FSU football coach says he takes responsibility for players conduct issues
Player conduct issues are reaching crisis levels in Tallahassee, to the extent that the school president met with the football team to directly address the troubling trend of domestic violence.
Head coach Jimbo Fisher said the blame stops with him as the primary beacon of the program.
"You want to change perception," he said Tuesday at ACC Media Day in North Carolina. "(Then) you have to have continual performance in the right way for long periods of time. I don‘t think what‘s happened at Florida State is relative to just Florida State. It happens all over the country."
Fisher said his program gets more attention because of its success. Fisher led the Seminoles to the national championship in January 2014 and a national semifinal loss to Oregon in January 2015.
During that span, Jameis Winston lost only one game for the Seminoles but also was flagged several times for off-field issues, including investigation for alleged sexual assault, theft of crab legs and a childish incident at the student union.
Greg Dent (2013) and De‘Andre Johnson (last month) were dismissed from the program for incidents in which they were cited for violence against women, and Fisher said he has "a zero tolerance policy" for such crimes. Star running back Dalvin Cook was charged with domestic batter a few days after Johnson was kicked off the team.
"We‘ve always taken a strong stance against it," Fisher said.
Fisher said players agreed in a meeting recently to avoid bars and other situations where trouble might be found, such as campus parties with alcohol.
"You as the head coach take responsibility, and you continue to educate," Fisher said. "You hope they don‘t make mistakes. And when they do, you punish and adjust and continue to educate so they don‘t do it again."
