Tallahassee newspaper: Florida State leaders need to step up

Florida State seems to enjoy an annual push from fans, pundits and the media with claims every September the Seminoles are "back" in the national title picture. Shortly thereafter the 'Noles drop a game in ACC play -- usually to a far inferior opponent -- and the backlash, fueled by embarrassed proponents, is nasty.

Add the local media to that list this time around. The 2012 flop -- Saturday's 17-16 loss at N.C. State -- pushed Tallahassee.com's Jim Lamar to lower the boom on head coach Jimbo Fisher and an allegedly complacent, hands-off leadership structure around the coach.

Here's a few choice cuts:

This was an embarrassment. This was yet another dose of humiliation for a fan base that has been forced to swallow a lot of pride the last decade.

This is a loss that will not be easily forgotten – or forgiven.

If that's the tone setter, it's hard to believe it gets more critical. You'd be wrong to assume that:

FSU President Eric Barron has no interest in dipping his toes into athletic-department waters unless he’s forced to – as he was five months ago when Big 12 rumors began swirling.

That approach is admirable if you have an athletic director who has firm control of his department, but Randy Spetman is a lame-duck administrator whose one-year contract extension provides zero leverage to deal with major issues.

Yikes. While the criticism ultimately revolves around Fisher and his decision making, Lamar seems to indict those at FSU as incapable of managing the football staff just as much as the play-callers themselves:

Maybe this one loss will change everything. Maybe Fisher learns from the mistakes of Saturday night and makes the proper adjustments. Maybe he doesn’t.

Maybe he continues down the same path he’s going. Maybe he doesn’t. Maybe it works. Maybe it doesn’t.

But one thing is certain: The people on the FSU campus who you would expect to provide leadership in this situation will continue to watch from a safe distance to see if he succeeds or not.

Check out the entire column here.