This board has been doing the same for many years.
'They're in a deep, deep hole':
Florida State's downturn is similar to those of other blue blood programs such as Michigan, Texas and Nebraska, but the details are unique to a place that prided itself on being the last successful mom-and-pop shop in the sport's new era, caught between the homespun success of Bobby Bowden's 34 years at the helm and the increasingly high-stakes demands of the big-money enterprise college football has become. It was a program defined by history with no clear vision for the future.
ESPN spoke with more than 50 people, including former coaches, players, athletic department employees and Seminole Boosters members, to explore what went wrong. While many key people spoke on the record, numerous sources asked for anonymity in order to be able to speak more candidly about the program. Sources close to Fisher and Willie Taggart wanted to "correct the narrative" they believed the school created to shift blame, while other longtime administrators and boosters said they simply wanted to see changes made to get the program back to where they believe it belongs.
The Winston debacle was the latest in a string of battles Fisher waged with the athletic department. The coach viewed Wilcox as "a basketball guy," hired from Duke in 2013, without the experience needed to lead an elite football program. Fisher also volleyed with Andy Miller, then-president of Seminole Boosters -- an external entity that had significant control over FSU's spending -- about money he wanted for staff and facilities. (Miller retired in 2020 after 45 years with the Boosters.)
Miller's power over the purse strings, according to numerous athletic department officials, also prevented Florida State from hiring more established candidates for the athletic director job. Many officials said Wilcox was ill-equipped to maneuver the entrenched network of local power brokers unique to Florida State and lost support when the man who hired him, FSU president Eric Barron, left for Penn State within a year.
People behind the scenes, however, believe Florida State's downward spiral started two years earlier, when Bonasorte announced he had brain cancer.
"We were just dysfunction junction," one former administrator said. "And it became more dysfunctional when Monk got sick."
In November 2016, Bonasorte died, and 2017 was Fisher's first season without him.
In a place numerous sources said was defined by "good old boy" politics, Bonasorte was universally loved at Florida State. More importantly, people trusted him. Nearly every source we spoke with, from Seminole Boosters to FSU administration to Fisher's camp, pointed to Bonasorte's illness as a turning point.
In June 2016, Fisher had had enough. According to one source privy to the conversation, the coach phoned Thrasher before leaving for a brief summer vacation with an ultimatum: Get FSU a new AD or Fisher would look for work elsewhere. Thrasher, however, was a bigger advocate for Wilcox than Fisher had imagined. Wilcox's push for "comprehensive excellence" dovetailed with Thrasher's vision for the school, even if it stood in stark contrast to how things worked at other football powers.
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