Shut Up Drew Weatherford
by Bud Elliott on Nov 7, 2008 12:02 PM EST
in FSU Football
29 comments
Florida State fans are elated that quarterback Christian Ponder is playing better than any FSU QB has in this decade. The improvement at QB is probably the #1 reason for Florida State's improvement in 2008.
Former starter and alleged team player Drew Weatherford, however, is delusional and bitter. The Nole writers love this guy, and apparently, Weatherford isn't happy for Ponder. Will this guy ever shut up? These writers are going to have to open up DrewWeatherfordArenaFootball.com or something when he finally graduates. This massive circle jerk is ridiculous. Can't these guys write about anything else? Why not serenade him every morning? Maybe include him in your family portrait?
STOP WRITING "DREW IS A TEAM PLAYER" ARTICLES. Just cut it out. Everyone wants to root for the no-talent team player guy, but guess what? Everyone's favorite underdog isn't talking like a team player.
This summer I penned The Weatherford Report, detailing how Drew was a much over hyped quarterback who was handcuffing our offense. It's pretty amazing that we let this guy start for 3 years (the real reason was that Xavier Lee, his competition, was constantly in trouble. Consider that when you read this article.
Let's check out some of these ridiculous quotes.
Drew Weatherford waits and wonders, why?
Because he was terrible and a good division 1 program finally got the sort of talent at the QB spot that they should have?
After three years and 33 starts, the owner of the Atlantic Coast Conference record for passing yards as a freshman has thrown only two passes this season - completing one for 18 yards: A victim of coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher's youth movement at Florida State.
To say this decision was about the youth movement is now ridiculous. This decision was about ability, performance and production. Drew did not product. He wasn't a victim of any youth movement. He was a victim of his own on-field failures, heck, all FSU fans were victims of Weatherford's pathetic play.
"I really think that if someone was better than me I could admit it," said Weatherford, a fifth-year senior who went from starter to third team just three days before Florida State's season opener.
Memo to Drew: this current staff wouldn't have recruited you. You aren't any good. You lack skills. You won't be drafted. You're not listed on most draft sites, and the ones who do list you rank you 34th out of 35, or list you as "outside the top 600 collegiate players"! You led us to 76 PUNTS last year. We're on pace for under 45 this year. You failed here as a player. The charity work is great and you should stick to giving interviews that don't make you seem crazy.
We're lucky you don't scout for us. Also, why does it matter when he got appropriately moved to 3rd string?
"That's when things really, really, really didn't add up," Weatherford said. "To swallow your pride and line up behind a guy that you're think you're better than every day is very, very difficult."
Hmm, never being in the top half of ACC QB's adds up. Thank God that we have a competent evaluator of QBs on our staff. Drew isn't in Ponder's league, and isn't in a healthy Richarson's league either.
"It's interesting what's happened to a lot of big-name quarterbacks this year," Weatherford said. "Either they're not playing or not playing as well as they have in the past. I don't know what's going on."
Coaches usually bench a really good player randomly. Oh wait, maybe they play the best players?
"There are certain things that Devo can do that I can't do when it comes to running (and) Christian can do some things I can't do," Weatherford conceded. "But overall neither of them are a better quarterback than I am right now."
Things they do better:
- Throw
- Run
- Read defenses
- Lead the team
- Understand the offense
Things Weatherford does better
- Stand stoically on the sideline
- whine, bitch, and moan.
Hey Cinderella Drew, your run is over. You would have never started if we had a competent alternative. Instead, we had a crazy talented guy guy who would get high and steal the earrings of a McDonalds employee while in the drive thru.
"I completely disagree with their decision," Weatherford said. "I respect their right to make the decision (but) I deserve to be the starter."
They are paid to make decisions. It's more their job than their right. I'd love to know why Weatherford "deserves" to be the starter. The justification better not be his laughable on field performance.
Can you just shut up now? You were doing so well with the "Senior leadership, another set of eyes, like a second coach, mentor" role! Why say this stuff now?
But I really don't like to talk about it much at all," sighed Weatherford, who is still emotional about a decision he's struggled to to accept. "You feel like you've been cheated, that something's been taken away from you.
Please, stop talking about it. I bet that sigh was full of leadership and determination. It's never a good sign when Gator and Cane fans are openly rooting for you to keep your job.
What a joke. It's pretty clear that he's failed to realize just how lucky he was to ever play a snap in major college football.
Update: for a rebuttal, see Scalpem's "Shut Up Tomahawk Nation"
Suspensions
WR Bert Reed (part time starter), WR Jarmon Fortson (reserve), and LB Nigel Carr (reserve) are suspended for the Clemson game.
The only real loss here is Reed, as the other 2 rarely play. This story was apparently first reported by Chris Nee of warchant.com. We were unaware that this was "premium content."
Well, that sucks. Now FSU is in a tough spot. If Reed is suspended for this game only, we know that either the last suspension or this suspension was NOT for missing class, because FSU's policy is a 2nd missed class infraction is 4 games. The coaches listed the reason as "class attendance" when reed was suspended for the NC State game.
Something to keep in mind on the Reed suspension: if you choose to believe that the prior suspension was for missing class, and then saw his heartfelt apology, you're probably disappointed here. Don't forget though, that Bert actually could have turned his behavior around 2 weeks ago and just now been caught for something that he did, oh, say, within the last 30 days that is just now coming to light? That is, ahem-- very possible. I think we should play double or nothing with Bert. If he does it again, we know he hasn't changed since the apology.
Frequent TomahawkNation commenter Fsued chimed in with:
I''m actually very encouraged by this
I think these 1-game suspensions tell us that the “little things” are important again at FSU and the fact that they keep happening tells us that the new regime is going to be relentless about enforcing discipline — whether it be team rules or academics.
I’d much rather see a bunch of one-game suspensions for ticky tack stuff then guys ending up hauled off to jail, flunking out or some other major problem.
Maryland @ VT tonight.
Go Hokies, I think.
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Slight edit
It was me with the comment on the suspensions. No biggie — just wanted to let you know.
No problem
Anothe reason I’m not discouraged by these suspensions is that, indirectly at least, they increase competition for playing time.
Not only does a player face the embarassment of a public suspension, but they have to watch somebody trying to take away their playing time. Once the message gets through that we won’t enable these minor infractions, I think this will improve discipline in the longer term.
Of course, getting our talent level up to old standards helps — WR is a great place for this to be happening — plenty of eager beavers ready to see the ball a few more times while kids who can’t keep it in the road watch somebody else making Sportscenter.
Competition breeds discipline.
If there had to be a suspension of a contributor, I’d choose to have it at the WR spot. Our lineup will be Carr, Parker, Surrency (ironically, back from suspension), Easterling, and Owens.
Hopefully Bert improves his discipline. This guy isn’t a criminal mastermind, but having discipline in everyday life is important, and I believe that would help on the playing field as well.
On Weatherford ....
I don’t know, your comments seem harsh. It’s not DW’s fault that he started for three years and I certainly don’t blame him for wanting to keep the job and thinking he’s better than he is. That’s a very human reaction — I mean, what kind of person would say: “He’s definitely better than me and I deserve to be third string.”
Mind you, he clearly IS and SHOULD BE our third string quarterback and I agree with everything you say about his inffectiveness and how both Ponder and D’Vo are better.
I also agree with your points about DW attracting media sympathy which leads to misnomers like “youth movement,” etc.
But I don’t begrudge him for wanting the job back and if he wants to blow off some steam on that, it doesn’t bother me too much — he never criticized the other QB’s — directly at least.
And you must admit, it is quite unusual for a three-year starter to lose his gig as a senior.
Bottom line: He’s wrong, but I can certainly understand why he think what he thinks and I can’t honestly say I wouldn’t be feeling the same thing in his shoes.
Reasonable and measured as always.
I think i should admit that I am bias. When I wrote the Weatherford report, I had a lot of people get very angry and often they would resort to arguing things that were not related to on-field play. I sort of developed a sense of “I don’t know how people view Drew as a good player” mentality.
He’d been riding the “veteran leader mentor” role pretty well this season. I was surprised to see him throw these quotes out there.
Again, I do feel for him in this position. He’s battled through a lot. Most 3-year starters do not lose their jobs. Then again, most 3-year starters have a level of success that removes any doubt over who should start. I do think he takes some shots at Jimbo and Ponder with the “they’re not better than me” comment. His reaction is reasonable and I know I’d feel the same way.
What I don’t agree with is publicly voicing the comments. If he wants to let off steam, why not do it to his friends or family? I fail to see what good venting in the media accomplishes. He may have cost himself the National Sportsmanship Award with these comments.
Agree and agree
I agree with Fsued that your article about DW came off as a little bit rough on him. He was a better person than a major college qb which is nothing to be ashamed of. However since he was a major college qb his play is available to scrutinize, whether favorable or unfavorable. Also I agree with FSUncensored with DW’s public venting. He had built up 3 years of people saying he was a “nice guy” and he is a total “team player”. It is not fair but all of that could be thrown out of the window with these public outcrys for sympathy and support. You see this mostly in professional sports where players call out whoever they are unhappy with instead of handling it in house. Nothing good has ever come good out of doing that.
Some about that article
that doesn’t pass my sniffer test, considering how fired up and involved Drew is on the sideline. Bianche writing under another name perhaps?
If I got baited into this by Bianchi, I'll personally apologize to Drew.
You should never forget he was under Jeff for 3 years.
Also, Maryland 3, VT 14.
If they lose this, we’re tied for first.
Are we rooting for VT?
I know that would put us in a tie with the Terps. but we control our destiny with Md. anyway — if they lose tonight and then we beat them, we’d be in a two-way tie with Wake and we lose that tiebreaker, right?
That's the problem I see.
We absolutely must beat Maryland either way, because if we do not, they would hold the tiebreaker over us in a 1) head to head scenario, and 2) the divisional record scenario (with their only remaining divisional game being BC).
The scenario I fear is this:
Maryland loses to VT, FSU, and either BC or UNC (very possible). 5-3 ACC
Wake squeaks by in their remaining 3 to be 6-2 ACC
FSU wins out to be 6-2 ACC.
Wake goes.
If VT wins tonight, we are huge Maryland fans from this point forward.
The scenarios are really complicated. I will do some work on this come Saturday or Sunday. I feat that if I fire up the spreadsheets now, I will not finish this paper by midnight tomorrow (20 pager on the Commerce clause… boring).
Want to root for something? Root for Maryland to throw everything they have at VT so that we see it all on film and are well prepared.
Root for maryland
The most likely scenario that would end in our favor right now is to have Maryland win except us and have us win out to have a 3 way tie with Wake… if Maryland loses then we no longer control our own destiny and will need Wake to lose another ACC game to have a chance… the best case scenario is for both Wake and Maryland to lose but to be safe we don’t want Maryland to lose until Wake does
Is there any way Maryland winning hurts us?
My only thought if we are Maryland’s only remaining loss, we lose to Clem or BC, and Wake drops 1 more, then Maryland goes.
My thoughts
First, you should quote who is saying that stuff. Lets give ‘credit’ where ‘credit’ is due. Or just let us know who the morons are who slept through Weatherfords sophmore and Junior year.
Anyway, i said it elsewhere, but if Bert Reed even falls asleep in a meeting, argues with a coach, drops a ball, forgets strap his helmet, i would kick him off the team. The jerk is obviously not committed to following the team rules. I argued the other week that going after poor character guys is detrimental to a program… How can a guy who is expect to contribute every week get suspended twice in 3 weeks and us not realize that it’s hurting our team. I’m SO SICK OF THIS. I have no patience for jackasses.
Reality
I linked the article. Drew is saying the quotes. Not sure what else I should do, credit wise.
As for this character idea… you have to consider the backgrounds of elite athletes. This is tip-toe territory, but discipline isn’t a way of life where many of these kids come from. This team is MUCH more disciplined than it was before Jimbo got here. The difference is that you never heard of the minor transgressions before. Want a super disciplined team? Try Army. They suck.
Winning in major college football is largely predicated on recruiting total thugs and getting them act within the most lax of societal norms for 3 years by dangling the promise of NFL money in their faces.
Not when you were talking about the writers. Unless I missed it twice.
So you are ok with going after players who routinely get suspended? I mean you are admitting we take a risk on them. So then you should have no problem with this? What happens when we start losing key starters to suspensions? Is it worth the risk then? I don’t blame these kids for coming from ‘un-disciplined’ backgrounds. However, many people have come out of these situations with character. You know good character when you meet it. You can get people who come from these awful situations who are better for it. Lets go after them.
I am not saying its worse than it’s ever been, but this is too frequent. Minor or not.
Is it worse?
or did we just tolerate it FOREVER, and are now cracking down?
2 things could be changing here. Is the activity level changing or is the enforcement threshold changing?
Risk tolerance is an interesting issue. You’re not winning the National Championship with choir boys.
Risk tolerance is an interesting issue.
I agree. It’s an issue here at UT. After the MNC in ‘06, Texas had an ass-load of off-field incidents, including some serious stuff (like a home invasion committed by a player-yikes). The publicity got quite bad—the local media was calling the team “Book ’Em Horns”. Mack Brown is rather risk-averse to begin with, so he’s really gone into conservative mode since then when it comes to recruiting. One writer that follows Texas recruiting claims that Texas probably wouldn’t have recruited Vince Young if these new academic/disciplinary standards had been in place when he was in HS.
I’m more of the mindset that you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet. The goal should be to recruit elite talent. Going the safe route isn’t going to win a MNC. CJ Mizell missed an entire year of HS football because of an off-field incident, but I’d recruit him ten times out of ten. He’s a beast. I also think that the right kind of “culture” around a team can help to limit negative incidents.
As for these suspensions, it sucks for the Clempsun game but that’s it. I don’t think it’s an issue beyond that. And I agree with you that this is probably a case of the enforcement threshold changing rather than the activity level.
by andy_wooster on Nov 6, 2008 11:56 PM EST up reply actions
Bingo.
There is a difference between guys who are seriously criminal (like the breakin thing), and guys who do criminal things that might be fun.
Discussing this with a friend the other day yielded an interesting quote about rogue boosters that you might find interesting:
“Cars, Guns, and Houses are a no. Big screens, playstations, jewlery, clothes, and weed are a go.”
This was basically based on the idea that houses, cars, and guns are registered. The other items are not and are much harder to track. How often does a player get in trouble for sitting at home getting blazed and playing Playsation? I’d argue almost never. But with a House (reggie bush), or a gun…
A car is the worst thing a booster can give a player ever because of the mobile element. A car is a recipe for trouble. Nobody can pull over a suspicious playstation. The taillight will never break on your gold chain.
The trick is to figure out which guys are the true criminals and which just want to have the sort of fun that many college kids experience on a daily basis.
You are so right about the culture as well. That Miami team in ’01 was full of criminals, but at the time they were all focused on staying on the field to get to the NFL. These kids have to continuously think “NFL, NFL, NFL.” How do you get to the NFL? Staying on the field is a huge element. On a loaded team one slip up could cost a player a chance to play.
I apologize if any of this is not idealistic. I tend to look at college football as a business and I want my team to win.
You have to find a balance. Unfortunately the culture that pervades in sports is if you are good you can skate by off the field. This occurs before the player makes it to college (see Ray Small and his genius father at OSU). There almost seems to be a direct correlation to the amount an athlete can get away with and how good they are. Some have good role models and are still held accountable (Ponder and Rolle) while others are not (Maurice Clarett). The challenge for coaches is to find enough of the former player and mix it in with the inevitability of recruiting the latter players. I believe this current coaching staff understands that and invest more in character than the previous staff. They also have more discipline in place to reinforce that idea throughout a players career at FSU.
You are going to see this every once in a while. There will always be players that will test authority and see how much they can get away with. They are trying to find that line. They are beginning to see where that line is, and they don’t look like they have much room on the good side of it. I firmly believe you will see less and less of this sort of behavior as time goes on because the veteran players will have a better understanding of what proper behavior is and will be able to police the team.
Writers
I’m going to not call out almost every member of the Seminole media. That’s more of a statement of generality than it is targeting 2 or 3 specific writers.
Bert Reed
After his first suspension, the Tallahassee Democrat did an article on how truly sorry Bert was for letting his team down. He wanted everyone to know that he had learned his lesson and to trust him, that it would never happen again. You have to be dumber than a box of rocks to do it again, i mean come on seriously dude? Trust me, i would have been kicked off the team with the number of classes i missed in college but FSU is under investigation by the NCAA so you know that the athletic department is not going brush anything under the doormat. I guess he was just blowing smoke up our @sses…
Rich @ Chantrant.com came to both blogs with:
Is this much ado about nothing? Like an ex-President, Nole fans will determine Drew’s legacy on their own over the years — ranging from a regretful exit by a noble character guy who gave us some great games, to sour grapes from a player who had every chance but lacked the supporting cast to mask deficiencies to be remembered as fondly as say the workmanlike Thad Busby.
Threshold change is good
I too, agree that the suspensions are probably the result of a threshold change, and I am very glad to see it. I can not count the number of players, over the years, that have been declared ineligible prior to bowl games. The most glaring in my memory was Snoop Minnis being declared ineligible, just before the National Championship Game with Tennessee. We spent the first three quarters, trying unsuccessfully to force the ball to a double-covered Peter Warrick. I have no doubt that we would have won that game if Minnis had played. Hopefully, as the players realize that they have to walk the line, they will respond. It will be a good thing for the team, and will give them a huge advantage later in life.
Weatherford:
I don’t dip, I don’t chew, I don’t smoke.
Me:
I don’t start.
Well, I'll appreciate for you to keep my zingers outta your mouth!
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