GREENSBORO, N.C. -- When Jimbo Fisher returned as LSU's defensive coordinator for the 2004 season, the Tigers were faced with many of the same challenges that now face his Florida State program. After capturing the '03 BCS title, LSU, then led by Nick Saban, was searching for a way to stay on top.
It didn't happen for the Tigers -- they finished the season 9-3 with two losses coming by a combined six points -- but the concept of maintaining a constant level of greatness has come up between Fisher and Saban since the former captured his first national championship as a head coach back in January. Saban, of course, has cracked the code before. After falling short in his '09 title defense, the Alabama headman captured back-to-back titles in 2011 and 2012. Fisher snapped that streak, and now he's looking to start his own. The question still remains: How?
"Can't find many books on it," Fisher quipped during ACC Media Days. "All of them know how to get (to the top), but not many of them know how to stay there."
Perhaps the most difficult component of a title defense is already in place for Fisher. The Seminoles return arguably the most talented team in the country, led by a Heisman-winning quarterback, strong skill position players, an offensive line that projects to feature multiple early-round NFL Draft picks and seven starters on a defense that finished No. 1 nationally in points per game allowed. In this day and age, it's rare for so much pro-caliber talent to return for a second run -- the youth on last season's roster certainly helped, as even the country's most decorated player, Jameis Winston, wasn't draft-eligible -- so the hard part is taken care of, for the most part. The tools are there.
So Fisher is instead focusing on the Seminoles' collective mentality. And not only the "how" but the "why."
To find some answers, he's looked to past greats that have repeated as champions. He says he's studied the likes of Michael Jordan and Joe Montana and Larry Bird and Kobe Bryant this offseason -- their quotes, their game film, their documentaries. He's also leaned on some coaches he respects (while declining to name them), but in looking to inspire further athletic greatness in Tallahassee he's tried to find, as he put it, "guys that have had that attitude and determination."
The players have responded, too.
"Why does Michael Jordan with a flu temperature of 104, 105 (degrees) go out and get 36 points and they've gotta carry him off the court and he can't sit on the sidelines? Why does he do that? Why does Joe Montana have all the concussions and keep coming back? Why is Larry Bird's back so bad that he should be retired and he keeps playing? Why is that? Your actions speak to your drive, your commitment to excellence. ... That, to me, to the players, sends a huge message."
The obvious follow-up question for Fisher: does his star quarterback, one who accomplished so much on the field during his redshirt freshman campaign by becoming the youngest Heisman winner in history, hold any of those same qualities? Now that he's becoming an expert on the accomplishments and psyche of the Jordans and Montanas, are there any similarities? Fisher responded that though a coach never fully understands a player until he's on the same team, he sees something there.
"I'll say this: the minute (Jameis Winston) walks on the field we become a better football team, because all the guys on the field and all the guys in the organization, he affects them in that way that we're not gonna lose," Fisher said of Winston. "I do think he has that. He makes them better and they get more confident. They play better when he's on the field, and I believe that whole-heartedly. There's no doubt."
All in all, Fisher is just looking to revamp a similar formula that led FSU to not only to finish the campaign without a single loss, but also to dominate opposing teams. The coach himself said that the 2013 Seminoles were one of the best teams in recent memory, and finding that formula once again is not easy. Bobby Bowden's Florida State teams and Oklahoma came close, but Saban's Alabama program was the only one to repeat as champs in the BCS Era.
With the four-team playoff in place, the task at hand looks to be even more difficult this time around. So Fisher mines the historical archives, searching for different ways to solve what seems to be the same question.
"I don't think you ever have the answer. I think it's a constant battle and something that challenges you all the time, and that's one of the things that makes it so hard to duplicate success because you're constantly fighting that battle," Fisher said. " ... It's human nature to win and relax. It's human nature to make an A on a test and say, 'Eh, I won't study for the next one and I'll make a B or a C.' Our natural human nature is not to strive.
"We also tell (our players) that you've gotta create those habits. If you want to be special, you have to do something different."
