A harbinger is defined as a person or thing that announces or signals the approach of another. Often, when we think of a harbinger, it’s in the form of a person preparing us for the arrival of something larger.
In the case of Florida State Seminoles football, it’s the opposite. Their worst seasons are the harbinger that heralds the arrival of one man.
Florida State Book Guy.
For all their national titles, ACC Championships, and winning seasons, FSU has had a couple of lean years in the 21st century. In particular, things got pretty bad when Jimbo Fisher left town and Willie Taggart took over as head coach in 2018. The Noles went 5-7, their first losing season since 1976. And it’s also when we were introduced to FSBG, who was spotted in the upper deck at Doak Campbell Stadium during a 59-10 drubbing by Clemson against FSU, reading a book while shirtless and seemingly oblivious to the terrible football game below.
FSU slowly started digging itself out of that hole in the following years and returned to glory under Mike Norvell in the last two seasons. However, the wheels have come off again and Clemson was back in Tallahassee on Saturday beating the snot out of the 1-4 (soon to be 1-5) Noles.
That meant only one thing: FSBG was back. And this time, we even got some lore courtesy of ESPN announcer Mark Jones.
“Back to the action here in Tallahassee, and that is the Florida State Book guy,” said the play-by-play announcer. “I’m going to say this. I met him today when I was on my run on the Apalachee Parkway. I would love to know what book he’s reading, though. He said he’d be at the game tonight. He promised. Might not like this scoreboard right now as the Tigers knock through another field goal, this one from 24 yards out. Their seventh attempt tonight. And I met him. He was walking his… I think it was a labradoodle he had.”
“Did you recognize him?” asked broadcasting partner Roddy Jones.
“No, I stopped to talk to the… I miss my dog. So I was petting his dog,” said Mark. “And he said ‘Have you ever googled Florida State Book guy?’ I said, No. He said, ‘Well, I went viral years ago when I was reading a book at the game. And he said, ‘I think I’m going to try and get a ticket tonight for the Clemson game.'”
“Brought the book,” said Roddy. “Last time he had his shirt off, it was sunny. He was tanning. It hasn’t been sunny all day long. No. It’s just the thing. What book is it? It’s not a very big one.”
“He’s into it,” added Mark. “It’s how I get more NIL money from my squad.”
FSBG, otherwise known as FSU professor Bruce Thyer, was interviewed in 2018 by The Athletic’s Tashan Reed.
Thyer went to the game with his 18-year-old daughter, who’s a sophomore at Florida State, and four of her girlfriends. They originally were seated on the shadier, cooler west side of the stadium, but the women left at halftime after the Seminoles fell behind 28-0. Thyer decided to move to the other side.
“I was cold sitting over there,” Thyer said. “I took my shirt off to get some sun. There aren’t going to be many days like this anymore this fall. I came over here to sit in the sun. We were so far behind I started reading my little book.”
His little book in 2018 was Dark Places by Gillian Flynn. We’re very curious to find out what he was enthralled with this time.
[ESPN]
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