FSU Football: Coaches don’t plan to put square pegs in round holes

FSU football has a set of coaches willing to play to the strengths of their players in order to win football games in 2018.

FSU football coaches met with media Sunday afternoon prior to fall camp beginning and shared a lot of information regarding how they’ll do things moving forward.

All the coaches were impressive and all of them shared information that would be key to this team being successful in 2018.

However, offensive coordinator Walt Bell might have used the best example out of all when speaking about intangibles at quarterback and what coaches are looking for in their players.

He spoke on how Coach Taggart has adapted his offense to fit the personnel on the roster, most importantly the quarterback:

Florida State Seminoles Football

"I think one of the great things about this system, had a kid like [Quinton] Flowers had a certain set of tools in his toolbox that were a little bit different and they had great success with him. And then he goes to Oregon and, they have a 6-6 kid that is a good athlete but not as good a runner and they kind of build the system around his skills."

I’m not knocking the old regime, but this isn’t something they did very well as they seemed set to making players adjust to the offense.

For instance, EJ Manuel was an excellent college quarterback for FSU football. He could have been even better had the old regime used his dual threat ability in the run game.

They did early on but seemed to go away from it the longer he was in the system even though he still struggled to throw read defenses and throw with anticipation.

Manuel averaged seven carries a game in 2012 and I believe FSU would have played for a national championship if they used his legs more.

For instance, If you look at the two games the Noles lost that year Manuel struggled in the passing game:

Against NC State

• 17 of 29 for 218 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT with 8 rushing carries for negative yards.

Against Florida

• 18 of 32 for 182 yards, 1 TD, 3 INT’s with 12 carries for 54 yards and 2 TD’s

He was under 60 percent completion percentage in both those games.  Have you ever noticed what Clemson has done under Dabo Swinney when they were playing against a FSU or other top-tier program? They will run their quarterback in the dirt to win a game because it gives them an advantage offensively.

I’m not suggesting FSU football do that, but at the same time coaches have to take advantage of what their players do well.

"We have to identify what those winnable skills are; what are their sharpest tools; and make sure that whoever that guy is that wins the job, then we put them out there on Saturday and we’re making sure that we’re not asking him to do something that he doesn’t do well; or for lack of a better with a way to put it, that we are playing to his skills and making sure that we’re putting him in a position to be successful. Because if that kid is successful, typically the offense is successful."

Thoughts

Say what? Man, I can’t tell you how hard I smiled when I heard those words come out of Coach Bell’s mouth. It seems like common sense right?

Don’t ask a power running back to runs stretch plays to the outside. Don’t ask a true freshman to do a seven step drop in his own end zone against one of the best defenses in the country.

If the quarterback is a good runner with the ball in his hands, make the defense account for him instead of asking him to pass 35 times per game when he’s not the most accurate passer.

That’s what Coach Bell is referring to here regarding a player’s tool box. It looks like this coaching staff will not be putting any more square pegs in round holes in 2018.