Florida State star quarterback Jameis Winston is drawing raves from coach Jimbo Fisher and his newly top-ranked teammates over his leadership and poise.
According to the Orlando Sentinel, with the Seminoles leading state rival Florida just 3-0 on Saturday Winston willed his team on a game-defining, 12-play, 96-yard second quarter drive that put FSU safely ahead en route to a 37-7 laugher.
"This is going to define this game right here," the newspaper reports Winston told his mates in the huddle. "If we can just shove it down their throats, this drive, 96 yards, we will win this football game."
On the field, it's been that kind of year for the redshirt, 19-year-old freshman. Rarely have there been instances where Fisher has had to get in his Heisman Trophy- contending quarterback's ear like he did late in the fourth quarter when Winston visibly became upset over the team's mismanagement of the game clock.
Trying to regain control of his quarterback, Fisher grabbed his facemask and peppered him with new instructions.
"That just the way he and I communicate, that's normal," Fisher later told The Sentinel. "Added Winston: "I was just so amped up in the moment...I was like 'my fault, my fault man.' And Coach Fisher was like 'poise, you do it.' You take control, it's not on me.'
Making Winston's bouts of leadership all the more impressive are the conditions under which he is displaying it. Winston remains the subject of a Florida police investigation where a one-time FSU student has named him as her attacker in a 2012 off campus sexual assault.
Through his attorneys, the Florida State star quarterback has pronounced his innocence, insisting that the sexual encounter was consensual. Prosecutors have indicated they plan to reveal if they will move to formally file charges over the ne4xt several days.
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