	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 21, 2015

Jimbo Fisher

Tallahassee, Florida

Florida State - 52 Chattanooga - 13

COACH FISHER: I'm proud of the kids. I say a special thank you to all of our seniors, last home game there and what they have accomplished and being able to keep a 21 game win streak here and a record at home and since they have been here and what they have been able to do a tremendous accomplishment for tying the record today for most wins in a career. 48. Going into that. Which is another great accomplishment.

We have couple more games left, hopefully. We can add to that. But just a great accomplishment by them and it was their day, it was about the seniors and everything that went on there, so from that standpoint very happy for them.

Very proud of our team. Started out we had a great return and fumble today on the opening kick off and, like I said, I knew this team would be ready to play. This team is a very well-coached football team, they're used to winning. They come down, they convert a couple third downs.

And we come back and score and then they come back and score again. And then we got control of the game a little bit and got some things going.

But this is very good team, they're very well coached, and my hat's off to them.

But again we got to continue to grow on some things. Missed a short yardage down on the goal line, missed a block and got to get that cleaned up. But other than that we played pretty well.

Good on third down, ran the ball well, had good mixture, one field position, got turnovers, everything was pretty good in that regard. So look at the film.

But getting ready to go down and play the Gators next week and hopefully wind this regular season up and get healed up and be ready to compete at what they're doing and looking forward to this week.

Q. Talk about Sean Maguire and Kermit's play.
COACH FISHER: The throws and the reads were going that way, but he made for a touchdown was a hot read off back side. He knew the blitz was going to get there. It was hot on the back side. He knew he had a chance to make a play on the front side. They took his first options away and he went to No. 3, to Kermit on that drag and took a shot, made a throw, and scored a touchdown which was a big -- because that was right after a turnover on third down in the red zone, which is very critical. They played really well.

They seemed to have a good hookup. But within 15, we didn't get many balls to Bobo, but that just the design and what happened on their defense, didn't get the ball there. But very proud of those guys and what they did there. They're hooking up very well.

Q. How did Sean come out of that game? He took some shots.
COACH FISHER: He's fine. He's a football player.

Q. He seems to do a real good job of standing in there until the last --
COACH FISHER: He does. He does. Sometimes I wish he would get rid of it just a hair quicker every now and then. But he does. He tries to make plays, but played an outstanding game, made good decisions. Got down the field well and did a nice job.

Q. Talked about playing the Gators next week. Talk about the importance of the game going down. A rival game, trying to upset them, be in a better placement, maybe, for your bowl position. Talk about what all this means.
COACH FISHER: You just about did, so that's it.

(Laughter.)

You're right. All those things are on line. I appreciate it.

No, first of all, it's a Florida - Florida State game. Don't matter it if you're both 0-10, you got to go line up and play or whatever, you know. This is one of the reasons you come to Florida State to play a tremendous rivalry.

They have done an outstanding job with those guys. They have an outstanding season. They're 10-1 we're 9-2. That's the way Florida - Florida state should be. It should be back to those teams. It has a lot of implications. They're going on to play an SEC championship game and have a chance at a big bowl, we can win that game and have a chance to do play on New Year's Day at BCS or whatever you call them, playoff bowls and all that stuff.

There's a lot of implications. 10-win season, double digit wins. There's so much to play for. But it's Florida - Florida State, and if that's not enough, then we got problems.

But they had an outstanding program and we have tremendous respect for them. And that's one of the toughest places in ball to play. It's a hard place to go down there to, but our kids are willing to get ready and get up for the challenge and be ready to play. That's one of the reasons you come to Florida State, to play in that game.

Q. You said you wanted the players to prove they deserved to wear black uniforms. How did they do that?
COACH FISHER: Okay. They practiced well. We practiced well. We practiced well. We really did. But, that's part of it. Those kids, they enjoy those things, they like them and all that. I'm a traditionalist. You know that, I really am. I wouldn't care if we wore the uniforms from 1942, if everybody stayed the same way all the way up. That's just the way I am. They played well and they and they deserved it and they practiced in them and it's something we have here.

Q. Do they ask like every week?
COACH FISHER: They used to. They got told no. They like all that stuff. That's the modernization of kids, today, but you know, I think that's great. But I think we got to be careful, it's not about the uniform. That's what I keep trying to tell them. But you know. It is what it is.

Q. You mentioned Senior Day and the emotions that go into that. Was that maybe a part of the reason for a slow start?
COACH FISHER: No, Kermit was a junior.

(Laughter.)

He wasn't emotional. He did say he tried to stiff arm a guy. I said, your arm is three and a half inches long, why would you even try to stiff arm somebody? The guy knocked it out.

No, I was giving him a hard time, because he is shorter than me. Write that in the paper, too. Make sure you write that.

But, no, it wasn't -- it was just a freak play. He made a great return, the guy popped the ball out. But that's a good football team. I said to the guys, don't come into these games thinking -- there was another upset today of a major SEC Division I school.

Guys, those teams are used to winning. They come in here and play and they do a great job now. And they're not coming here for a paycheck, they're coming here to play football. And that's a well-coached, very good football team. And I knew they would battle us. And we finally got control of it, but I knew they would battle.

Q. Were you pleased with the efficiency you guys played with?
COACH FISHER: I did. Especially once we got going. We scored eight drives in a row or something like that. I haven't had a chance to look at that.

But, defensively, then we started getting control of the game. We ripped some edge stuff there for awhile. But they're a difficult team with all speed sweeps and quarterback runs and that stuff's not easy. Guys jumped out there at me. Some of those young linebackers and DB's, nearly did.

We had opportunities, I mean Oz and Tate and those guys are all -- 11's got a knee that's bothering him a little bit, a bone bruise. But those guys are all going to be good players. Jacques did a good job in the game. All those guys, they seemed to jump out there.

Q. How is Hoskins feeling?
COACH FISHER: Sore. I'll know after we evaluate him. He got a MCL or something on his knee right there.

Q. Was that something you saw coming in practice, those drives or was it the tempo of the game?
COACH FISHER: Tempo of the game. We got field position at times. We finally -- getting that field position. That's what people don't understand though. We're -- we started to control that field position about the last three or four, five games a lot better than we did before starting back so much. And we needed to score points and they come at us and we were able to find the holes and our guys were able to finish.

And Sean stayed in there on a couple blitzes and took shots. And that's -- somebody's day is going to play. A good day and a bad day and he was able to do that.

Q. Keeping with the efficiency. There was only one false start penalty on the offense line today.
COACH FISHER: (Knocking on wood.) I'm going to beat on every piece of wood I can. I have. I'm not joking about that.

No, I mean, it's just a matter of just getting comfortable and getting confident and just growing. It's part of it. I did have a hissy fit one day on it, so.

That's not why. Those kids don't do it on purpose. It's just we had one today and hopefully, we'll cut it down to none.

Q. You had the same starting lineup the last couple of weeks. How much did that play into it today?
COACH FISHER: Continuity, communication, all those kinds of things really does make a difference. And guys -- and when you get used to playing, you're the same guy in there, too, because if you don't play for two or three weeks, all right, you get back in there. You just -- I don't know care if you've played before, sometimes you're still antsy, until you work your way back into it. Or and you're a new guy in there. All that does matter, but it's not an excuse. You still can't let it happen.

Q. Cotton leaves the game and comes back in are you surprised --
COACH FISHER: No, he had -- the way he fell it on, he said it was weird. It was just the way he fell on it. Two touchdowns, that's good. That's good. I mean, for him that's -- I mean. But, he does, he's -- I said, are you done? And they come back and said, no, he's okay. So it is what it is.

Q. Were you happy with JJ?
COACH FISHER: Really happy. Yeah, to get him in the game, wanted to get him in there. Everett had a back, you see him on the side line trying to get that back loose. Same with 26. Zipper is going play, and he's had some back issues and he couldn't get him loose, to get became him back in the game. That's what happened with him. We wanted to get him in the game. But then we got Everett loosened up and he got in and did a real nice job.

J.J. looked really sharp. He took a drive down, had a nice third down pick up, hit a nice seam route in there and made some good throws. I like the couple throws he made in there. In that red zone right where it should and tried to make the throws and has a chance to be a good player now. Very happy for him.

Q. Is that what you wanted to do today is make sure you get J.J. in?
COACH FISHER: No, I guess, I crazy, as it sounds, people think -- I don't ever think that way. I'm the opposite. I wanted the starters in, we win the game, I don't want to be the guy on Sportscenter -- I joke about that, but I don't ever think about, we got to get this guy in, this guy in. I don't think that way. I mean if we get opportunities to and we have a plan every week that we talk how we're going to play the players, but we do that every week. But I treat this game just like we played Clemson. Exactly the same way.

Q. Defensively after the first couple of drives seemed to really zero in on that. What was that --
COACH FISHER: I think we took some of the easy plays away, they motioned, did a couple little things there and got some easy throws and got momentum and kind of screened and then had a nice little power pass, I mean like they were running that ball. They're a well coached team, man. They had a nice scheme coming in and they got the ball moving and our kids made the adjustments. Charlie did a nice job there adjusting.

Q. Happy to see Hunter and Bruce come up with turnovers?
COACH FISHER: Yes, I was. Senior Day, it was appropriate. Those guys have seen a lot and done a lot for this program.

Q. How was it to see Colton get his first touchdown?
COACH FISHER: It was awesome. We called that ball and he popped in there -- the guys are extremely excited, on the goal line, down there for him, the guys on sideline. That was great. He's done a nice job here.

Q. Talk about James, nine tackles in the first half, how much of a case do you think he has for defensive ACC Rookie of the Year?
COACH FISHER: A pretty good one. I don't know who else is out there, I don't know if anybody else would have a better one. The guys that rivals him probably standing right there in front of him in a 3-point stance. Number nine. Josh has had a heck of a year. A couple guys -- in that game earlier today, a couple of those throws, he gave up a little bit of space, but then the thing about him, that stuff, you make mistakes or not mistakes I say that just to be down there, he'll make those adjustments. He's just such a smart football player. That guy, those two guys both of them are great, but Dolan is a very, very, very, very special player and I don't know who else is in it and I can't vote for your own player, or I would.

Q. Florida State/Florida is always a big game. The fact both teams are having great years, is it even more important?
COACH FISHER: It's because of bowl implications, what's going on, where you could end up. Hey, they still got a shot to get in a playoff situation. I mean, they got a great win against us, got Alabama coming up. I think Alabama is on other side? Did they win? Am I right? On that side, I mean, everything is going on, they got a lot to play for, we got a lot to play for. 10 win season, going to a major -- is it playoff bowl game? Okay. I don't know. Whatever. In those games, I mean all those things, they tell me where to go. New Years 2016 and that's what that game should, that's what that game should be.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297