Jameis Winston to sit whole game
— -- Florida State has suspended quarterback Jameis Winston for the entire game Saturday night against No. 22 Clemson, the school announced late Friday.
Winston, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner for the No. 1 Seminoles, originally had been suspended for just the first half against the Tigers after making a profane and sexually explicit outburst in the student union on campus earlier this week.
"Based upon the results of our continuing investigation of Tuesday's incident involving Jameis Winston, we have decided to not play him for the entire game against Clemson on Saturday night," interim Florida State president Garnett S. Stokes and athletic director Stan Wilcox said in a joint statement Friday night.
Winston was seen shouting an obscene sexual phrase on campus Tuesday, the latest incident in which his off-field behavior has caused headaches for the team and university.
Florida State students began flooding Twitter as several witnessed the star quarterback allegedly stand on a table in or in the immediate vicinity of the student union and yell obscenities, mimicking a popular Internet video.
When announcing the original ban Wednesday, Stokes and Wilcox denounced Winston's behavior, calling it "offensive and vulgar" in a joint statement.
In a Wednesday news conference, Winston later apologized for his "selfish" act.
"First of all, I want to apologize to the university, my coaches and to my teammates," he said. "I'm not a 'me' person, but in that situation, it was a selfish act, and that's not how you do things around here.
"I want to apologize to my teammates because I have now made a selfish act for them. That's all."
On Thursday, Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher dismissed any criticism that Winston's original half-game suspension was too light.
"We're in charge. It's our team. That's our thought," he said. "We went with the consequences and we're ready to move on."
Tuesday's incident was the latest involving Winston.
He was investigated in 2013 for sexual assault, but Willie Meggs, the state attorney for the Second Judicial Circuit, chose not to charge Winston in December. Florida State is still following through with its Title IX investigation into the matter.
Winston also was suspended from the baseball team for three games and ordered to perform 20 hours of community service after being cited for stealing $32 worth of crab legs from a local grocery store in April. There also have been other minor run-ins with authorities, but no arrests.
Backup quarterback Sean Maguire, a sophomore who has completed 16 of his 26 attempts in mop-up duty during his FSU career, will start in Winston's place against the Tigers.
"[Fisher] told me to be ready and said the game plan is not changing, this team is not changing, we're going to go out in the first half and do everything we usually would," Maguire said Thursday. "He had all the confidence in the world in me. He expects nothing to change just as so do I. ... It's a cliché answer but it's true: Nothing really has changed this week."
The winner of the Clemson-Florida State matchup has played in the ACC title game the last five years. Saturday will be the first game the Seminoles have played without Winston since the start of 2013, and they are 16-0 during that stretch.
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