While disappointed aspects of his team's performance, Florida State Jimbo Fisher said he isn't giving up on this season and believes his players aren't either.
"There are facets to our game that we've got to fix and we've got to play better in all three phases," Fisher said Monday afternoon. "... I think we have a very good football team and a chance to have a good football team.
"No one around here is used to losing and we're not going get used to losing. We're going to get back to work and take ownership into it."
Florida State (3-2, 0-2 ACC) is two days removed from losing a heartbreaker to North Carolina, with the Tar Heels nailing a game-winning, 54-yard field goal as time expired Saturday. It handed the Seminoles their first 0-2 start in ACC play since 2011. While the attention has turned to Saturday's rivalry showdown with No. 10 Miami (4-0, 2-0), there are still some residual concerns carried over from this most recent loss.
Fisher took exception to assumptions made from comments by players like Dalvin Cook that the recent struggles have led to a locker room that's divided _ that offensive and defensive players are pointing fingers at each other _ something he flat-out denied.
"We win as a team and we lose as a team," Fisher said. "We're not pointing fingers."
He said the culture of the program is such that the Seminoles' locker room is set up so that both units share space together and that players from both offensive and defensive sides of the football share rooms together during the season. It was set up in this way to avoid the type of rift Fisher denied existed.
"That's the biggest division that can ever happen and that will never happen here. And it hasn't happened here yet and it never will," Fisher said emphatically.
Fisher said players do call each other out on the practice field, but that's what leadership is and it's something not done in the media but behind the scenes. He said the players love each other and despite some frustration, the players are behind each other.
"We're a family. If you were struggling, would you think they would step up for you and do more? You would hope so. That's what being a part of a family is," Fisher said.
Florida State's defense has struggled the most so far this season, putting more pressure on the entire team.
The Seminoles rank No. 11 out of 14 ACC teams in total defense, with FSU allowing 438 yards per game. That's the highest average since 2009, Bobby Bowden's final season as head coach.
Fisher believes what's holding this team back is consistency.
"We've got to take it from the practice field to game field," he said.
The problems on the defensive side of the football have led to criticism of defensive coordinator Charles Kelly, but Fisher dismisses the barbs directed at his assistant coach.
"As a coach, you respect that, but you don't listen to that," Fisher said, adding that Kelly would continue to call plays for the defense. "You coach and do the best you can and move on."
But he added, "We are disappointed we are not playing to our potential."
Fisher said this isn't the first time he has been on teams that faced early struggles and each time those teams managed to figure things out as the season went on. He feels this Florida State team will do the same.
"You go through this all the time in coaching, you adjust, you coach and you move on," he said. "We're still very consistent on how we win and how we do things.
"We're in this together one way or another."
