Top-ranked Florida State will be looking for its 21st straight victory dating back to 2012 on Saturday as the Seminoles play host to Wake Forest in an ACC showdown. In the process, Florida State will be looking to earn its head man, Jimbo Fisher, the 50th victory of his head coaching career.
While 50 may not seem like a large number considering how many games Fisher’s predecessor, Bobby Bowden won, the short amount of time that it has taken to Fisher to get there is quite remarkable. Should Fisher and the Seminoles get the win on Saturday and not win another contest the remainder of the season, Fisher would still be averaging 10 wins-per-season — a number FSU had not reached in seven years prior to his tenure.
Though Fisher often fails to get mentioned in the conversation with some of the nation’s premier coaches, his numbers speak volumes. Should the Seminoles take care of business against the Demon Deacons on Saturday, it will have taken Fisher just 60 games to get to 50 wins.
That’s the same number of games it took Urban Meyer to hit that mark at Florida, one fewer than it took Nick Saban to get there at Alabama*, five fewer than it took Mack Brown to get to 50 at Texas and one more than it took Pete Carroll to get there at USC*.
The timeliness for Fisher to get to 50 wins certainly has him in elite company, but making it more impressive is the fact that each of the four coaches mentioned above had previous head coaching experience. Carroll and Saban had even coached in the National Football League. Saban and Meyer had already won BCS games.
Assuming that the Seminoles are able to down the Demon Deacons on Saturday, Fisher will have won 50 games in 60 tries at a program that finished 7-6 three times in four years prior to Fisher taking over as the head man in Tallahassee. Many are aware that the Seminoles have won 20 straight, but perhaps more impressive is Fisher’s track record over his last 40 games.
After leading Florida State to its first 10-win season in seven years and first ACC title game appearance in five in his first season as head coach in 2010, Fisher’s second year as the head man in Tallahassee got off to a rocky start. After ascending into the top 5 early in 2011, the Seminoles dropped three straight contests as Fisher’s career record stood at just 12-7.
Since then, Fisher is 37-3 with one of those losses coming to a top 5 team and the two others by a single point. The victories over that stretch include five wins over in-state rivals, three bowl victories, two BCS bowl victories, two conference championships and a national championship.
Over that 40-game stretch, Fisher is also 22-2 in conference play not including championship games. While many may scoff at the ACC as a football conference, the Seminoles won just 21 combined ACC games in the five years prior to his tenure.
If all goes as expected, Saturday’s contest with Wake Forest should mark the 50th victory in the head coaching career of Jimbo Fisher. With two conference titles, a national championship and a current 20-game winning streak on his resume’, that hardly seems like much of an accomplishment. But when comparing Fisher to other current greats, it’s not hard to see why the man who replaced one of college football’s legends is slowly becoming on in his own right.
*Vacated wins not counted against Saban or Carroll
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
