Late last week, Jimbo Fisher created the kind of kerfuffle that only usually occurs in the offseason when he (gasp!) openly acknowledged that he was hoping Florida State would face Alabama in the final BCS title game.
That wasn’t a slight at the Seminoles’ actual opponent, Auburn; rather, it was Fisher merely pointing out that he and FSU wanted the opportunity to beat the cream of the college football crop, with the 2013 Crimson Tide, as two-time defending BCS champions and winners of three of the past four crystal footballs, representing that very ideal.
As the mini-firestorm took off, the FSU head coach felt the need to further explain what should’ve been patently obvious to most: his words were meant as nothing but respect for Alabama and that he was merely complementing “the SEC and Alabama in that situation by saying when you want to compete you have to go compete against the best and they were regarded as the best at the present time.”
From a Wednesday radio interview, as transcribed by al.com:“By saying you want to play them, to me, is the ultimate respect because that is the thing you want to do. You want to play the best. That’s what we were able to do. No pun to Alabama or any SEC team or Auburn or anybody else, when you want to be a champion, you have to take those steps. You have to have that attitude to be able to compete.
...
“When you are vying for a championship, you want to be considered the best. You have to approach everybody; you have to be able to play everybody. The SEC had won seven championships. I coached in the league for 13 years. I know the league inside and out. I know what it is about and what it does and how good a league it is.
“But I think we have good football here. If you’re going be a champion and you want to be respected and thought of as a champion in great regard to those organizations, you have to play them and you have to defeat them.”
See, no blood no foul.
And, in other news, the 2014 college football season at the FBS level -- Abilene Christian at Georgia State -- kicks off in 90 days...