About a month and a half ago, we wrote an article explaining that the FSU defense changed drastically after FSU defensive coordinator Tony White spoke about the UCLA job that had recently opened up.
The defense we saw against Alabama, East Texas A&M, and Kent State was drastically different than what we saw against Virginia. FSU played with much less physicality, looked lethargic, and failed to get off the field while giving up a season high 46 points in double OT.
The FSU defense lacked physicality and couldn't stop Miami or Pittsburgh. They couldn't get off the field against Stanford's backup quarterback, and we knew something had to have happened.
We attributed it to Tony White admitting he spoke to someone about UCLA and thought the players may have lost trust in him or tuned him out. However, it seems something far worse may have happened. Jason Staples, a former FSU walk-on player in the early 2000s, who turned podcaster/analyst, dropped some information on a recent podcast that may have explained a myriad of issues at FSU. The entire show is below, but the relevant info starts at the 6:00 mark: