Jimbo Fisher is the blame for Florida State Seminoles' woes

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win by fearing to attempt. - from Measure to Measure

North Carolina State defensive end Bradley Chubb spit on Florida State's midfield logo after his team embarrassed the Seminoles 27-21 in FSU's home opener.

The crude gesture is a foreshadow and symbolic to the 'Noles season: It's over.

Two games into the fresh college football year, FSU has nothing to play for. Its once National Championship aspirations faded when quarterback Deondre Francois went out with a season-ending knee injury.

And now the mighty Seminoles are on the outside looking in in the Atlantic Coast Conference. With both a turnstile offensive line and porous defense, who exactly are the 'Noles going to beat on its schedule? Delaware State?

Jimbo Fisher didn't do his true freshman quarterback any favors Saturday afternoon. He completely left James Blackman out to dry by throwing the football to begin the game rather than lining up and playing smash-mouth football to wear out a stout Wolfpack defense.

Blackman did look good at times, but Jimbo can't expect the young signal caller to shoulder such a burden and responsibility.

Is it offensive line coach Rick Trickett? Is his time up at FSU?

Is it the recruits? Surely a relentless recruiter like Fisher couldn't miss on an entire line, could he?

Speaking of recruits, how is it quarterback JJ Cosentino hasn't grasped the offense? As a redshirt junior, one would assume he'd be a lock to start ahead of a freshman, right?

What about the talented defense led by a Heisman trophy candidate; one who got completely faked out of his mind for a long Wolfpack touchdown catch and run?

It all points back to one person: Jimbo Fisher.

Has anyone done less with more?

The 2013 National Title, with a generational quarterback, and a ticket to the inaugural College Football Playoffs, with a generational quarterback, seems like decades ago. Hope and pleasant surprises are done at FSU. Expectations are always going to be high.

National Championship or bust.

And Jimbo doesn't know how to satisfy such expectations.

From here on out, every ACC bottom-dweller will give FSU its best shot because they are down and nearly out. If Fisher loses to Wake Forest this weekend where the offensive line continues to fail, the defense continues to underachieve, and the play-calling continues to be reckless, is it time to see FSU's head coach the door?

Absolutely.

A quarterback should have been better prepared, an offensive line should have known assignments, a defense should have been motivated and ready, and a veteran play-caller should not have been outdone by a coach with lesser talent.

But that's Jimbo.

FSU went 0-2 to start its 1989 season. That squad won ten straight. The 2017 team doesn't have the same pride.

Let's see how good a coach Jimbo really is because chances are there will be plenty more field spitting in 2017.

ESPN throws a degrading Hail Mary with College Game Day in Manhattan

There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. – from Hamlet

ESPN made a severe miscalculation and it’s chucking a Hail Mary to remedy the rolling chaos currently trickling down the one-time sports giant.

Ratings have dropped nine percent since July of 2017 and advertising dollars are falling as well.

What can the network do to dress its wounds?

Record ratings have graced the national news networks with the main catalyst being the man in the oval office and his antics. It’s common to hop on Twitter and have a civil debate or raging argument over what the President is doing, has been doing, isn’t doing, et cetera.

ESPN is trying to imitate what the major news networks have been doing all along; mostly creating political controversy in the sports world in hopes of renewing lost viewers.

The polarizing Colin Kaepernick debate and obsession is getting stale, but it’s still a major topic on social media. It’s politically driven and generates tons of difference from the viewing masses. ESPN has beaten this dead horse into the ground and more, but continues to regurgitate the same material, i.e. “Is he being blackballed?” or “Is he really any good?”

By doing so, viewers are tuning elsewhere because they’re sick of the same, circular argument.

ESPN’s Jemele Hill claimed the President to be a “white supremacist,” setting Twitter into a political blitzkrieg. The result was an apology to her employer and outrage elsewhere. Discussions about her job and her right to free speech became the overwhelming focus.

I’m not saying that what she did was forced for ratings, but it was forced. Was it a ploy to generate reviewers to her declining SportsCenter SC6 show?

So did politics, mixed with sports, remedy the bleeding company?

Disney’s shares are down 0.6%, and the mass media and entertainment conglomerate is currently in negotiations with Altice, USA, a New York-based cable company which claims 4.9 million customers, according to Altice’s website. If a mutual agreement isn’t made by September 30^th, ABC, ESPN and other Disney-owned programming are going to be blacked out in the New York tri-state area.

ESPN’s widely popular college pregame show, College Game Day, is in Manhattan this week over the likes of Mississippi State v Georgia and TCU v Oklahoma State – all of which are top-20 teams.

I wonder why Game Day decided to go to Manhattan, a city without a football team?

While New York City is engaging and filled with diverse cultures and interesting sites, it’s not a place for college football. Northerners don’t care about college football as much as others do across the United States.

College sports cater to small-town America; places like Ann Arbor, Eugene, South Bend, Gainesville, Tulsa, Tuscaloosa, and Fort Worth. Setting Game Day up in Manhattan feels contrived and like a cash grab in the US’s biggest market.

Losing tons of money makes one desperate.

But, most importantly, it feels like Disney and ESPN are placating to Altice and begging for a deal.

ESPN tried something new by entertaining the political market and it backfired greatly by agitating those who tune in solely for sports, and now it’s trying to rectify itself by pandering to a company which may cut ties with the World Wide Leader sooner rather than later.

It won’t be long before the 4-Letter consumes itself. This ball is a duck and no one’s coming down with it.