Did Jimbo Fisher Make the Right Call Starting Sean Maguire over Everett Golson?

Hindsight is 20-20, but Florida State's decision to start backup quarterback Sean Maguire over normal starter Everett Golson felt curious in the moment and even more curious after the Noles lost 23-13 at Clemson.

Golson missed the Syracuse game with a concussion, but he was cleared, dressed and standing on the sideline, while Maguire completed 16 of 29 passes for 159 yards, no touchdowns and one interception in Death Valley.

Running back Dalvin Cook broke the second play from scrimmage for a 75-yard touchdown, but after that the Noles scored only six points (no touchdowns) on 11 drives. They drove into the red zone on their second drive, threatening to take a two-score lead, but Maguire threw an ugly interception and never looked the same the rest of the night. Cox Media Group's Benjamin Bornstein provided highlights of the interception:

The pick was Maguire's biggest, most overt mistake, but he also hurt the offense with three delay-of-game penalties.

Losing five yards a pop on the road against the No. 1 team in the country is a bad way to try and spring an upset.

It led Jon Solomon of CBSSports.com to call Clemson's crowd the game's MVP:

Golson has struggled with pre-snap stuff too, but never to the extent Maguire has. He also has experience playing well in road environments, as Florida State learned when he led Notre Dame, his former team, into Doak-Campbell Stadium last season.

And that's not to mention how he started the 2013 BCS National Championship Game.

He would not have been afraid of the stage.

Maguire, on the other hand, learned that starting at Clemson is harder than hosting Syracuse. The numbers he posted against the Orange—23 of 35 completions for 348 yards, three touchdowns and no interceptions—presumably played a role in his earning the starting nod.

But the Death Valley stage looked too big for him. He's not the sole reason Florida State lost, but he never provided a threat to help it win.

Richard Shiro/Associated Press

"[We] felt Maguire was the best option going into the game," head coach Jimbo Fisher told reporters after the loss, per Noles 247.

In that case, he was patently wrong.

Cook played like a Heisman candidate, rushing 21 times for 194 yards. The defense held an offense fresh off two straight 50-point games to 23 points. Even punter Cason Beatty, one of the least popular players on the roster, played the best game of his career on special teams.

The only thing FSU missed on Saturday night was a passing game.

Maguire never gave it a chance.

Streeter Lecka/Getty Images

It's natural to blame the head coach when he makes a hard decision between two quarterbacks and then the guy he picks loses.

To be clear: Starting Golson would not have been a cure-all for FSU's problems. It likely would have still lost the game.

Bud Elliott of Tomahawk Nation thinks it would have lost by as much or more:

In this case, though, it's a matter of ceiling.

Golson—the way he's played this year—would have led FSU to a similar result. But Golson—the way he's capable of playing and the way he's proven, unlike Maguire, he can will himself to play on a big stage—could have pushed FSU over the edge.

The Noles are in their version of a rebuilding year, but they entered the week 7-1 and with a real chance to win the ACC. Clemson has a better all-around team, but the difference is minimal. If they pushed their chips to the middle of the table, they could have caught enough breaks to pull the upset.

Instead they played it safe and tried to beat Clemson straight up. That's noble, but it was probably ill-advised. Golson was more likely to implode and cost FSU the game, but he was also more likely to explode and single-handedly lead the win.

That's what the Seminoles needed.