It's a tale as old as sports. The head coach of the reigning champions worries about how to motivate his fat and happy team enough to climb the mountain again in search of championship number two. It spans across all sports and all levels of play. When Rutgers topped Princeton on that November day in 1869, the Queensmen's head coach (as Rutgers was then known) was surely worried about motivating his squad for another run at the title as soon as they left the field.
And now it's Jimbo Fisher's turn to worry about this all-too-desirable problem. It's the most first world of problems in the coaching world, but it's a problem nonetheless and it demands an answer.
Fisher isn't necessarily concerned with honing in on the 2014 title (at least not yet), but he is focused on getting Florida State back to its incredible 14-year run of Top 5 finishes.
"Being back is being able to consistently contend," Fisher told Stewart Mandel of SI.com. "To me it's like a company like Microsoft or Google. Sometimes they're the best company in the world that year, but sometimes they're second or third or whatever. But you know one thing. When you deal with them you're dealing with quality. You're dealing with people who are committed to excellence. When you're back, that's what you do, and I think that's what we are doing right now."
Fortunately for Fisher, his message appears to be sinking in.
"Like coach Fisher says, teams only have a one-year life expectancy," said defensive back Jalen Ramsey. "After that one year you have to move on. You have to go on with your other team and hunt another national championship. We're really trying to change our focus and aim our purpose to doing everything to get ourselves another one."
Although Jameis Winston admits to being "bored", he says it's the type of boredom that comes with a season's worth of experience and a fully-secured starting job. "It's good to be bored, because when you're bored you want to do more," he says. "By me being bored, that makes me [say], 'OK, I'm bored, think about the little things.'"
If Fisher really wants Florida State to become college football's version of Apple and Google, he'll have to churn out the college football version of the Windows and Android year after year. It certainly helps to have the reigning Heisman Trophy winner and a wealth of first-round talent in that case.