FSU Football: Will football only complex keep Jimbo Fisher from leaving?

FSU football could finally be getting the football only complex that has been talked about for a while – is it being done to keep Jimbo for leaving?

In case you have been under a rock for the past few weeks, FSU football head coach Jimbo Fisher is again the subject of rumors that he will be leaving the Seminoles for a SEC West program. While the past two seasons have been reports he would be heading to LSU, the popular theory now is that Fisher will be wooed by Texas A&M when they fire their coach, Kevin Sumlin.

While Fisher has said he won’t talk about coaching jobs or potential changes to his Florida State staff during the season, that hasn’t stopped the speculation from continuing. It’s what comes with the territory when you are one of just six coaches to win a national championship over the previous ten seasons.

Despite this being a down season for the Seminoles – who need two wins just to make a bowl game – there aren’t many in Tallahassee who are trying to get rid of Fisher. While many FSU football fans want to keep him around, the school seems to be thinking the same thing.

According to a report in the Orlando Sentinel, the school is moving forward with plans to create a football only complex on campus – something Fisher hasn’t stopped talking about for years and even drew criticism when he complimented the facilities at other schools, including ACC rival Clemson, in an effort to get what he wants.

"“You have no idea,” Fisher said Monday when asked about the importance of a centralized complex aiding athletes dealing with time constraints of class, study hall and football meetings among other commitments.“Their days are strung out … the schedules they’re on and what they’re asked to do. When you’re wasting time in between, you’re wasting development time for them.”"

According to the Sentinel, the two options for a facility are:

• Turning the Moore Athletic Center, currently located in the north end zone, into a football facility and moving the Olympic sports that use it into a new facility inside of Tully Gym, located across the street from baseball’s Dick Howser Stadium.
• Building a facility near the current practice fields and the Indoor Practice Facility that Jimbo sometimes forgets was built not that long ago.

Look, I don’t think Fisher can talk for a second about the school not supporting the FSU football program – considering the IPF and the millions of dollars spent on the Champions Club (you know, those seats in the south end zone that tend to be empty most of the time) – and being 4-6 at this point doesn’t help his case.

At the same point, college football has become more about the glitz and glamour off the field as much about the performance on the field. Programs like Florida State, Alabama, Clemson and more have became the NFL’s minor league teams and must keep up with one another – and both LSU and Texas A&M have football only facilities.

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Truth be told, I don’t believe Fisher really does want to leave the FSU football program for anything other than an NFL job or one of the other elite college programs (sorry, Aggies…that’s not you.) That being said, since he is a commodity and one of maybe a dozen coaches who can get any job he wants, Fisher will use that to milk the Seminoles out of everything he can get.