Deja Vu - There is Magic in Believing!

By Jim Joanos

There is extreme optimism in the air! Spring football practice has begun. In addition to a new head coach, there are several new assistant coaches and there is a strong smell and feel of newness. Florida State University football fans are once again excited about the future of the football program and believe that we are headed toward good times. I feel like I have been here before. You know what? I sort of have.

Tom Nugent

The first time that I recall the spirit being like this was in early 1953 when I was a student at FSU. A much beloved coach, Don Veller, who had excellent success at FSU had recently stepped down following a not as successful final season. In his place, the FSU fathers had hired a new, most enthusiastic coach, Tom Nugent, who had shown great creativity and promise as the coach at the Virginia Military Institute. The creator of the I formation, the typewriter huddle, and some other innovations, he came in with a flourish!

Shortly after he arrived in Tallahassee, a meeting was set up for Coach Nugent to talk to the FSU student body. It was held one evening in the outdoor theatre of the university's Opperman Music Building. Its purpose was to rally support for the football program. It was highly successful. As charismatic as they come, Coach Nugent was a talented speaker. He told us that in order to be successful, it was necessary to first believe that you could be. He emphasized that while it was most important for his players to so believe, it was also important to the rest of us to believe, the students, the fans, everybody. "There is magic in believing", he emphasized. Those of us who attended had gone to the meeting for information about the team and the new coach, but we left with a lesson for life.

The philosophy worked for Tom Nugent at FSU in the nineteen fifties. FSU was quite successful under his leadership. During his tenure from 1953 through 1958, FSU's record was 34 wins, 28 losses, 1 tie. While he did not have an overwhelming won-loss record, it was excellent, considering that those were the years when FSU was first starting to compete with the older, more established programs. Nugent led FSU into the big time. In his second season, 1954, the team made it to the Sun Bowl becoming the first team from the State of Florida to participate in a bowl game outside of Florida. In 1958, his FSU team beat the University of Tennessee Volunteers in Knoxville, 10-0. It was the first victory in the modern era over a Southeastern Conference team and remains as one of the biggest wins in FSU football history. Also that year, FSU beat the University of Miami for the first time, and progressed to the point of playing the University of Florida for the first time since 1904. Following the 1958 season, Nugent's last at FSU, the Seminoles played in the first (and last) Bluegrass Bowl game in Louisville, Kentucky.

Jimbo Fisher

Now, in 2010, as in 1953, there is also a lot of "believing" as new head coach, Jimbo Fisher, takes the reins. Let us also hope that there will be "magic" as well. The FSU offense appears to be in excellent shape as there are players at 10 of the 11 positions who started at least four games last season. The quarterback, Christian Ponder, is considered one of the more outstanding players at the position in the country. He is backed up by E.J. Manuel, the most valuable player of the recent Gator Bowl Game, who is no slouch, himself. All five of the offensive line starters are returning as well as several very gifted receivers. If there is a question mark, it is on defense where the Seminoles were most inept last season. However, even there, there is talent returning as a number of the returning players were highly regarded when they were recruited by FSU. The big hope on defense is that the newly hired assistant coaches there can develop better results. Also providing a great deal of optimism, is that the new defensive coordinator, Mark Stoops, will install some new wrinkles into the defensive scheme to make it more effective and that the newly arriving recruiting class which includes a number of highly talented defensive players will add strength to the situation.

Those fans of us who were around in the nineteen fifties thoroughly enjoyed ourselves then. Let us hope that history will repeat itself in that there will again be "magic in believing."