Following The Script

I can’t say I didn’t see this coming.

I am a senior after all. I’ve seen three other football seasons — really seen them, as only a student can — before this one. And while it’s true that this season we don’t have Captain Throw-Into-Triple-Coverage-Instead-Of-Out-Of-Bounds at quarterback we do still have Admiral Call-Plays-That-Necessitate-Throws-Into-Triple-Coverage as our offensive coordinator. Not to mention an offensive line and currently injured defense with so many holes we make the Swiss jealous. But while I could point to these structural defects inherent in our design what I am more apt to look to as our prime reason for failure is our inability to do anything but follow the script.

The professor of my Fundamental Speech class, Mark Zeigler, got me thinking about this a few weeks back. He talked about self-fulfilling prophesies. If someone tells you that you’re a good student when you’re six years old you’re more likely to be a good student over time because that was an idea engrained in you at an early age. But if you struggle at math and someone says that it’s okay, that you’re just not good at math and it’s just not you’re thing, that will stick with you too. Years later when a friend who is struggling to balance their checkbook asks you for assistance you’ll say, without thinking or attempting the problem, that you can’t because you’re no good at math. In the same way I believe there are a few ideas that have begun to stick for FSU football, and that they have become the script which the team unconsciously must follow.

What is the script, you ask? Funny, I thought you might.

1) The FSU football team will lose to the Miami Hurricanes. I bet you think I’m full of crap now, if you didn’t already, since FSU did in fact beat Miami 10-7 this year in the season opener. Well after Miami beat Virginia Tech last night it is very possible that FSU could play Miami in the ACC Championship game. This part of the script begs to be satisfied. Stay tuned.

2) The FSU football team will lose at least once when it has no business losing. This season we’ve pulled that off twice, yesterday to NC State and a couple of weeks ago to Virginia. There are games that we are allowed to lose this season. We can lose to Miami and Florida. I know that sounds heretical, but the fact is those two teams are really good and the reason we get such a thrill out of beating them is that we know we are better than a really good team. But at the same time when we lose we know that we lost a game against a worthy opponent, even if they aren’t ranked at the time. By the same token it will be alright to lose to Virginia Tech should we both qualify for the ACC Championship game. Last night’s Miami loss aside, they have been a dominate team. They are the defending ACC champs. We can lose to them knowing we lost to a worthy opponent. But when we lose to an unranked, forgettable Louisville team in overtime like we did in 2002 no reasonable fan can admonish that. But a fan who understands that it is our lot in life might have an easier time living with it.

3) The FSU football team will lose one game at home. Yesterday’s loss to NC State was the final home game of the season (and, unfortunately, my final home game as a student). We finished the season 5-1 at home. In 2004 they went 5-1 at home, losing only to Florida. In 2003 they went 5-1 at home, losing only to Miami. In 2002 they went 5-1 at home, losing only to Notre Dame. Am I saying these were all teams we should have beaten? No, although in each instance we fielded a team capable of victory. The bigger point I’m making is that when entering the season it is a forgone conclusion that a perfect season at home is beyond the Seminoles. I came into yesterday’s game worried. While it’s true we had already satisfied rule number two in our script we had yet to stay true to our near-perfect ways. I was very disappointed last night, but those around me know that I was by no means surprised.

4) The fans of the FSU football team will support their team through thick, but never though thin. I have always held that FSU fans are better than other fans, especially Florida and Miami fans, because I really don’t think we’re as caustic to the fans of our opponents. But I realize now that we are the worst fans in the world, except for all sports fans in Philadelphia, whom amid amazing acts of player discouragement over the years also went so far as to boo Santa and are therefore forever the worst fans of all time everywhere. But when you’re second place only to Santa-booers you don’t have much room to gloat. We will turn on our players, especially our quarterbacks, in a heartbeat. I believe a home fan never has the right to boo the home team, ever under any circumstance. And yet we do. Winning two national championships left us fat and happy, and now that we aren’t a national title contender (our high ranking each year is a product of our 1990s accomplishments, not our current level of play) we’re mad. We vent our frustrations out on the players while they’re playing. You know, if you want to be critical of your team do it before or after the game. Don’t do it in an audible way that’s going to screw them up psychologically during the game, causing them only to play worse than before; do it in a way that will spur them on to play better.

Why does this script exist? Perhaps an analysis of the present and recent teams versus the teams of the 90s is in order. Why do I write this today? To try to make sense of the reality in which I have been living in for the last four years. But as long as these four facts pervade we can get used to a three loss team playing outside the BCS picture. And what is the cure? As long as the media and the fans say that they just can’t beat the ‘Canes and they always seem to lose to someone they shouldn’t and they can never seem to take care of their business at home through a whole season and the fans are always fickle the players on that team will take those words to heart. It will become apart of their identity. They will live out their script. The cure, it would seem, would be to encourage rather than discourage. To build off of this season’s defeat over Miami, to correct letdowns that occur against bad teams, to instill a stronger desire and need to protect the home field. And our part, as the fan, needs to be complete and unyielding loyalty to the team at Doak Campbell Stadium, regardless of their performance, and to save your criticism until after the game is over. I really believe this would help. I don’t have a proposed way of getting everyone, or anyone, on this line of thinking, so this is no doubt all for not. But I believe this would write a new script, one that would include a crystal football on the first weekend of January.

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