Don’t try telling Woody Harvey that unbeaten and unchastened Florida State has become widely unpopular, the Brussels sprouts of the college football banquet.
He is still coming down off a 19-hour work day at the Tomahawk Sports Bar & Grill, catering to the thirsty mob that gathered last Saturday around the Seminoles final home game of the season. It was a victory, of course, over blood-rival Florida.
“I grew up around here in the ’90s, when you’d be upset if the defense gave up a shutout. That came to an end. Now, it’s just nice being back in the position of winning,” Harvey, bar manager and part-time student, testified.
Don’t even attempt to argue with Shane Simmons over the reportedly too-cozy relationship between the Seminoles football team and the hometown police department — the subject of two sweeping and unflattering New York Times stories. The Times chronicled a series of player transgressions that were allegedly whitewashed by the Tallahassee P.D.
(When one such story migrated to social media, so many FSU fans marked it as spam that Twitter temporarily removed the link to it. They are both a committed and tech-savvy bunch.)
From behind the counter at Tatty Daddy’s Tattoos, Simmons leaned back in his chair, clasped his hands behind his head and revealed opulently illustrated arms. He spoke from beneath a red-orange beard that tapered at belt level.
“It’s not Mayberry around here,” he said.
“It’s not like every police officer is produced at a factory on campus, programmed to root for FSU,” he said.
Outside the bubble of FSU fandom, there may be a widespread belief that the world would be a better place if Georgia Tech dispatched the Seminoles in Saturday’s ACC Championship game. The combination of winning every game for nearly two seasons and a steady trickle of player-generated controversy has combined to raise the Seminoles to the level of scoundrel.
It’s not exactly a role their coach, Jimbo Fisher, always embraces. During an off-week appearance in Birmingham, Ala., this season, Fisher got a little testy when some media began asking him about his quarterback’s character and the state of his own reputation rather than about the beauty of the quick slant. At one point, as he cut the questions short, Fisher said, “Why is my reputation taking a hit? For backing a kid who has done nothing wrong?”
What’s been the predominant image this week, in advance of the conference championship? That of FSU’s aforementioned lightning-rod quarterback, Jameis Winston, going to and from a student-conduct hearing, dressed like an inside stock trader on way to trial.
Such scenes don’t usually build a positive connection to the large numbers of undecided in the audience.
Inside that FSU bubble, the mood is more than a little defensive. Not to say the view is unwarranted. Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean someone’s not out to get you.
“We know everybody wants us to lose. We know we’re the team that everybody hates,” FSU cornerback P.J. Williams noted earlier this season. “We like the fact that everybody wants us to lose. We like the fact that every team is going to come with their ‘A’ game. So we’re just going to fight hard and work hard to make sure that we win.”
These Seminoles have seen their place in the playoff hierarchy steadily erode, even as they remained the only undefeated team in contention. On Monday, following a five-point victory over the Gators, they fell to No. 4 in the standings, right on the border of insignificance. It indeed smelled slightly conspiratorial.
Thus they are positioned to fall out of the playoff mix with a single loss Saturday, which would tickle that segment suffering from FSU fatigue and absolutely infuriate the loyalists.
The battle lines are drawn. And not just between fan bases. The Us vs. The World outlook extends all the way to the giants of the sports media.
“Look at what’s on ESPN: ‘FSU upset alert.’ They don’t even put a question mark after it. I feel it’s like that every week,” Roberto Aguayo, the Seminoles’ placekicker-supreme, said.
“At the end of the day if we keep on winning they can’t say anything about it.”
Their critics will tell you that the Seminoles have stumbled into their 12-0 record. Too many close games. Too many second-half comebacks. Not enough domination.
Not like a year ago, when the Seminoles steamrolled the competition right up to their last-gasp win over Auburn in the BCS championship game.
“It’s getting a little old,” Harvey said, back at the Tomahawk Bar & Grill. “It’s frustrating that the things they’re criticizing us for — the close wins, the miracle comebacks — are the same things they praised Auburn for last year.”
Few see these Seminoles as being as formidable as 2013’s, except maybe tight end Nick O’Leary and a few of his friends. “Yeah, I feel we are, yeah,” he said.
“We’re doing what we got to do,” he said. “We’re still in the run for the playoffs after we beat Georgia Tech. Just make it to the playoffs and win the national championship, and it’s all settled.”
“Everybody has flaws,” Fisher told ESPN.com earlier this season. “But this team — they believe in each other, they love each other. They never panic, they look each other in the eye, and they handle the next play.”
Just keep doing that, just keep winning, and nothing can touch us, they reason. It’s a narrow philosophy, a two-lane road that has led straight to the ACC Championship game.
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