much easier schedule? I think FSU's schedule this year was actually better than last years. I mean the non-con last year was Nevada and Bethune-Cookman (along with Florida). Final Pre-Bowl Rankings last year Clemson 12, Duke 24 (and Auburn 2). Clemson and Duke moved up after the bowls. This year, Final Pre-Bowl Rankings: Georgia Tech 12, Clemson 17, Louisville 21 (and Oregon 2). Not to mention teams like Notre Dame and Oklahoma State swapped in for teams like Nevada and Maryland (citadel basically the same as bethune-cookman).
I get that FSU didn't look nearly as good this year as it did last year and that Jameis didn't play against Clemson, but the FSU schedule wasn't actually that bad on the whole. I'm also sure that losing a guy like Kelvin Benjamin and Devonta Freeman didn't help the numbers nor did all the damn distractions he had to deal with (granted most were self imposed but they still had to affect his play).
To compare Winston to Russell is just silly. Russell was never really prepared to play. He didn't put in the time. He was always out of shape. Winston is always in shape. In fact in the off season he plays a second sport. He has the work ethic and dedication. He just puts himself into situations and gets himself into trouble. He might always do stupid **** like that or he might get his head on straight and turn it around (Cris Carter, Randy Moss, Brett Favre, etc. all had a lot of issues early on but righted the ship). I'd feel a lot more confident drafting a guy like Winston that seems to care about the craft and takes it seriously, but is a knucklehead off the field, than a guy like Russell that is a knucklehead off the field and doesn't seem to take football seriously.