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ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 5, 2016

Jimbo Fisher

Greensboro, North Carolina

JIMBO FISHER: Came off a disappointing loss to North Carolina. They did a great job, it was a heck of a football game. Looking to correct some of the mistakes we had in the game. Did some really good things on certain sides of the ball in all areas of that game, and did some things that we've got to get cleaned up and get better at.

But had a good week of practice so far. Looking forward to a great rivalry game with Miami this week. Miami is a heck of a team, Top 10 team, one of the great rivalries in college football. Looking forward to it this week, and our kids are anxious to play again. Looking forward to getting back on the field Saturday after a great week of practice.

Q. I was wondering if you could take me back to the 2010 game against Miami, I guess what that win did for your program, for you as a coach, for players to kind of buy in, and I guess what the significance of that win was that started the win streak against Miami?
JIMBO FISHER: Yeah, it did. It did do that. And I believe we were the underdog in that game that year, and we were ranked kind of similar to what we are now. I think they weren't quite as high as they are now. But they had a good team, we had a good team. We went down and really ran the ball well that day. I think Chris Thompson had a career day that day. And we played good defense.

When you play well against your rivalry, it's always a great thing. And we were able to play well that day and have success down there, you know, able to -- Miami's always been a really big game for Florida State, and at times Miami's had a lot of domination on Florida State at different times of the year. It was a really good win. Really good win for us, and helps us to keep pushing the program forward to where we've gotten it now.

Q. Coach, I heard your earlier comment, people were talking about, oh, the team, there is a sense inside that locker room. You were very adamant, it's not these kids. This team is a together team. How strongly do you believe that moving forward? Because this could chip away from a team that has national title hopes?
JIMBO FISHER: Oh, it does. Anytime you don't have success, it can chip away. But our kids practice very well, they communicate very well. We have interaction in meetings. When you watch them, offensive players, defensive players, everybody walking around and together when you're in meetings or out off the field, or you see them coming into the office, interacting with us like they always have.

I mean, there's always pressure and tension when those things happen and you don't get what you want. But at the same time it doesn't mean there is dissension. We know we have some issues to address, and we're working on those, but as far as dissension, I don't. I really don't. And our kids have addressed that.

Q. Any rivalry, when one team builds up a streak on another, can that be deceiving? Some of these games are very close. Miami knocking on the door. Talk a little about that?
JIMBO FISHER: They always have. Go back to the streak Miami had during the '80s with Florida State, the '87 game was a one-point game. '90 was a close game. '91 was a wide right. '92 was another wide right. '93 they won. So all those games, when you get into a rivalry game, the games are always close. Even when Miami won, they won 8 out of 10 back then or something like that. All of those games were extremely close and hard-fought. So you have two good teams, two good programs, so those games are always going to be tightly contested.

Q. When you have one side of the ball that's been struggling of late, and you have another side of the ball that's playing a pretty decent, respectable level, is it more of a challenge for the struggling side of the ball to beat defense as opposed to offense?
JIMBO FISHER: I don't know. Because in this game it doesn't matter. You have to be a complete team. Are you saying is it harder when the defense struggles than when the offense struggles? I'm just trying to understand. I mean, I think it's such a team game that you have to have both sides and your special teams. You have to have all of that hitting on all cylinders to be good.

The old adage is, I guess, on defense, if you're always playing great defense, you're always in the game. But if you're scoring points on offense, you're in the game. I mean, either way. So I'd have to sit and think about it. Never thought about it that way as much. My answer would be no because you need all three phases to be hitting on cylinders to be really good.

Q. Is it more frustrating for you when the struggling side of the ball is not your specialty? Or it's something you've trusted to somebody else?
JIMBO FISHER: No, we've trusted and those guys will continue to try to coach and do the best they can, get our players the best that they can play. It's not any more frustrating because, again, we win as a team and we lose as a team. It's about our team and only about our team.

Q. Obviously facing Brad Kaaya, a talented quarterback, this week. You've already faced Mitch Trubisky, Lamar Jackson and Phillips, Deshaun Watson on the docket. How have you seen the division evolve as a whole, particularly this year with so many talented players?
JIMBO FISHER: If you really research it, and I've said this before, some of your best quarterbacks in pro football, the ACC is producing unbelievable, from Philip Rivers, Russell Wilson to Jameis Winston to Tyrod Taylor to Michael Vick back in the day. I can't think of the big quarterback that played at North Carolina a couple years ago. It slips my mind. Played really well against us -- yeah, T.J. Yates. Pitt has had great success with quarterbacks in the past.

I mean, you go back, and there's been a lot of really good quarterbacks. Miami's always had great tradition, Florida State. This league, deceivingly, people don't think about it, they've put some quarterbacks out. It's always been a very, very good league that can throw the football. Of course with Clemson and Deshaun, and they have Whitehurst and a bunch of guys that came out too. Tajh Boyd. It's always been a really, really good quarterback since I've been in it.

Q. Just wondering with the latest storm projections, are you guys still slated to go down Thursday night?
JIMBO FISHER: No, the way it looks now, we'll get another update here as we go. We'll get some calls here from the weather service. It looks like the worst of it may hit Thursday night in Miami. So we may have to wait until Friday morning before we go down and see what goes on. That's our thoughts right now, but we don't know. We're still getting updates as it goes. We don't want to take our kids down there while the worse part is there. We'd rather let it get out and do everything here at school.

Q. As far as a time for going down tomorrow, is there one?
JIMBO FISHER: We don't know that yet. We don't know that yet. We have to work through the airlines and everything that goes on.

Q. You mentioned Monday that one of the trademarks of a Mark Richt team, that's having a good quarterback, and you go back to his time at FSU, looking from afar, what do you think makes him so effective at grooming quarterbacks?
JIMBO FISHER: I think he has a great mind. He played quarterback. He's got a good offensive mind. He's played the position. He's always understood it. His core guys are always fundamentally sound. They do great jobs with their play actions and make great decisions. They're accurate. I've always had a lot of respect for Mark. I think Mark's a very good football coach.

Q. Before the season DeMarcus was talking about how this defense might be the best defense in Florida State history. Do you think it's a stretch with a case of injuries that are affecting you or something else?
JIMBO FISHER: I mean, everybody has injuries. That's part of it. It's just a matter that we're not playing up to our potential. We've got to coach them, put them in that position and keep doing that. That's what it is. You've got to keep coaching every day. You've got to put them in position. Keep them fundamentally sound, get their eye discipline, make sure they're doing their right things and things that they can do.

We can feel like we're doing that when the guys are gradually getting better at certain things, but we've still got a lot of work to do.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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