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FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 1, 2016

Jimbo Fisher

Tallahassee, Florida

North Carolina - 37, Florida State - 35

JIMBO FISHER: Commend our players effort, to battle, compete. Did a tremendous job battling in the game, getting back in the game. Played with a lot of heart, lot of soul. Given two minute -- everybody's going to point to the end, but we gave up plenty of opportunities in other parts of the game all throughout.

We have to play with much more consistency in what we're doing, capitalize on opportunities. And then at the end we have to play those situations in what we're doing. And we have to stay in our zones. We have to stay where we've got to be. Force everything underneath, in front of us, and not give the seams. And with 23 seconds, we can do that.

But we've got to execute better. I've got to coach them better so they can play better. I've got to coach them better so they can play better in all those aspects. There was a lot of good in the game today. Lot of guys with heart and soul and everything else. But also some things that were just little inches. They found more inches than we did, and we had some critical mistakes in the game. Didn't finish drives early in the game. Had critical penalties or motions or dropped balls or something. You get a game where you have a very good offensive football team and we can't overcome those.

We have to play better. We have to do better in all three phases. Had a blocked field goal, kicked it low on that and missed three field goals on the day, had a dropped touchdown, had multiple things on defense. Didn't get off the field on third down. Third quarter we were 9 of 13 on third downs, did a poor job there.

Second half, tightened up much better, did some nice things, caused a turnover too that was very critical. Offense battled back and had some things, but we've got to play better as a team in all three phases, and that starts with me and ends with me. So questions?

Q. The last drive, as a defense, I mean, you only gave up an 80-yard touchdown, but you also gave up 22 yards.
JIMBO FISHER: Exactly right. All the inside backers, and inside three guys should be setting inside out, from hash, you have three guys from hash, to middle of the field to hash with about 20, 22 yards deep. I mean, there was one of them that got too shallow and didn't get where he needed to get, and that's on us. We've got to coach them up better to be there, and they're supposed to be there. Left a hole and then we had the interference.

Third down with man, doubled Switzer. They wanted to go to him on that one, and had that been good, we would have been in there with the Hail Mary -- we had the holding, I didn't see it. I guess it was a holding or they wouldn't have called it if it wasn't, and the guy ended up with a 54-yard field goal. That's two critical mistakes, and you can't win like that.

Q. What was the approach on your last possession of the first half? With 1:20 left?
JIMBO FISHER: What if you go 3 and out and they've got two time outs? You throw three incompletions and punt it from there, where do they get the ball? About midfield? Two timeouts with 40 seconds. It was 21-7, right? If they score, the game goes 28-7. They had the ball coming out in the second half, could have been 35-7, game would have been over right there.

We got out of the half, it was 21-7 right there and it's a two-possession game, and when you're backed up, the odds of scoring from less than a minute for a 90-yard drive are about 10%. So you don't want to blow the game right there. And if you pop a run, hand it to Dalvin, and if he pops a run out at the 25 or 30, then you go into the no-huddle. If they do that and they have two timeouts and we're punting, they could have put the game away right there.

Q. How do you resolve the lacking efforts on the last couple drives? And then also just the missed opportunities and mistakes?
JIMBO FISHER: Got to coach them. Got to coach them and get them to look for any other answers. Look at yourself. I've got to coach them better and they've got to play better. We've got to play better, and I've got to coach them. We've got to make sure they're doing what they're coached and make sure they understand everything they're doing. That's what you do.

You go right back. There ain't nothing magical going to happen. You've got to coach better. We've got to play better. And there is a lot of good there, but like I said, there is just way too much bad, and we're giving too much. Look them in the eye, be honest and it starts with me. I've got to do a better job of coaching them.

Q. Jimbo, (Inaudible) why has that been part of the season?
JIMBO FISHER: Made mistakes. We got to work on it. And we can work on it and say it all you want, but we've got to execute. Got to go out and execute.

Q. You mentioned (Inaudible) success on third down. What do you attribute that to?
JIMBO FISHER: I have to look at the film and see. I have to look at it. If we blew a coverage, didn't get down in man, if we got beat physically. Until I watch the film, it would be wrong to make that assessment.

Q. You guys moved a few guys around defensively and had a couple of drives. Are you confident with the schemes?
JIMBO FISHER: Schemes are good. It's the same scheme. That's the same defense we ran in 2013, 2014, 2015, and we played a little bit last year. I'm not blaming the kids. It's not that. We have to coach it better, play it better and callers and schemes and where it's at. We've got to look and see what we're doing, evaluate it, play it better, and maybe it needed to be called at different times.

But it's all good. Just when it's called or what they have matched up against it. We have to look at that and see. I'm not going to sit here and question schemes. I'm not questioning players. It's on coaches. It's on us. But I'm going to look at the film and make the judgments.

Q. (Inaudible) right up the side there?
JIMBO FISHER: Yeah, I liked all of our guys, not just him. I like our tight ends played well, receivers, quarterback did a heck of a job, other guys made sacks. There's a lot of guys that battled and played outstanding. But Dalvin played outstanding. He's playing really good football right now. He's being the horse he needs to be.

Q. With 15 penalties and 120 yards, how do you get this team more discipline?
JIMBO FISHER: Relax them and coach them and teach them the right way to do things. I think we had three of them in the last two-minute drive. Snap a ball, and we had a late hit. I don't know why we did that. That was a foolish penalty, and I don't know what. We had a motion and poise. It goes back to poise.

I know this sounds crazy, but guys wanting to do it too bad, and it's just part of that. You have to have poise and it goes with confidence. That goes when you've done it a couple times and your confidence grows you don't get like that. But we overcame those on those. But we had penalties. The last holding on the interference. That was critical. I guess it was. I can't tell if it was a penalty or not, I'm sure it was. But got to have poise, got to coach better, and do a better job.

Q. In the locker room afterwards did you get the feeling that the team still has something to play for this year now?
JIMBO FISHER: Oh, no doubt. That is about as asinine -- not saying that people are going to say that the season's over. Why is the season over? See this playoff thing? Who cares. I mean, if you're out of the playoffs, good. Now you've got pride. You've got seasons. You've got winning streaks. You've got to be what you want to be, what kind of team you want to be, what kind of person you want to be. There is a name on the back of your jersey, every time you play, you represent it. There is a name on the front of your jersey, and every time you play you represent it. That's what you play for.

And you play for each other and everything else about, what would you not want to play for? I'm playing for my teammates and I'm playing for myself. I'm playing for the people that put me in this position and gave me the opportunity to have a scholarship at this level. So there is plenty to play for, a lot to play for.

Q. When you get caught with the missed field goals on those drives, did you feel like that kind of hurt you?
JIMBO FISHER: No, I mean, I feel like giving up plays and not just the missed field goals, it was the motions and things that would stop the guys because we're moving the ball up-and-down the field, and you have to execute on every part of it.

But that opportunity -- there were a lot of things that came out of there. We had three missed field goals, gave up the drive, had an opportunity to score a touchdown, had one or two called back and came back and got them. We overcame it.

But I'll say this: The resolve of the kids to continue to fight, now I know that doesn't sound like much, but they kept going back, and they'll do it again tomorrow and Monday. But yeah, it ain't good to miss them. That's for sure.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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