart's watch, a 33-month span during which he has dismissed two offensive coordinators and a defensive coordinator, and used five starting quarterbacks.

USF's 33 offensive TDs in the past two years are two fewer than Oregon's total in the Ducks' first six games of 2014.

Yet some noticeable upgrades — tangible and abstract — are boosting Taggart's natural optimism.

While the quarterback depth chart boasts four career collegiate starts, there's no denying USF's depth has improved everywhere else. Just as important, Taggart insists, is the upgrade in program culture.

"It's night and day," said Taggart, who turned 39 last week. "We just had a newborn (daughter) and I still get sleep at night. I can sleep at night just because guys understand expectations around here. I tell everyone now, I don't get emotionally hijacked anymore because guys know what to do, guys are holding each other accountable, on and off the football field."

That belief was reinforced last month when, after practicing 12 of the previous 13 days, Taggart put his team on buses for an afternoon at Clearwater Beach.

That day, he saw camaraderie replace cliques. Any differences — racial, ethnic, even age — dissolved as players wrestled in the water, hoisted teammates on their shoulders or walked the beach.

"I took a picture of it and was like, 'This is awesome.' I've never seen this before with this football team," Taggart said. "I go in the locker room and there's 30 guys in there. It was never that way before. Usually you'd go in and there was one or two guys or nobody in there; they'd take off and go.

"So it's all starting to pay off for us and you expect for it to. We're in Year 3 now and you expect for those things to happen."

But expectations don't always come true, as Miami fans will attest. The 'Canes had more NFL draft picks last year (seven) than wins (six).

Golden spent the first four years of his tenure trying to emerge from the cloud of an NCAA scandal while refreshing UM's infrastructure. The millions of dollars in upgrades include improved practice fields, training tables and stadium renovations.

Although Golden insists he doesn't feel it, the pressure is on to win now, especially with a budding star (Brad Kaaya) at quarterback. Golden is 28-22 at Miami, a program that once dominated college football but has yet to play for a conference title since joining the ACC in 2004.

"It's incumbent on us to get it back to where we want it to be," Golden told reporters at ACC media days. "Not just get it back, but have a model that is sustainable and can endure."

McElwain finds himself at a similar fork in Gainesville, between the Gators' recent past (37 wins the past five seasons) and their championship expectations.

"In my whole life," McElwain said, "I never guessed in a million years I would be at a place like (Florida)."

His challenge, like Golden's, is to restore his new program quickly enough to appease an impatient fan base.

Some of that transformation will take place off the field. McElwain preached the importance of retooling the infrastructure during his opening statement as UF's coach, and the Gators' indoor practice facility opened last month.

"He always talks about the brand," associate head coach Randy Shannon said. "He always talks about winning now."

To do that, McElwain will have to overhaul an offense that was ranked No. 93 in the country last fall. A patchwork line will protect an inexperienced quarterback — sophomore Treon Harris on Wednesday was named the starter for the opener, beating out redshirt freshman Will Grier.

More important, McElwain said he has had to teach beaten-down veterans that they can rise above their mediocre outside expectations.

"Part of that is the understanding, you're allowed to be great," he said. "You're allowed to. You're not a second-class citizen. You're allowed to actually invest in yourself and go make plays at a million miles an hour. We're starting to get a little bit of that, but we've got a long ways to go."

But the question in Gainesville is the same one throughout the rest of the state: Which way are they going?