Study showing S&C program one of reasons for the fall of FSU football

https://247sports.com/college/florida-state/Article/FSU-football-NFL-Draft-development-strength-and-conditioning--131502447/

Based on NFL Scouting Combine and Pro Day results acquired by Three Sigma Athlete, just one of those players put together above average athletic testing. It was Burns, an athletic specimen who was developed properly at FSU...but was always a gifted and highly-motivated athlete regardless of coaching staff and scheme.

In fact, this is how FSU’s players compared to the “average” player at their position based on previous pre-draft data:

  

Burns (94.1 percentile)

Williams (26.7 percentile)

Westbrook (23.4 percentile)

Kelly (16.4 percentile)

Vickers (15.3 percentile)

Christmas (7.9 percentile)

Eberle (3.8 percentile)

Murray (2.8 percentile)

Patrick (2.1 percentile)

Jones (1.2 percentile)

Aime (0.5 percentile...although Aime was listed among EDGE defenders and will probably be viewed as a defensive tackle by NFL teams, so this testing was compared to a more athletic position group)

  

Not one other player tested above the 30th percentile of their position group (based on NFL positional averages).

This appears to be a sign of years of neglect in strength and conditioning. It’s easy to point fingers now, but it’s clear in hindsight that the final years of the Fisher Era did not produce adequate results regarding player development. It's difficult to find other ways of explaining why running backs are running the 40-yard dash in 4.8-second range or a starting receiver is producing this sort of spider graph.

And this doesn’t excuse some of the confusion and disorganization we saw last year under Taggart, but it helps explain why his team was often at a talent deficit in conference play.