Florida State: Ch-ch-ch-ch-anges

Florida State at Virginia: Oct. 2

Change is the order of the day at Florida State.

“We changed our offseason workout program,” said first-year head coach Jimbo Fisher, who takes over for the legendary Bobby Bowden after a subpar 7-6 season in Tallahassee in 2009, beginning the list of changes instituted by Fisher since assuming the duties at FSU.

Other changes detailed by Fisher – running and conditioning, “how we recruit,” camp schedules in the summer, the spring game, “how we practice in the spring,” academic accountability.

Top to bottom, pretty much, and on the field, a big change on defense, as the Seminoles pass the torch from the man coverages used by longtime coordinator Mickey Andrews to a zone-coverage scheme favored by new defensive coordinator Mark Stoops.

The offense will be very similar, said Fisher, who had served as offensive coordinator for three seasons under Bowden.

“I’ll still call the plays. We may feature different guys’ talents, but the core values of the offense will stay the same,” said Fisher, who has the luxury of having Christian Ponder back at quarterback.

Ponder, who is getting Heisman hype heading into his senior season, threw for 2,717 yards and 14 touchdowns in nine games last season before going down with a shoulder injury against Clemson in November.

Ponder and Fisher have another luxury – the return of all five starters from the offensive line that cleared paths for an offense that produced 30.1 points and 421.4 yards of total offense per game in 2009.

As good as those numbers look, the situation on defense had gotten to the point of being dire by the end of the ’09 season, which saw FSU give up 30.0 points and 434.6 yards of total offense per game.
 
 

Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at [email protected].