For FSU, This isn’t Fun Anymore

Riding a 21-game win streak — with national-title-or-bust expectations hanging over its season — the fun is gone for FSU.

For FSU, this isn’t fun anymore.

The magic of last year — the joy, the unbridled enthusiasm and excitement — are long gone. Last season Florida State came from no where. There were no expectations. They weren’t even supposed to be there. FSU was replacing its starting QB and half of its defense– the Seminoles weren’t even expected to win their own conference.

More from Chop Chat

• FSU football: Q&A with Clemson experts at Rubbing The Rock 2023
• FSU football: 3 reasons Noles beat Clemson, two reasons they lose
• FSU football: QB Brock Glenn out with an injury for ‘a few weeks’
• FSU football: Which TV announcers will call Clemson game?
• FSU football: Is Jared Verse ready to make an impact versus Clemson?

Last year FSU was playing with house money.

And oh was it fun.

Telvin Smith called it ‘a reckoning.’ FSU delighted itself in paying back a decade’s worth of slights from the college football world. The Seminoles torched their opponents. It was the most destructive campaign in ACC country since Sherman burned down the south. And Florida State couldn’t have had more fun doing it. It bled through on every play. It came through your television screen and into your living room. It was impossible to miss.

But expectations have a funny way of destroying everything.

This year’s Florida State team — though no less talented — is pressing. It’s only five games into the season, but so far the burden of expectations has taken the fun right out of things for FSU.

Oct 4, 2014; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles quarterback Jameis Winston (5) runs off the field following their 43-3 victory over the Wake Forest Demon Deacons at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John David Mercer-USA TODAY Sports

“I told the kids after the game, go enjoy playing. Sometimes it’s like the pressure of playing today — ‘you’ve got to win, you’ve got to do this, are you dominant?  — Who cares? Who cares if you’re dominant! Just keep getting better and be the team you are, and enjoy playing the game of football,” said Jimbo Fisher after FSU’s 43-3 win over Wake Forest. “You can’t worry about winning and losing. You have to worry about playing well and just having fun out on there on the field and quit worrying about trying to please everybody.”

But clearly the Seminoles are worried about winning and losing. And who can blame them?

You can’t bring up FSU without someone talking about whether the Seminoles deserve to be number one. 21 straight wins be damned, did FSU win by enough last Saturday? Do they pass the eye test? Are they a playoff team?

“Quit trying to please the scouts. Quit trying to please your agents — guys that are talking to you — quit trying to please the press. Enjoy playing the game, and have fun and enjoy it and turn it loose,” said Fisher. “I didn’t think we did [that] today… I think we’ve got to enjoy executing again.”

It’s only five games into the season, but so far the burden of expectations has taken the fun right out of things for FSU.

Even the players admit that FSU is pressing too much right now. That pressure — internal and external — has gotten them away from the joy they felt for the game last season.

“At the end of the day, that’s what we’re here for — football — we love the sport,” said LB Reggie Northrup. “You just have to make sure you have fun. When we have fun, we execute and play [well].”

Fisher calls this team business-like, and admits that the upside of the situation is it shows that his team cares.

The problem may be that it cares too much.

So far this Florida State team has shown that it has fight– and plenty of it.

But until this FSU team shows it has fun, we likely won’t see its best.