After Jameis Winston won the Heisman Trophy and led Florida State to the BCS National Championship a season ago, many wonder what's left for the young quarterback to accomplish at the school.
If you ask his father, quite a bit apparently.
In an interview with AL.com on Wednesday, Antonor Winston told the paper that despite speculation that 2014 would be Jameis' final season for the Seminoles before declaring early for the 2015 NFL Draft, the plan is for the young signal-caller spend more time in Tallahassee before moving on to the pros.
"We want Jameis to succeed with one more year in baseball and two more years in football," the elder Winston said. "We've never strayed from our plan that he is going to be in college until he gets that degree."
That would give Winston three seasons of college football before he would declare early for the 2016 NFL Draft as a redshirt junior. While that might cause a few eyebrows to raise around the league, Seminoles fans could already be getting up their hopes of seeing him in garnet and gold longer than anybody thought.
Perhaps the most interesting part of the article -- and a sharp contrast to Winston's reputation after incidents off the field -- is that the quarterback is studying to get an engineering degree and originally went off to college with dreams of becoming a podiatrist.
Yes, a podiatrist. He's scheduled to graduate in December 2015 according to his father.
Already considered one of the top quarterbacks in college football, Winston has the talent to be a possible first-round pick if he were to come out early. Because he redshirted in 2012 when Buffalo Bills starter E.J. Manuel was firmly established as the starter, he would be eligible to declare for the 2015 NFL Draft after being out of high school for three years.
Winston's father also confirmed that baseball is still in the cards for another season for the talented dual-sport athlete, as well. The closer was a key part in Florida State's run to the NCAA Tournament and helped them spend a number of weeks ranked No. 1 in the nation thanks to a 1.08 ERA and 31 strikeouts on the season. Winston was a highly touted prep baseball player before arriving in Tallahassee and could end up as an early-round pick in the 2015 MLB Draft.
"We have heard for him to go in the first round of the baseball draft then he will have to give up football," Antonor Winston said.
Even the best-laid plans have a knack for changing when there's millions of dollars involved, but the strong statement from Winston's father that he he'll be around Florida State longer than expected should be a welcome bit of news for Seminoles fans and an unwelcome bit for ACC foes.
