Florida State's Jimbo Fisher has it good enough to stay

TALLAHASSEE – They had a big ceremony here Saturday morning to break ground on Florida State's $12.7 million indoor football practice facility, just another shiny toy for a program that really doesn't need any more advantages.

Florida State seemingly has it all: tradition, a great recruiting base, a beautiful campus, modern facilities, a tremendous game-day atmosphere and a conference it should be able to dominate year in and year out.

And yet, whenever a major job opening comes up -- particularly in the South -- there are more and more rumblings that Jimbo Fisher's name could be involved. Already this season, Fisher's name has been mentioned in connection with the Tennessee opening and the possible opening at Auburn.

Of course, the idea that Fisher could find a better situation than the one he has at Florida State is laughable.

Make no mistake, Tennessee and Auburn are terrific programs and top-half coaching jobs in the Southeastern Conference. If Fisher was still Florida State's "coach-in-waiting" behind Bobby Bowden, anyone would recommend that he take a long look.

But in Year 3, Fisher already has his Cadillac program up and humming. The No. 5-ranked Seminoles are 10-1 and trying to finish off the regular season strong today against No. 6 Florida. An ACC title seems a formality next week against 6-6 Georgia Tech, which would give Florida State its first BCS bowl bid since 2006.

Two things, however, will keep Fisher's name in play with coaching openings.

Barring a near-miraculous set of results around the country, the Seminoles won't make the BCS championship game despite just one setback, when they allowed N.C. State to score a last-play touchdown Oct. 6 and win 17-16.

The problem, and it's not Florida State's fault, is that the ACC's strength of schedule has been disastrously bad this year. Should Florida State win today, it would be the best win of the season with the Sept. 22 victory against Clemson second and a big gap to the rest of the schedule. That wouldn't happen in the SEC or Big 12, and Fisher has every right to be frustrated about it.

The second factor is that Fisher's agent is Jimmy Sexton, whose clients tend to be very skilled at the art of leveraging job openings into raises. (As an aside, was there ever a year when he coached at Arkansas or Ole Miss that Houston Nutt wasn't the leading candidate somewhere? Call it the Sexton Effect.)

So is Fisher legitimately looking around, or is Sexton using the multiple elite openings to get him a better contract at FSU?

It's hard to know for sure, but it would be difficult to imagine a better setup than the one Fisher has right now. National championship game or not, he's got a terrific team, every advantage he could want and more top-ranked recruiting classes rolling in.

Maybe Fisher will eventually leave this place for the SEC, but he certainly doesn't need to.