NFL Draft yet another reminder of how FSU Football lost its way
By: Ira Schoffel - Warchant.comFor many Florida State fans, the 2021 NFL Draft felt like a painful reminder of all the things that went poorly for the Seminoles' football team last season. And for the last several seasons.
It was like looking into a mirror and remembering that you don't like the view.
For three straight days.
Cornerback Asante Samuel was perhaps the only real success story for the Seminoles this time around. He came in as a four-star prospect, played at a high level throughout his career and was rewarded with a high draft pick.
Safety Hamsah Nasirilden should have been the next closest thing. He also came in as a four-star and played at a very high level but missed most of last season with a knee injury, which forced him to fall all the way down to the sixth round.
The Seminoles' other two draft picks -- defensive ends Janarius Robinson and Joshua Kaindoh -- were selected in the fourth round based on measurables and potential more than anything they accomplished while wearing the garnet and gold.
And then there were the two high-profile Seminoles who didn't get selected at all -- defensive tackle Marvin Wilson and Tamorrion Terry. Nearly 260 college football players were selected in this year's draft, and Wilson and Terry listened to each and every name without ever hearing theirs.
Kickers and long snappers were drafted. Virtual unknowns from FCS, Division-II and even Division-III programs were selected. (Division-III schools do not offer scholarships.) Dozens of defensive linemen and wide receivers got calls from NFL clubs.
Yet no Wilson. And no Terry.
There was a time when that might have seemed inconceivable.
At the end of the 2019 season, both players had to do a great deal of soul-searching before deciding to come back for 2020. Wilson said at the time he was told he would have been a first-round pick if he had declared for the draft. Terry might have been an early round pick as well.
One year later, they ended up signing as undrafted free agents; Wilson with Cleveland and Terry with Seattle.
If there was ever a perfect testament to how dysfunctional things have been with the Florida State football team for the past several years, this might have been it.
Wilson came to FSU as the No. 1 defensive lineman in the country in 2017 and played very good football for most of his first three seasons. As a result, he was a preseason All-American in 2020 and was expected to be the team's unquestioned leader. Instead, he stumbled into a Twitter controversy during the summer, was mostly ineffective on the field, and then skipped the rest of his senior season after sustaining a knee injury.
Terry was nowhere near as highly regarded coming out of high school. But he had a nice redshirt freshman season in 2018 and then broke out in a big way one year later, catching 60 passes for 1,188 yards and nine touchdowns.
He was expected to be one of the most explosive downfield threats in college football this past season. Instead, he stumbled into his own Twitter controversy during preseason camp, struggled through a knee injury, let his emotions get the best of him during a loss at Miami, and also skipped the final few games of the season.
To some degree, Wilson's and Terry's downfalls were emblematic of all the things that have plagued this FSU program since 2014.
Too many people spending too much time on things that had too little impact on their success on the football field.
Terry, of course, fell in love with his "Scary Terry" nickname and took to carrying a Halloween mask with him to practices and games. He would wear it in pregame warmups and planned to don it on the sidelines after touchdowns.
Wilson took it upon himself to publicly call out head coach Mike Norvell for misspeaking last summer about his conversations with players about police brutality and social injustice.
While those might seem like very different situations -- one silly, and one extremely serious -- they both reflect a theme. That many players in this football program have been far more concerned with their individual feelings and desires than anything that the team could accomplish.
Terry’s mask shenanigans are self-explanatory and a symbol of his mindset.
But even in Wilson’s situation, if he were truly concerned about the success of the program, he could have handled that situation in-house. He had every right to be upset and concerned about what Norvell said. No one would blame him for that. But he could have called or texted Norvell or position coach Odell Haggins and hashed it out. He didn’t have to take it to Twitter and threaten a team walkout -- at least not without first asking for an explanation.
I’m not saying Wilson is a bad guy. Or that Terry is, either. But those instances give us a glimpse into just what has been wrong with this program.
Could you imagine any of that happening at Alabama? Or Clemson? Or Ohio State? Or Florida State in 2013?
The truth is, "self over team" has been the prevailing mindset in this program for several years. It started with Jimbo Fisher, who allowed his personal issues with leaders of the athletics department and Seminole Boosters to affect the product he put on the field.
That was followed up by Willie Taggart, who professed a public mantra of "no excuses" and "blame no one," but privately threw others under the bus every chance he got. Players and coaches alike felt as if he blamed them for the team's struggles; he even called into question the team's nutritionist and athletic trainers when several players experienced cramps in a particular game.
So it started at the top, and it trickled down throughout the program.
Instead of all-for-one and one-for-all, Florida State Football has mostly been everyone for themselves. And we saw it play out on the field with all the selfish penalties. The look-at-me gestures after routine plays. The teammates fighting to recover the same fumble.
That's not to say everyone in the FSU program over the past several years had adopted that self-centered approach. But it sure seemed like the ones who did were beginning to outnumber and influence the ones who didn't.
And it's something second-year head coach Mike Norvell and his staff have been working to correct for the past 18 months.
The good news is it seems to be working.
When I interviewed offensive line coach Alex Atkins before spring practice, I asked him about the biggest area of improvements he saw from his players last fall and what he wanted to see from them this offseason.
His answer was enlightening.
He didn't talk about weight gains or improved techniques. He didn't point to a better understanding of the blocking schemes or an increase in toughness or tenacity.
What Atkins focused on, almost entirely, was their togetherness. Their love for each other. Their willingness to lay it all on the line for their teammates.
That might sound trite to some. "Yeah, whatever. If you want to win, get better players."
There's some truth to that, too. Inferior football players are not going to win a lot of games no matter how much they love and care for each other.
But what these last several years have proven is that the opposite is true as well. Talent without togetherness is not much better than no talent at all. Especially in this particular sport, which requires all 11 players on the field to work in concert for just about any play to succeed.
There's no mystery why the best college football teams typically produce the most NFL draft picks. It's because their players are talented, sure, but it's also because those players know how to function inside of a winning program. They are willing to sacrifice for their teammates. They aren't consumed with their individual goals and desires.
Part of the reason why Asante Samuel was drafted in the second round this weekend was because he was able to persevere through all of the drama and nonsense that has surrounded FSU Football in recent years. He rose above it.
A big part of the reason why Terry and Wilson went undrafted is because they did not.
That doesn't mean they are bad people. To the contrary, many NFL teams have no qualms about drafting bad people. What they don't want is bad teammates.
And Florida State has had far too many of them in recent years. Selfish players led, too often, by selfish coaches.
That's how you lose a lot of football games. It's how players with all the potential in the world get passed over in the draft again and again and again.
While the NFL Draft is primarily about evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of individual players, there are macro observations to be made as well. It can be a reflection of an entire program.
For Florida State in recent years, and again this past weekend, that annual look in the mirror has been mostly unflattering.
