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Thursday, January 11

Seminoles to lose ton of talent

Next season, you can rest assured that Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden and his staff will have a major job on their hands when it comes to reloading the Seminoles. In addition, with Mark Richt taking over as the head coach at Georgia, FSU will be going into battle with a new offensive coordinator in 2001.

On offense, the players moving on include QB Chris Weinke, RB Travis Minor, RB Jeff Chaney, WR Marvin "Snoop" Minnis, TE Ryan Sprague, OT Char-ron Dorsey, OT Tarlos Thomas, OG Justin Amman and C Jarad Moon.

If Bobby Bowden somehow establishes the Seminoles as a national championship contender in 2001, it would definitely be a monumental feat.

That's a tremendous amount of productivity as well as key performers up front who will no longer be a part of the Seminole program.

Defensively, there will be just as many significant graduation losses. Moving on will be DE Jamal Reynolds, DE David Warren, DE Roland Seymour, LB Tommy Polley, LB Brian Allen, CB Tay Cody, CB Clevan Thomas and DB Derrick Gibson.

Sure, there is plenty of talent on hand. Youngsters such as QB Chris Rix, RB Greg Jones, FB Randy Golightly, WRs Boldin, Bell and Morgan, OT Brett Williams, DT Darnell Dockett, LB Bradley Jennings and DB Chris Hope all are either established standouts or potential stars of the future.

However, Rix -- while blessed with a great deal of ability -- may not only be the starting QB for the first time as an untested redshirt freshman but will also be working with a new offensive coordinator.

If Bobby Bowden somehow establishes the Seminoles as a national championship contender in 2001, it would definitely be a monumental feat. In fact, you may see some college football observers predict a three- or possibly even a four-loss season for the Seminoles.

For the Sooners and Bob Stoops, they'll have to replace Heupel and one of the stars on defense in LB Torrance Marshall, but overall, the key graduation losses will be held to a minimum.



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