A hero’s welcome complete with water cannons and committee members clad in brightly colored jackets handing out oranges greeted Florida State on Wednesday at the Fort Lauderdale International Jet Center.
The scene, at one time, was commonplace for the Seminoles, who played in 13 major bowls during a 14-year period starting in 1987. But this trip to South Florida marks just FSU’s fourth BCS bowl since 2000.
“We act like we’ve been here a bunch of times,” coach Jimbo Fisher said. “We haven’t been here in a while. And we had significant drop off during that decade. We have to gain that back.”
The Seminoles will continue their preparation for the Jan. 1 Orange Bowl against Northern Illinois today at Nova Southeastern University. Florida State’s game plan, which certainly contained a heavy dose of how to stop NIU dual threat quarterback Jordan Lynch, was implemented during its two weeks of practice in Tallahassee.
Florida State entered its bowl preparation with its old defensive coordinator in Kentucky, its interim defensive coordinator soon headed for the Bluegrass State and its future defensive coordinator helping Alabama prepare for its national title game against Notre Dame.
Mark Stoops, who headed the Seminoles’ defense the last three years, was introduced as Kentucky’s new coach on Dec. 2. He had hoped to return for Orange Bowl practices but found the dual roles too demanding.
Instead, D.J. Eliot, the defensive ends coach who will join Stoops’ staff as the coordinator, stuck around for some seasoning as the Seminoles’ defensive coordinator for one game. In addition, Sal Sunseri, who will technically replace Eliot, joined the staff last week and was involved in the game planning.
“He was sitting there bouncing ideas off,” Fisher said.
Jeremy Pruitt, who will replace Stoops, arrives after the national title game. Pruitt has been the Tide’s secondary coach for the last three seasons.
“It didn’t bother us one bit,” Fisher said about the coaching carousel. “I’ve been through those as a staff three or four or five times. Being part of that helped me in preparation as a head coach to plan how we are going to do things.”
That staff certainly concentrated on stopping a player whose numbers may have had him attending the Heisman Trophy ceremony in New York had he played for a school in a major conference, and not the Mid-American.
Lynch, a junior, was third nationally in total offense and fourth in rushing. He threw for 2,962 yards, 24 touchdowns and just five interceptions. His 1,771 rushing yards were 605 more than the next closest quarterback, Michigan’s Denard Robinson.
“To be able to carry the ball that many times and not be injured, and run the inside runs that he does and still be able to create the passes, I think he’s very unique,” Fisher said.
Lynch, who had never been to Florida, said on Wednesday he and his teammates will have a “chip on our shoulder” being from the mid-major school that snuck into a BCS bowl against a national brand.
“We feel like we can play at one of those schools,” Lynch said when the Huskies arrived in Miami. “We’re going to be ready to go. We are a bunch of physical guys that love to get after it and anytime you get the chance to play big time competition we love the spotlight.”
Florida State will be reminded about what could have been for much of its week. Alabama and Norte Dame will play in the same stadium just six nights later for the national championship.
Fisher worked under Alabama’s Nick Saban for five years at LSU and he is the last coach to defeat Notre Dame, which is unbeaten this season and ended last year by losing to FSU in the Champs Sports Bowl.
“I said last year Notre Dame was a great team, nobody believed me,” Fisher said. “I thought we were, too. We were two teams that were a year away from being significant in the national title.”
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