Fisher promotes winning as ‘a culture and a habit’

By Charlie Barnes, Executive Director - Seminole Boosters

“You must set aside time to sleep.”

The Armed Forces has a school for new generals, and one of the fundamentals it teaches is that the job can overwhelm inexperienced leaders. New generals, burdened with the knowledge that they are responsible for everything that happens or fails to happen, often try to stay on top of everything to the extent that the stress saps their physical strength. They are taught to discipline themselves to allow for sleep, even in the crash of war.

New judges have to attend judges’ school. There’s even a Domino’s University for new pizza-franchise owners.

But there’s no graduate school for head coaches. I asked former Head Coach Bobby Bowden once why some “can’t-miss” coaches seem to fail when they finally get their chance to become a head coach. Bowden had already been a head coach at three other universities before he came to Florida State at the age of 47.

Bowden speculated that being a head coach is a great deal different from being an assistant, and the difference cannot be learned by observing and taking notes. He said, “I made lots of mistakes, but they were all made out of sight at small schools. Even West Virginia was fairly regional at that time in terms of the media.”

Bowden shook his head. “But if your very first head coaching job is at a high-profile university where 80,000 fans plus a national television audience can see every move you make...wow!”

Jimbo Fisher

To be successful, the newly minted head coach needs good advice and the ability to learn quickly from mistakes. New FSU Head Coach Jimbo Fisher repeated the advice that Bowden gave him about how a rebuilding program progresses along a predictable timeline: “First you lose big; then you lose close. Then you win close; and then you win big.”

In 2010, we seemed to be proceeding through the lose close/win close phase, notwithstanding thumping victories over our two principal rivals. With superior recruiting in 2009 and 2010, along with this newest class, we should be returning soon to a level of in-depth talent that we enjoyed in the 1990s. “We’re finally learning to win again,” was Fisher’s assessment after the Maryland game, the eighth Seminole victory of his 2010 campaign. But there is something more important to Fisher than the win-loss record in his rookie season: He is focused on the process of developing a winning mentality. Just like our players, our fans also have to learn how to win again. Everybody wants to win, but only a few programs expect to win every week, every game.

Fisher will take his Seminole Boosters traveling show on the road again this April and May. His consistent message to Seminole fans sounds a little like an old-time tent revival, but it’s a message Fisher embraces with evangelistic passion.

“Winning is a culture and it’s a habit,” he says. “And it’s not only winning on the field. It’s the way you walk, you talk, you eat, you breathe, you believe. And everybody in your organization, not just the players and coaches, but everybody who affects those kids has to have that mentality. That’s what we’re starting to bring back.”

The Spring 2011 Seminole Boosters/Jimbo Fisher Tour will be a series of celebrations from Atlanta to Miami, from Pensacola to Jacksonville and all points in between. Last year — his first as a touring pro — Fisher conveyed a specific message to rapt Boosters and fans at each stop. He talked not about how many games we were going to win, but about his specific methodology for building a winning program.

“Take care of the process,” he says, “and the wins will come.” Those big wins were surely welcome in the hearts of Seminole fans in 2010.

By the time you see Fisher this spring, we will have concluded an inspiring regular season with wins over Miami and Florida, a visit to the ACC Championship game in Charlotte, followed by a victory in the Chick-fil-A Bowl. This past season, Fisher’s hat rack was pretty large. He was a rookie head coach, he was his own offensive coordinator, and he helped coach the quarterbacks.

Add to that the triumph of a fabulous recruiting class just signed on Feb. 2 and he has to be worn out. “General” Jimbo Fisher should probably make time for a little sleep before the next campaign.