Fortunately, FSU handled the successor-to-President T.K. Wetherell issue much more adroitly than it did the successor-to-Head Coach Bobby Bowden matter.
The latter included an awkward, “coach-in-waiting” scenario and an agonizing icon watch while the football program morphed into embarrassing mediocrity. Belatedly, the no-longer-waiting Jimbo Fisher is now firing and hiring and recruiting to send the message that the schizoid days of uncertainty are over. Finally.
As for the former, FSU has named Eric Barron, the director of the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the former dean of the Jackson School of Geosciences at the University of Texas, to succeed Wetherell.
In an era when major research universities too often recruit retirees or escapees from the corridors of political power, FSU chose to go with an academician-scientist with people skills. The kind that can recruit scholars and convince donors. The kind that is expected to rally FSU research and lobby the prestigious Association of American Universities for inclusion.
And Barron, 58, is an FSU graduate, class of ’73.
Go, ‘Noles. Well done.