The kid from coal country has long been a Seminole at heart

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

Jimbo Fisher

Not so many years ago, the green hills of West Virginia were called America’s “billion dollar coal fields,” and small mining towns like sooty pearls were strung out intermittently along the long trails of rivers and streams. They had names like Man, Beauty and War, and Big Ugly, Mud Fork and Wilson Camp. And all the men and women there and all the children grew up tough.

The mines are fewer now and times are hard. For so many boys, coal mining was the only way to support their families. But for a few others, high school football was the way out. We have two of them at Florida State right now: Jimbo Fisher and Rick Trickett.

Fisher knows the smell of coal smoke.

“My father was a coal miner and a farmer,” he says. “He didn’t talk very much, but every Friday night when I was playing high school ball, I looked up into the stands and my dad was always there.”

The coach who was Fisher’s mentor at Louisiana State University is another tough boy from the coal camps. The 1907 tragedy at Monongah, W.Va., still ranks as the worst mining disaster in American history. But Monongah takes pride in its favorite son, Nick Saban, who may be the best college football coach in America today. Saban accepted the first-ever Bobby Bowden Award this March in Birmingham, Ala.

Fisher’s wing man, Rick Trickett, was born in Morgantown, W.Va., and played and coached at Glenville State. Straight from the high school football field to the military, Trickett was a Marine Corps rifleman at the Battle of Khe Sanh (Vietnam) in 1968.

Fisher has surrounded himself with a dynamic staff. Don’t be surprised if they come and go — accomplished, high-energy types to be followed in turn by new assistants of equal recruiting and coaching skills. That’s the trend these days. The best assistant coaches are ambitious to get noticed, move on and move up. You get noticed when you win and you’re playing for championships.

Fisher has already drawn national attention before he has directed his first game as a head coach. Rivals.Com national recruiting analyst Jamie Newberg ranks Florida State’s 2010 class among the nation’s Top 10. Newberg says that at the end of November 2009, Florida State was hardly to be found among the top 30 schools and calls Fisher’s achievement on National Signing Day in February “astounding.” Now, Fisher moves forward with his own staff, all of whom are experienced recruiters.

The time of a single head coach staying with one school for 30 years has probably passed. Top college coaches today tend to travel. Bobby Bowden admits that he initially did not intend to stay at Florida State for more than a few seasons. His discrete plan was to be here long enough to make dramatic improvement and get noticed, then move on and move up. Why he stayed in Tallahassee is a story for another day.

We cannot really know what Fisher’s discrete career plan is. But we may have a clue as to what is in his heart. There is a wonderful photograph of Fisher taken when he was a senior quarterback for Samford University in Birmingham. He was the Division III National Player of the Year in 1987.

The picture is taken on the sidelines; Fisher is sitting on the bench waiting for his Samford Bulldog offense to go back in. He is sporting his signature beaming grin.

And he is wearing his favorite Seminoles hat.

“I’ve always been a Seminoles fan,” he says. “Right before that photo was taken, I had just set down my radio; I’d been listening to the Florida State game. (Coach) Terry Bowden used to get all over me about it.”

Fisher was a Seminole fan at heart long before he became a Seminole in fact.

He was a candidate for the offensive coordinator/quarterback coach position here after Mark Richt left for the University of Georgia in 2000. Instead, he took a similar position at LSU and helped lead the Tigers to three BCS bowls and a national championship in 2003.

Fisher was born on Oct. 9, 1965, the day our Seminoles played the University of Kentucky. On the sidelines in Lexington, Florida State assistant coach Bobby Bowden was busy teaching the finer points of the game to receiver T.K. Wetherell, and T.K. was a good student. At the very moment Fisher was entering the world, Wetherell ran a kickoff back 87 yards for a touchdown. I’m sure both the player and his position coach celebrated after the score. At that moment, neither Wetherell nor Bowden could envision how the threads of their lives and that of a newborn would weave together across the next 45 years.

Fisher’s senior year in college was the first year of our dynasty. On Oct. 9 of this year, Head Coach Jimbo Fisher will celebrate his 45th birthday by leading his Seminoles against the University of Miami.

And on that day, he’ll still be a tough kid from coal country; he’ll still be sporting that signature beaming grin; and he’ll definitely be wearing his favorite Seminoles hat.