The Florida State Seminoles have announced late Friday night that they will suspend starting quarterback and defending Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston for the entire game Saturday night against 22nd ranked Clemson.
“Based upon the results of our continuing investigation of Tuesday’s incident involving Jameis Winston, we have decided to not play him for the entire game against Clemson on Saturday night,” interim Florida State president Garnett S. Stokes and athletic director Stan Wilcox said in a joint statement Friday night.
Winston is accused of a profane and sexually explicit outburst in the Florida State student union earlier this week. This follows rape allegations against the quarterback just a season ago.
Winston apologized for his comments in a press conference on Wednesday:
“First of all, I want to apologize to the university, my coaches and to my teammates,” he said. “I’m not a ‘me’ person, but in that situation, it was a selfish act, and that’s not how you do things around here.
“I want to apologize to my teammates because I have now made a selfish act for them. That’s all.”
FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher had previously announced that Winston would be suspended for the first half against the Tigers and stood by his decision on Thursday:
“We’re in charge. It’s our team. That’s our thought,” he said. “We went with the consequences and we’re ready to move on.”
However, less than 24 hours before the decision makers in Tallahassee switched course and made it a full game.
It is unclear as to what prompted the change, but there is a very good chance that the public backlash from the perceived lack of significant discipline, along with all the negative news coming out of the professional game helped convince Florida State officials to tweak their original suspension. Ivan Maisel of ESPN says Winston’s timing is all wrong.
The Seminoles will turn to redshirt sophomore Sean Maguire who has competed 16 of his 26 attempts in his career, mostly in mop up duty in games that have gotten out of hand. All eyes will be on Maguire as he tries to keep Florida State’s undefeated season alive. Check out Brittnee Taylor Newman’s 10 Things to Know about FSU’s backup QB Sean Maguire which she published yesterday right here on LWOS.
FSU’s experienced backup from a season ago, Jacob Coker, is now battling for the starting job under Nick Saban in Alabama and Maguire is their next most experienced option at the position. It’s definitely a step back, but even in a loss, the Seminoles may be able to make their case to the committee that they were without their starter and thus not at full strength for their only loss.
The winner of the Florida State-Clemson game has reached the ACC title game in each of the previous five season. Clemson wasn’t given much of a chance to travel to Tallahassee and pull out the upset earlier in the week, but the suspension figures to even things out a bit and allow the Tigers to have a chance against the defending National Champions.
The game is Saturday night at 8 p.m. EST on ABC.
Source Of Quotes: ESPN
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