Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston burst onto the scene Monday night in the Seminoles’ 41-13 victory over Pittsburgh. But burst isn’t the right word to describe Winston’s arrival to the national stage. It’s more like he exploded to a mind-blowing start to the season in his first game at the helms of Florida State’s offense.
Winston completed 25-of-27 passes for 356 yards and four touchdowns. He also ran the ball eight times for 25 yards and another score. He accounted for 381 of Florida State’s 533 total yards of offense, while completing nearly 93 percent of his passes.
All of those statistics are mind boggling, but the one that jumped out the most was his longest pass of the night, only 42 yards. A redshirt freshman quarterback sliced a divisional opponent in his first career start and never threw a pass longer than 50 yards. Somehow, he was able to execute almost flawlessly and dissect a defense with short, intermediate throws – a head coach’s dream.
The Hueytown, Ala., product thrust himself into the national spotlight. And it doesn’t appear he will be going anywhere anytime soon. It’s the age-old tale that football fans fall in love with.
Texas A&M quarterback Johnny Manziel wowed the nation last season as a redshirt freshman quarterback. He was able to post stellar stats every week and willed the Aggies to several victories – including their 29-24 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide in November.
Winston is reminiscent of Johnny Football from a season ago in several ways, but he doesn’t seem to share the same off-the-field issues as Manziel. Just from watching the Seminoles’ first game, any fan can see that Winston is a confident player, but he isn’t as flashy and arrogant as last year’s Heisman Trophy winner.
Winston also doesn’t play in the strongest conference and division in all of college football, although he could have.
Alabama was one of the final schools in the running for Winston before he committed to play both football and baseball for Florida State. He was the No. 1 quarterback of the 2012 recruiting class, as well as the top-rated player in the state of Alabama. But Nick Saban and his staff were unable to persuade Winston to continue his athletic career in Tuscaloosa.
On Wednesday, the country’s No. 1 overall player, offensive tackle Cameron Robinson, committed to Alabama and bolstered an already impressive 2014 recruiting class. After watching Winston’s performance Monday night, Alabama coaches and fans could be kicking themselves and labeling Winston as the one player that got away.
