FSU Football: Noles get blamed for weak ACC showing in NFL Draft

FSU football did more than several teams from the ACC in this year’s NFL Draft, but still get some of the blame by one national writer for the conference woes.

When the final numbers were drawn up for who got picked in the 2019 edition of the NFL Draft, the Atlantic Coast Conference was busy trying to make up excuses for what took place this past season – as the ACC and their schools, including the FSU football team, were among the worst in college football this past draft period.

In total, the Seminoles were part of a conference that produced a total of 28 draft picks – which actually finished two picks higher than the Big 12, but finished with a lower pick per team number since the ACC has 14 teams in their conference while the Big 12 has just 10 members (yeah, don’t ask on that one.)

Among the conferences that make up the Power Five leagues in the football bowl subdivision, the ACC finished in fifth place – and finished with less than half of the number that the Southeastern Conference averaged per team.

Florida State Seminoles Football

Who is to blame for all of this? Well, for one writer, it’s all about the FSU football team being responsible for what took place for three days in Nashville last weekend.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Andy Staples wrote a column earlier this week in which he detailed the problems that ACC had this past weekend and why the Seminoles are the main reason for the problems that took place come draft time.

"Clemson wrested control of the league from Florida State in 2015, and the Seminoles have gone in the opposite direction. The Florida State fans who have complained that Jimbo Fisher’s recruiting slipped badly in his final years there got some serious ammunition this weekend."

FSU football finished with just two players being picked – Brian Burns in the first round by Carolina and Demarcus Christmas in the sixth round by Seattle – tying them for the lowest number of picks in the last 10 drafts.

Now, to give Staples a little bit of credit (hard to do since he is a UF graduate), he did say that there is a way for the Seminoles to turn things around.

"Taggart, who replaced Fisher last year and promptly snapped Florida State’s streak of consecutive bowl games, must recruit and/or develop players the NFL will want. That will help Florida State win games (the Seminoles’ ultimate goal), and it will help the ACC as a whole."

Staples went on to criticize several other members of the ACC, including a Virginia Tech program that didn’t have anyone picked for the first time in a quarter century and just one season after they had two players picked in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.

In a way, he is 100 percent right: FSU football is still one of the top teams in the ACC and the Seminoles’ fortunes are the same for all 14 members of the conference. If the Seminoles are going to be successful, the conference will ride to the top as well – now, it’s just a matter of time to see if that does take place.