If one were to see the attitude projected by the Florida State football team this offseason, it’s hard to imagine this is the same team coming off a drama-filled 7-6 campaign a season ago; the same team who had to endure the stress and headaches that came with Bobby Bowden’s battle with former University President T.K. Wetherell and Board of Trustees Chairman Jim Smith; the same team that posted one of the worst defensive seasons in the history of FSU football.
New head coach Jimbo Fisher has instilled an attitude centered on wiping the slate clean and dreaming big, and his players are responding admirably.
No more are players talking of just winning conference championships—they’re talking national championships. No more is it about having one or two leaders of the team—it’s about an entire team of leaders.
While the team may have more leaders than past years, it’s a given the ultimate leader of the team is senior quarterback Christian Ponder.
Ponder is the main reason there is title talk around his teammates and among Tallahassee residents. The Colleyville, Texas native, who is on several preseason award watchlists that includes the Heisman Trophy, will be the centerpiece to a team out for redemption in Fisher’s inaugural season.
Last season was a breakout year for Ponder, as he threw for 2,717 yards and 14 touchdowns in a season that was cut short after suffering a shoulder injury in the ninth game of the season against Clemson. Ponder led the Atlantic Coast Conference in total offense with an average of 321.8 yards per game, and his completion percentage of 68.8 percent was also tops in the ACC and the seventh-best in conference history.
If Ponder stays healthy, those already gaudy statistics from a year ago should increase, as the Seminoles return nine starters from one of the most high-powered offenses in the ACC a season ago.
While Ponder and the offense may be loaded, the defense will play a vital role in determining the team’s success in 2010, and things will have to improve from last year’s defensive debacle if the Seminoles hope to be among the best teams in the nation at season’s end. FSU finished last year ranked an uncharacteristic 108th in total defense.
The schedule is daunting and no one knows for certain how Fisher will perform in his first season as head coach, but Ponder and the rest of the Seminoles have, at the very least, restored excitement in Florida State football.