Before he took a snap in a collegiate game, Jameis Winston asked his Florida State teammates: “Is there a rule that says you can’t blow everybody out?” That the Seminoles have played 13 games and have, sure enough, blown everybody out, tells us much about them. That a 19-year-old redshirt freshman dared to dream such an outrageous dream tells us more about him.
Florida State went 12-2 last season and beat Georgia Tech for the ACC title and Northern Illinois in the Orange Bowl behind E.J. Manuel, a quarterback gifted enough to be taken in Round 1 by the Buffalo Bills. Those Noles finished 10th in the final Associated Press poll, an indication that the nation at large regarded FSU as something less than a colossus. That they started the 2013 season ranked No. 11 suggested that not many folks besides Manuel’s replacement, a guy whose first name rhymes with “famous,” foresaw bigger and better.
“We began the season, and everybody was looking at us as, like, ‘OK, they’ve got a freshman quarterback,’” Winston said Friday. “Nobody (was) going to pay any attention. Now we’re in the national championship.”
It’s rare that a team arrives at the BCS title game being undefeated yet somehow untested, but that’s how overwhelming Florida State has been. Its average margin of victory is 42.3 points. It hasn’t trailed since 1:50 remained in the second quarter against Boston College on Sept. 28.
“With (the) team and the coaching staff that we’ve got, it looks easy,” Winston said. “But people don’t look at us behind closed doors and how much hard work we put into this. … Yes, right now it is easy because all of us, we’ve got our mindset on one goal.”
That goal is to beat Auburn for the BCS title Monday night, a day that will see Winston turn 20. That’s really the only thing left for him. He has taken Florida State to the title game and won the Heisman Trophy in a landslide, and you couldn’t say he has been blindsided. He’s a confident young man.
Winston: “Every single day, (quarterbacks coach Randy) Sanders asks me, ‘What can I help you do to get better?’, and usually I say, ‘Nothing.’ Then he ends up giving me a reason why he can.”
The nation took notice of Winston on Sept. 2, when FSU journeyed to Pittsburgh for the Panthers’ inaugural ACC game. He threw 27 passes, completing 25. Of the incomplete passes, Sanders said: “One was a throwaway, and the other one could have been ruled a completion on the sideline.”
Was such a precise debut shocking to Sanders, who at Tennessee and Kentucky worked with Peyton Manning, Tee Martin and Andre’ Woodson? “Honestly I wasn’t surprised,” he said. “I was a little bit in awe.”
Winston on the Pitt performance: “That game was really just out of anger and out of happiness of me just being on the football field again. … When I came out to that game, I was like, ‘I’m ready,’ and I had the weapons around me to help me do that. That’s when I realized as a player, ‘Hey, we’re out here gelling; we’ve got this little thing about us,’ and that’s when I knew FSU is going to bring that swag back. We went out there and showed the world, ‘Hey, look at us; we’re here; we’re here to make a statement.’”
Late in FSU’s statement season reports identified Winston as the suspect in an investigation of sexual battery. He was not charged. The swirl of speculation didn’t seem to faze Winston, who called the football field “my sanctuary” and said: “What people think outside of this and what people are trying to do, I can’t control that. I just go out there and play football because I enjoy it and I love it and it’s my passion, and I’ve got these boys around me, and that’s what we love to do, go out there and play Florida State football.”
Winston is from Hueytown, Ala., which is part of the Birmingham metro area, which means he sees Auburn as “a rivalry game.” He’s also a relief pitcher of note, and would love to do double duty as an NFL quarterback and an Atlanta Brave. First, however, he has an important football game to start and finish.
“We’re not going out there just to play around,” Winston said, pointing toward Monday night. “We’re not going out there to take anybody for granted. We’re going out there to play a great game. We’re going out there to do what we came here to do every single game, 13 games. It’s not over yet. We’ve got a 14th one. Why not end this year with a victory?”
Heck, why not blow out Auburn, same as all the others? “Alabama blew out Notre Dame in the championship game last year,” Winston said. “We can do anything we want to do.”
