Bobby Bowden thinks Jameis Winston can be the best quarterback in Florida State history, but he also has a little advice for Winston as he works toward earning that title.
"I think you have to continue to remind him that 'Son, you're in the limelight. Everybody is watching every move you make and you cannot make a wrong one,'" Bowden said, according to the Orlando Sentinel. "'Watch your step, be careful, make sure you don't do anything you don't think your parents wouldn't want you to do.'"
Winston can't help but have a better understanding of his place in the public eye, and the scrutiny that goes with it, entering his second year as the Seminoles' starting quarterback. In the last year, he's won a national championship and a Heisman Trophy, but has also been embroiled and later cleared in a sexual assault investigation. Then, there was his embarrassing theft of crab legs from a grocery store that made him the target of media and Internet lampooning.
No matter how well Winston's lessons have been learned, however, Bowden believes his successor as coach, Jimbo Fisher, can't counsel Winston enough.
Whether Winston enters the NFL draft in 2015, 2016 or 2017, his background will be scoured by the NFL scouting community. Cleveland Browns rookie Johnny Manziel learned that lesson the hard way last year, although Manziel ultimately was drafted in the first round anyway. Not every prospect with background flags is as fortunate.
Winston opens his sophomore season and defense of his Heisman Trophy on Saturday against Oklahoma State.
*Follow Chase Goodbread on Twitter **@ChaseGoodbread*.
