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Tallahassee, FL – It's game week in Tallahassee. Florida State's football season kicks off Saturday with a home game against Samford. As James Call reports, the coaches and players are anxious to start FSU's Jimbo Fisher era.
"We need to play a game," said Jimbo Fisher. "It's time to play a game. That's for sure."
Fisher began playing football when he was six years old. Thirty-nine years later, his biggest moment in the sport is about to arrive: Noon Saturday, when the Seminoles play Samford in Tallahassee, will mark Fisher's first game as a head coach.
"I hope I sleep that's that's part of going to ball as I when you say you lose the jitters well, I've never lost them. I can remember playing at six years old and I still get them every day and every time I walk out there on the field so, that's what makes it special you know a passion for it and you want to do well at it."
Doing well at football is what's expected of the FSU coach. The Seminoles finished 3 of the past 4 seasons with 7 and 6 records. That performance ushered in the end of the Bobby Bowden era and the start of Jimbo Fisher's head coaching career. Two years ago, as offensive coordinator, he named Christian Ponder the starting quarterback. Now a senior, Ponder said he came to FSU with certain goals in mind.
"As a team we want a 10-win season, we want to win the state of Florida we want to get to the ACC championship and we want to get back into the national limelight and I think if we don't get any of those I will definitely be disappointed," he said. "And for us we have to take one game at a time and it begins this week."
Ponder's caveat there at the end comes from his coach. Fisher is a student of the game he refers to as ball. He was the 1987 Division 3 national player of the year at Samford. He served 22 years as an assistant coach, first to Bowden's son Terry at Auburn, then Lou Saban at LSU and finally to Bobby Bowden himself. He knows a season can have many twists and turns. Fisher is not making any predictions about how well his team will do in his first year as head coach.
"That, that to me is outcome oriented right now we need to be process-oriented about where we are trying to go. We've got one game on our mind, Samford University we've got to play well in this game and then move on to the next game and do what we have to do to be successful in this game and that's the mentality we have to have."
Fisher revamped the team's defense, bringing in Mark Stoops to coach a unit that gave up an average of 30 points a game, ranked 94th in the nation last year. He said the unit showed improvement during three weeks of training camp.
"They've done a great job of grasping Mark's system," he said, "and understanding what he's trying to get out of it. I think we've done a tremendous job in not giving up the big plays. It's hard to find big plays on these guys and you've got to really stick ball in holes or someone breaks a tackle and do some of those things. Now upfront we've done a good job contesting the run, they're butting you in the mouth and making you earn every yard, they're being very sound in what they're doing."
FSU begins the season ranked 20th in the AP poll. Saturday's game in Tallahassee kicks off at noon. The following week, September 11th, FSU plays 7th ranked Oklahoma in Norman.