Bianchi : FSU And UM To Blame For ACC Woes

Florida State to the Big XII has been some of the bigger NCAA chatter this week and the Orlando Sentinel’s Mike Bianchi weighed in early regarding the Seminoles’ flirtation with another conference after two decades in the ACC.

The notion is that Florida State feels snubbed in the Atlantic Coast Conference, as it’s not considered an “elite” football league and the TV contract pales in comparison to the SEC, Big Ten and Big XII.

To his credit, Bianchi tells Florida State to look in the mirror, citing that they’re the root of the problem, as is Miami, who joined the ACC in 2004 and is yet to seven sniff a conference title game, yet a berth and BCS appearance.

Miami’s downward spiral coincided with the conference move and was simply an imperfect storm for the Hurricanes. Larry Coker took over a loaded team in 2001, but lesser recruiting classes in 2002 and 2003 had UM looking much different when taking the field year one in the ACC.

Talent wasn’t being developed, needs weren’t being met position-wise and the Canes were no longer getting the type of players it was picking up in the Butch Davis era; guys who were ready to get on board, lead, make a difference and put team first. It got the opposite, actually.

Guys who were front-runners, wanted to join a championship caliber program and came in with a sense of entitlement, forgetting that the “U” on their helmet had to be earned, while those top five rankings and BCS berths were the result of the hard work put in by those who came before them.

The decline continued. 9-3, 9-3 and 7-6 on the heels of 12-0, 12-1 and 11-2 were what got Coker fired and from there, the hiring of Randy Shannon, many of the same issues, little progress – 5-7 to 7-6 to 9-4, before falling back to 7-6 again.

It’s not hard to reverse engineer Miami’s decline from the Davis era to the program Al Golden took over in December 2010. Sub-par head coaches, bad personnel decisions, poor recruiting, worse player development, entitled kids and a culture of lethargy are the reason UM is now 41-35 since the 2005 Peach Bowl drubbing courtesy of LSU (40-3). But what’s Florida State’s excuse?

The Noles’ decline started around 2001 when offensive coordinator Mark Richt left Tallahassee to become Georgia’s head coach. Bobby Bowden chose nepotism over logic, promoting son Jeff Bowden to offensive coordinator and the Florida State offense became a shell of what it was in the dominant nineties.

The Seminoles joined the ACC in 1991, but didn’t compete for the football championship until the next season. It then won, or split, the conference title nine straight seasons (seven outright wins) and won three of the next four. Since then, a six-year ACC title drought.

The elder Bowden ran the show through 2009, wrapping up with an unearned Gator Bowl berth after a 6-6 regular season. Prior to that, four- to six-loss seasons were the new norm for a program that like Miami, was in the title hunt annually and was accustomed to losing a game or two a year, max.

Jimbo Fisher took the reigns in 2010 and went 10-4, earning a top-five preseason ranking for 2011, but the Noles again limped to 9-4, falling way short of their season goals and not even winning the ACC Atlantic, let alone competing for a national title.

It’s wild to think that after eight years in the same conference, Miami and Florida State are yet to meet for an ACC Championship, when that was the mindset between putting them in separate divisions.

As Bianchi stated, the conference title game spent the few several years in the Sunshine State, with the belief that the Canes and Noles would tussle every so often – starting in Jacksonville, moving to Tampa and eventually to North Carolina year six, when the game became an afterthought due to poor ratings and lesser match ups. Virginia Tech dominated the Coastal, but Florida State spent a handful of seasons looking up at Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and Boston College before Clemson repped the Atlantic last December.

Even more puzzling, the fact that Miami and Florida State have struggled in a conference that doesn’t even measure up well against the rest of the country. Over the past few years, everyone can see where the Canes have fallen short, but what’s the excuse for the Noles dropping off in a conference that is 2-13 in BCS bowl games since it’s inception?

Florida State’s desire to leave for a better football conference and bigger money makes sense, but the sense of entitlement that their football program belongs elsewhere or deserves better – that’s asinine based on their recent on-the-field performances. – C.B.

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