A little over a week ago, we wrote that the FSU defense changed under Tony White shortly after UCLA fired Deshaun Foster. It was only an observation after FSU opened the season against Alabama and looked like a defense that played with its hair on fire.
We noted that Alabama left some plays on the field, but some of that was due to FSU playing physical and fast, too. FSU continued to play with physicality in the next two games against lesser opponents, but the FSU defense hasn’t looked the same since, and looked very different on the road against Virginia.
Ironically, that game was after it became known that White was interested in the UCLA job. Most folks know he intereviewed for the job when they hired Deshaun Foster instead.
Virginia has a solid offense, so we tried to give them a pass. Miami has a good offensive line and an experienced quarterback. However, when Pittsburgh marched into Doak Campbell Stadium with a freshman QB making his first career start on the road and torched FSU for over 300 passing yards?
When FSU couldn’t stop a Stanford offense that averaged 18 ppg and allowed 13 first-half points? A lot of folks like to say that FSU started playing better competition and got exposed, but we don’t buy it.
That doesn’t explain the lack of physicality and aggression we saw after the first few games. Here’s what we think.
Tony White arrived at FSU about 10-11 months ago and spent all of the spring, summer, and fall building trust with the defense, getting them to believe in his unusual defense. They bought in and played like their hair was on fire in the first three games. However, once he admitted he was on the phone and spoke about the UCLA job?
The players figured he was probably going to leave after this year and stopped trusting and buying into what he was preaching each day. That’s the only explanation. What would stop players from giving their all like that in the first few games? Even if he didn’t get the job (and he likely won’t now), they must have felt some type of way that he’d consider it after only being at FSU for less than a year.
The explanations he gave after each loss don't make sense. Why didn't all of those issues show up in the first 2-3 games? Yes, there were some holes in the linebacker and secondary areas, but the rally to the ball was unreal. The pursuit and strain were there.
He made Shedeur Sanders and Travis Hunter look pedestrian, and shut down a potent Ohio State offense last year. The man didn't have back-to-back top 20 defenses by accident. Tony White had a couple of bad games every year at Nebraska, but it was usually against the top teams in the conference.
Just like any relationship, once you lose trust in someone, it's difficult to go all-out for that relationship, and that's what we believe happened with Tony White's defense after he showed interest for the UCLA job.