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Lee Back At Practice For Seminoles

By SCOTT CARTER | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 17, 2007

TALLAHASSEE - In a span of a month, Florida State junior QB Xavier Lee went from season savior to forgotten man.

Lee came off the bench in the second half to lead FSU to a 21-14 win over Alabama on Sept. 29. At the end of FSU's 37-29 loss to Miami on Oct. 20, Lee was headed back to the bench after a shaky second-half performance. Making matters worse, Lee was later suspended for two games for academic violations, dropping to third on the depth chart behind Drew Weatherford and Christian Ponder.

Lee returned to practice Monday after missing Saturday's practice to take care of a family matter. With his FSU career possibly down to its final game, Lee said he is focused on salvaging what he can of his career.

"For a while, the ups and downs kind of broke me down just because I know I'm a lot better than what I've been portrayed to be," Lee said. "I'm trying to build off this, learn from it, grow up and just be a lot more mature about things."

Lee said he "most likely" will return next season for his senior year, but added: "I like to keep you guys guessing."

"I talk to my family, do a lot of praying about it," he said of his future. "I just weigh out my options, weigh out the pros and cons. At this point, I can only transfer to a smaller school, like an NAIA school or something like that. I've just been focused on my school work. School is going good. I did well in my classes and finished up well."

TUNING UP: Music City Bowl officials were in town Monday to extend an official bid to the Noles. As part of the festivities, bowl official Dan Crockett gave FSU coach Bobby Bowden an acoustic guitar featuring logos of FSU and the bowl.

"This is the symbolic key to the city of Nashville," Crockett said. "You got instructions?" Bowden quipped. "We're looking forward to coming up there. My son Tommy played in it last year. They had mighty nice things to say about it."

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