Fisher Set to “Clean House” at Florida State

With the NCAA coming down on Florida State in the wake of the cheating scandal, the news has in essence prompted a referendum of sorts on the state of Seminoles football under legendary coach Bobby Bowden. We had this discussion on Monday’s “Outside the Lines” show and my feeling is while FSU hasn’t dropped off the college football map, it definitely has dropped off the mountaintop. I spoke with several people who have been on the inside of the FSU program over the past decade for their thoughts on why the program has backslid so much. So what exactly has caused this? Start with leadership and bad chemistry. A bunch of the guys I’ve talked to have their own theories and there’s actually plenty of overlap. One of the main reasons I heard was that for so long the FSU coaching staff was like a machine, where each part relied on the others. But then when some key guys started to leave (most notably Mark Richt and Chuck Amato), it broke up the chemistry and those other coaches who have slid into their roles couldn’t deliver. “The machine broke down,” one of the guys said. Then, you’ve added in some new personalities as Bowden’s gotten further removed from the day-to-day operation with Jimbo Fisher getting anointed as the new Noles head coach, and word is there’s too much friction between Fisher and some of Bowden’s old guard with Mickey Andrews and Amato now that he’s back. I’m told that as soon as Fisher gets elevated (if that does in fact happen) he cleans house there. – ESPN