Jimbo Tour Memories

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

Jimbo Fisher

The Law of Unintended Consequences seems to be always hanging around, waiting for someone to have an idea. But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. When change comes, some good things are predictable - provided the change is well planned.

For example, the impact of social media was a remarkable unanticipated phenomenon of the new Jimbo Fisher Tour.

"Social media" encompasses all the outcroppings and descendants of the Internet: the websites and message boards, e-mail and Blackberrys, texting and tweets and probably a lot of other stuff. Whatever I don't know about yet, I can just ask the next 12-year-old I see and they'll explain it to me.

This net of interconnecting communication lines among tens of thousands of Seminoles created a tsunami, pushing ahead of the Jimbo Fisher Tour as it picked up pace through May.

The Tour began on April 12 and the new landscape was a little uncertain. Coach Fisher requested some schedule changes so he could spend as much time as possible watching film and evaluating prospects and running his network of new coaches and their relentless pursuit of championship caliber recruits. As Jimbo says, "Everything is about the players..."

Changes in the traditional Tour format reflected the natural transition from one era to the next. Instead of Coach Bowden and me leaving on Monday and returning to Tallahassee Saturday night after a full week of events, the new format broke the week up into two-day pairings.

In 2010, the golf tournament typically teed off at noon on Friday with a social hour at 6:30 pm and dinner at 7:30. Afterward we'd drive to the next town where another golf tournament would tee off first thing Saturday morning. The social hour would commence at 12:30 pm, with a large public luncheon beginning at 1:30. Coach Fisher rode the golf courses with a photographer in tow, stopping to chat with each foursome, signing hats and taking pictures. The golfers loved it.

The Friday/Saturday pairings were matched by Monday/Tuesday dates at the other end of the week. This year, for the first time, only current donors to the Seminole Boosters were guests during the social hour. Annual Booster memberships are only $60; anyone could sign up at the door and many new Boosters did. Boosters and their spouses and their immediate families were all welcome to come in and mingle informally with Coach Fisher before the evening banquet or the post-golf luncheon.

The reason for the exclusivity is the need to raise more money to support a first class Seminole athletic program. Flying Coach Fisher in and out of host cities is expensive, and the Seminole Booster Board has made increasing the number of Booster members a priority in the new era.

Jimbo Fisher thrilled the crowds with his vision of the Seminoles' new way of doing business, from nutrition to sports psychologists to adding more coaches and academic support staff. And he was candid in explaining how this is being financed. "Do you know how I'm paying for this?" he asked. "I'm using the difference between my salary and what Coach Bowden was paid."

Fisher's message to the Boosters is blunt: As we regain our winning ways, we're going to need more money to continue these expanded programs. The enhancements Jimbo has put in place at FSU are the same things that are already installed at Alabama, LSU, Florida and any other program that wants to win championships.

"Am I saying that if we build a covered practice field and dorm housing, where I can put all my scholarship players under one roof, that I'll guarantee we'll win a national championship?" he asks an entranced crowd. "No. But I'm saying that if we don't have these things, I guarantee we won't be able to compete with the ones that do."

At the beginning of this Tour the crowds were larger, as could be expected given the buzz and optimism and the dawn of hope for a Seminole program aching to recover those dreams of dynasty. The early events - Orange Park, Pensacola, Panama City and Atlanta - were excellent, and fan traffic picked up quickly on Warchant and on e-mail networks and other websites. Jimbo's intensity, Jimbo's vision, Jimbo's energy was the stuff of constant chatter.

One thing became clear right away: Jimbo Fisher did not run the Seminole program prior to January, but he is in total and complete control of the Seminoles now. After finals week in May, Jimbo's almost casual mention of the fact that no players were in academic trouble and that the team sported an overall GPA above 2.7 brought wide-eyed, boisterous applause. His message and his method is one of discipline and faith in the process.

Somewhere, mid-way through the Tour, we began to see the effects of the social networks. Videos of Jimbo's Tour speeches appeared on Warchant and in other media. Seminoles challenged each other to show up. Fans talked constantly about how they wanted to be there to hear Jimbo, live.

On May 4th, the local fire marshall disallowed any more seats from being crammed into the Ocala Hilton banquet room. By the end of the Tour, local Seminole Club organizers had their hands full just keeping up with the growing wave of demands for more tickets. The golf tournaments were sold out; there was no more room in the banquet halls. Club officers fretted about what they were going to say to the walk-ups who expected to be allowed in at the last minute.

As Fisher spoke from a small platform at the Ft. Myers luncheon, I sat looking around at hundreds of rapt Seminoles, their heads all bobbing together in agreement. And everyone - every Seminole - was proudly wearing one kind or other garnet sports shirt. In Sarasota, the country club had to open additional rooms to accommodate the numbers. In Lakeland, Fisher held the largest crowd in years riveted for more than an hour.

Jimbo is orchestrating many changes to the mechanics and psychology of Seminole Football. This will be his program to its core, just as the previous generation of Seminole Football was Bobby Bowden's. There will no doubt be bumps on the road and some surprises - surprises to us and even to Jimbo. Some consequences will be unintended, and Jimbo will own them for good or for ill.

But most of what's going to happen will unfold exactly as Jimbo intends, as he has been taught by his mentors and by his experience.