vs. Murray State - 1.00 ... There's a greater chance Tebow wins MVP than us losing this game, and both are 0%.

vs. Savannah State - 1.00 ... There's a better chance that Tebow sets the passing yards record this year than us losing this game, and both are 0%.

vs. Wake Forest - 0.925 ... I have a sneaking suspicion this team will REALLY want to win this game, negating any "looking ahead" to Clemson the following week. 66th in the country in F/+ last year against a Top 10 Noles team in Tallahassee, lets be serious.

vs. Clemson - .675 ... Fun fact; God doesn't like when FSU wins in Death Valley. He's more favorable when we play @ home and this is the biggest conference game on our schedule, and perhaps the most important game on our schedule, as Clemson is the ONLY team that has a shot at ruining our ACCCG aspirations. I'm sure the refs will REALLY have it out for us in this one but this wasn't the worst time to catch Clemson (see 2011, having to play the week AFTER Oklahoma) and we have a couple of games to "practice" for this game. Clemson fell off the map HARD towards the end of the year (besides VT) and was so thoroughly shellacked by WVU, that they fell alll the way to 36th in F/+, although they are a very good team and this will be tough football.

@ USF - .900 ... This team sucks. BJ Daniels might be our best weapon in this game (ala UF quarterbacks last year). Even if Daniels pulls a Scott Wood and has a career night against us (would that REALLY surprise anyone??) this Noles team is just FAR more talented than a Bulls team that although finished a respectable 40th in the F/+, just doesn't have the weapons to keep up with FSU. Payback for our last little ... ahem ... hiccup, may creep its way into this game as well.

@ NCST - .900 ... Who finished 67th in the F/+ and lost 34-0 to FSU in 2011, and does NOT get FSU on a Thursday night in 2012? NC State! Although Miami will not be Miami in 2012, NCST has to play @ Miami the week before and will, again (notice the trend here) face a far more talented Noles team.

vs. BC - .925 ... This team is a mess right now. 69th in F/+, with one of the worst offenses in college football (although Rettig should probably be better as a junior) and NOW without their Mr. everything on defense in Luke Keuchley (sp?), this should be an interesting season for the Eagles and an easy victory for the Noles (although BC always does seem to play us tough). Too much FSU, especially at home.

@ Miami - .700 ... As has been stated more times than is necessary to rehash on this website, this is the worst Miami team we'll have seen since college football has allowed the forward pass (just kidding, but seriously). That doesn't translate to a cakewalk, as their is still talent on this team, kinda, sorta. I'm told no one on the roster can legally drink yet (not that it should stop them) and this should be a fun game for Nole fans to watch. If we lose, it will be because we beat ourselves (and/or the ACC calls holding on every single one of our offensive plays (not unrealistic).

vs. Duke - .975 ... It's Duke. They finished just ahead of UL-Lafeyette in the 2011 F/+, because they suck. If FSU finds a way to lose this game, our season will have been a disaster. There is a big risk that FSU is looking ahead to the bye-week, but I'm fairly certain we could play 10 on defense and still win. If we lost this game once out of 20 times, I'd be bamboozled.

@ VT - .600 ... Thursday night (typically doesn't bode well for FSU). Thank God the ACC gave us a bye week before this (maybe they realized they NEED us more than we need them... doubt it). VT has to travel to Miami the week before (again, not as big of a deal as in years past, but still). Logan Thomas was at times unstoppable, and at times a really big, tall average schlub. Overall, the SOPHOMORE played pretty well, posting a QB eff rating of just 16 points below EJ for the year. Beamer will have his team, which finished #22 in the F/+, prepared, as always, to play the Noles, in a game that will almost certainly foreshadow the ACCCG. If EJ can stay healthy, I like our chances, as I'm not fully prepared to say we can lean on our run game (although we CAN lean on our defense) but we've yet to see an FSU QB have a fully healthy season since Drew Weatherford (and I always felt like he was hiding injuries).

@ MD - .900 ... For whatever reason, the Danny O'Brien experiment didn't work out at Maryland. I don't even know what about it was an experiment, really, as the kid had PLENTY of promise. So, who will step up and take the place of O'Brien? How about the guy who replaced O'Brien last year in C.J. Brown... I sure hope so at least, as the QB posted a rating almost 50 points lower than JOHN FREAKIN BRANTLEY. They went 2-10 last season, finished 96th in the F/+ and this who Randy Edsall hire has been an unmitigated disaster. Maryland is almost certain to be better this year (nowhere to go really but up) but this game should not be one we have to worry much about, as Maryland was 82th in the country in DEFENSE (only 6 spots better than the anemic offense).

vs. Lizards .600 ... Unfortunately for us, John Brantley graduated. While a lot of non-Nole fans are probably shocked to know that FSU finished 8th in the F/+, a lot of Nole fans might be surprised to know that in Muschimp's first season, he put UF at 30th in the F/+, despite a 7-6 record. Florida loses the VERY familiar faces of Jeff Demps and Chris Rainey (probably not the worst thing in the world if they are TRULY committed to this pro-style offense, but you NEVER want to lose talent like that) but returns a top-25 defense. Florida did possess one of the top-5 special teams units in the nation (where losing Demps/Rainey will have some of its true impact), although the dangerous Andre Dubose returns. The FSU offensive line should allow Manuel far more time to put together an offense and the UF offense cannot POSSIBLY be as bad as they were last year. Plus, the Gator offense will be a game short of 2 full years into their pro-style system. This game will be interesting, as it will feature 2 top-notch defenses, elite special teams, and a couple of offense with big question marks (theirs with more than ours). We should be favored, as the game is at home, but by how much is a BIG question that will only be answered as the season progresses.

I was widely criticized by saying before the season last year than anything short of an ACC Championship would be a failure by our expectations, and I HIGHLY doubt I will receive a shred of criticism for reviving that notion. The coaches have been talking about this season since BEFORE last season. The media is prepared to hype us AGAIN (although probably against their own desires after we "disappointed" them again last season for pegging us (perhaps a year too soon) as a top-10 team. This HAS to be the year where the Noles play in a BCS game (obviously not going to say we HAVE to make an MNC game - which would be ridiculous). There isn't a better team in the ACC than FSU and there aren't many better teams in the country. A lot of the success this year will likely depend on the offensive lines ability to give EJ Manuel time. Also, don't discount the impact of the loss of Shawn Powell (thank GOD Beatty was an EE).

The total comes to 10.1 total wins and 6.6 conference wins, which is what I would predict anyways (10-2, 7-1). Any more than 2 regular season losses and 1 conference loss is a failure.

What do y'all think?

Does THIS ARTICLE look familiar?

It should.

According to Clark’s research, Seminoles conference opponents have been called for five holding penalties against Florida State all season. That’s five holding penalties in 418 plays that opposing teams have run against the Seminoles’ defense.

This was in 2010 and it surely hasn't gotten any better. We've all complained thru 2 games that "the refs have been screwing us."

via i55.tinypic.com

Is it the conspiracy theorist in me that thinks there is a problem here or is there empirical evidence?

Especially considering that the defenses at Duke (one per game), Wake Forest (one per game) and Virginia (1.6 per game) are all drawing holding calls at a higher rate per game than the Seminoles (.83 per game) in conference play. Sophomore defensive end Brandon Jenkins, who leads the team with 10 sacks, said he's talked to the referee plenty of times about being grabbed by offensive tackles.

Consider this sequence of plays surrounding the ONLY holding call we received against Clemson:

Drive starts. Holding call on tackle. VERY next passing play, Jenkins gets one of only two sacks the Seminoles had on the day. Bud actually tweeted about this sequence, sarcastically commenting on the sack after the holding call as a shocker.

Why is this important?

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Today, I will be doubling your pleasure and doubling your fun. You will be fortunate enough to be reading a two part article that will go over the 2010 vs. 2011 defensive lines and also the relationship between sacks and the ability of a team to make plays on the ball.

We are all aware of the 2010 Seminoles defensive line that tied Boise State for the most sacks in the nation (48) a year after recording an abysmal 26. That defensive line featured the fine first year coaching of a young, energetic coach in D.J. Eliot and performed quite well in their first year playing big boy football under Jimbo Fisher. But, as an educated fan base, we are all mostly aware of the fact that these numbers skew the reality of our 2010 defensive line - a reality that caused us to lose football games when our young, overworked lineman couldn't generate a pass rush to save their lives. With no disrespect to our players, the 2010 FSU defensive line was simply and noticeably gassed towards the latter part of games for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to:

A) little to no useful coaching in years prior

2) a lack of quality depth or depth in general

D) a strength and conditioning program that Georgia State would laugh at

In fact, if you go back and think about the Oklahoma, NC State or Virginia Tech games, you may be hard pressed to remember Landry Jones, Russell Wilson or Tyrod Taylor breaking a sweat in the pocket or being touched. In this piece, I will analyze the impacts that this had on our 2010 team, what has changed and what we should expect going forward. The 24 sacks that we recorded in the 4 games vs. lowly teams such as BYU, Wake, Virginia and Samford also inflate our total and per game sack numbers because we recorded half of our sacks in those 4 games! In the 10 other games versus at least decent teams, we recorded the same number of sacks, 24. So in games versus crappy teams, we averaged 6 sacks per game while in games versus at least average teams, we averaged 2.4 sacks per game. A little more obvious now?

Now, for part two of this story, I will be analyzing a topic that is intimately related to defensive line play: the correlation between the ability of a defensive line to generate sacks and the ability of that team to make plays on the football (passes defended). In a story written by ricobert, that you should read, entitled Pass break-ups and Interceptions: Adjusted Pass Coverage Statistics [2010], he shows how the Seminoles in 2010 were only the 8th best team in the ACC for % of plays where an interception was recorded and according to the poll included in that piece, 94% of you believe the 2011 FSU team at least improve (if not drastically improve) their interception percentage as compared to 2010. Also, the Seminoles were the 21st best team in the country for passes defended per play but the 2011 version could quite easily improve upon that ranking. Why, you may ask? Defensive line pressure and sacks, my dear Watson. As ricobert explains:

"A lot of opponents threw against FSU. Quite a few of our opponents did their best to emulate OU's playcalling to hopefully take advantage of a young defense. After accounting for the number of passes against, we see FSU was not  not actually as elite as their total pass coverage stats suggest."

Most on here are knowledgeable enough about football to know that putting pressure on an opposing quarterback is the easiest way to make your secondary look like world beaters. So lets explore how our 2010 defensive line impacted our teams' ability to defend the pass and how the 2011 edition should fare, shall we?

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Who's your favorite baseball player? Even if you don't like baseball, I'm willing to bet you'll name a power hitter or pitcher. Regardless, as I'm sure many of us on here are aware, professional baseball has been plagued by the steroid bug over the last decade or two. Baseball was almost crippled by a steroid investigation that cast a shadow of cheating over many of baseballs' top names (such as Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Roger Clemens and many, many more premier baseball players). MLB was hit so hard by the steroid craze because it was the last of the three major sports (NFL, NBA, MLB) to implement a steroid testing and banning policy and when MLB finally DID implement a policy, it was widely criticized as the weakest of such in professional sports.

So, what did baseball do? It introduced a stronger penalty and broader list of banned substances - but this was just a front. What did baseball REALLY do? It swept the issue under the rug (proverbially speaking), because what would happen to the sport - America's past time - if many of its' premier players were suspended (thereby acknowledging their guilt)? Would you watch baseball without its' major stars (as I know a lot of people don't like watching baseball anyways, let alone without its' best players).

Now, back to the beginning sentence; who is you favorite baseball player? Odds are that player has taken or is currently taking a substance banned by MLB. The job of steroid engineers is to stay a step ahead of the game in creating substances that cannot be detected and players generally know when they can and cannot use. Whether or not you or I care about steroid use in baseball is irrelevant (personally I don't care if every single one of them is using). Baseball knew it had a problem and once it was too big to contain, it had to turn a blind eye to the situation in order to keep the sport afloat.

Why am I bringing any of this up? I propose that college football may VERY well be suffering the same fate as we speak - and not even necessarily from steroid use.

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'm creating this post as hopefully a guidebook of sorts that people can look to for all Twitter knowledge. Twitter has clearly become one of the most popular forms of social media and one of the quickest and most convenient ways of finding out about FSU sports and countless other things. However, with keeping FSU as the focus here, I was hoping that we could compile a list of the "best" and "most useful" Twitter feeds to follow. In keeping people new to Twitter, or those who simply do not know who to follow "in the loop" about all things about FSU, I was hoping that everyone can comment on useful people to follow on Twitter and I (or the Mods) will update this list periodically. This list can include ANYBODY useful to FSU sports, such as journalists, insiders, websites, coaches, players, etc.

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Over the course of the last few months I've seen some things written about Clemson on this website and others that I would like to discuss here. Let me preface this however by stating that this is NOT meant to bash Clemson or anything like that (for all of the guys from STS that read over here because I love that site).

Anyways, lets take a quick look at the 10 year most-recent stretch of games between FSU and CU.

2010 (in Tally): FSU 16-13

2009 (Clem): Clem 40-24

2008 (Tally): FSU-41-27

2007 (Clem): Clem 24-18

2006 (Tally): Clem 27-20

2005 (Clem): Clem 35-14

2004 (Tally): FSU 41-22

2003 (Clem): Clem 26-10

2002 (Tally): FSU 48-31

2001 (Clem): FSU 41-27

What does this tell you? We are 5-5 against Clemson in the last 10 years with an average score of FSU 27.3 - Clemson 27.2. So needless to say, these two teams have been pretty evenly matched in the last 10 years.

It's kind of funny too, that Clemson keeps up with us this well when you look at recruiting rankings (which I know don't mean everything!).

Since 2006, ESPN has FSU ranked (from most recent to oldest) #1, #6, #8, #12, #25 (disaster of 2007) and #6 for an average of 9.67. During that same time, ESPN ranked Clemson's classes #8, #19, #19, #2, #18, #13 for an average of 13.16.

Rivals had FSU ranked #2, #10, #7, #9, #21 and #3 for an average of 8.67. They ranked Clemson #8, #19, #37, #12, #16 and #16 for an average of 18.0.

The last four years however, are the best classes we've had recently (thanks to Jimbo) and we are 2-1 vs. Clemson in the last 3 years (not inferring that there is a causation here, but moreso a correlation because coaching has likely been the biggest difference). Meanwhile, Clemson picked up an EXTREMELY impressive top-heavy class last year but did just so-so in '10 and '09 and impressed again in '08. So, Clemson has undoubtedly brought in talent, but I would take our recruiting classes between '08 to now over theirs.

I don't even think I need to say who's coaching staff I would rather have as of now, but I can say for a fact that before Fisher took over with HIS staff, I would undoubtedly take Clemson's defensive staff, especially with Kevin Steele over ours (Jody Allen, Mickey Andrews and company). So, in short, I'd give us the offensive advantage via Jimbo and them the defensive advantage in recent years.

So here is why I'm writing this piece. I've seen a lot of things written about Clemson, but the main thing that keeps coming up (probably rightfully so in fact, due to the closeness of the two teams in the last 10 years), is that people are expecting a close game this year (Bud tweeted that he would take Clemson +7). Let me tell you while I disagree wholeheartedly.

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With a #1 recruiting class in the books, it is time to take a look now at the 2012 class (which is likely 1/3+ full already)! More specifically, I'm going to start a discussion about 2012 QB recruiting, that I find to be interesting.

EJ Manuel will have a year remaining after the 2011 season. Clint Trickett will have 3 years and assuming Coker redshirts, he will have four. And while you will never hear me talk badly of any of the quarterbacks on our roster (especially when you know how high I am on Coker), I think it is fair to say that Trickett and Coker lack the "elite QB" tag that came along with Manuel. I don’t think it is necessary to bring in a QB recruit tagged as "elite" considering Jimbo took 3* Christian Ponder and turned him into the most NFL ready QB as shown by his MVP performance in the senior bowl.  However, competition breeds success and we should never assume anything, so it will obviously be necessary to bring in a QB in the 2012 recruiting class.

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This season surpassed our expectations. Whether we win the bowl game or not is of no consequence to the season having exceeded expectations for three reasons

A) The average user (including Bud) predicted an 8 win regular season - We won 9.

2) The defense which rated 657th in the country last year currently sits at 40th in the country in total defense including a sparking 39th nationally in pass efficiency defense (after being TORCHED/humiliated last season)

D) We made it to the ACC Championship game in Jimbo's first year as a coach.

With all of these excellent things having happened to our team this year, I want to take a look ahead at the defense for next year. Take a look at my thoughts after the jump. Before doing so however, know that you will probably disagree with me, so don't crucify me. It's just nice that I am able to make these arguments because that means we will have a GOOD problem.

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Instead of doing a thorough review, I'm just going to do a nice, tidy list of the good that I saw/came from this game and the bad. But first, I'll give a short synopsis. The game ball should go to the defense. We have not shut out an ACC opponent since Virginia in 2006 (ironically, the game before Wake shut us out at home 30-0). The defense continued to excel in the new scheme, allowing basically nothing the entire game and they will probably continue to lead the country in sacks after registering 6 against the Demon Deacons. The offense is funny because by looking at the stats and the score you'd think we did pretty well for ourselves, but the passing game continued to struggle in the vertical aspect of the game and Ponder was running for his life often. The running game could very well be a top-10 or top-20 (at worst) unit in the nation.

Pros:

• The defense has adapted VERY well to the new scheme. Albeit, they were playing against Wake Forest and a true freshman quarterback, but it is VERY difficult to hold ANY opponent to zero points in a 60 minute game of football. Samford scored. Like I said, we haven't held an FCS team to zero points since 2006... this was a feat. If you read the game preview that Bud wrote, he expected Wake to be able to move the ball a little but and score 21 points. That didn't happen and you can give credit to each individual unit of the defense.
  
  • The defensive backs kept EVERYTHING short by covering well downfield and this is evident by the fact that Wake's longest pass on the day was 17 yards. Mike Harris put a good hit on Bohanon to cause a fumble, recovered by Terrance Parks. Harris continues to make plays for the defense, finishing second on the team in tackles. The secondary was very competent in this game and there were not many missed tackles on the receivers. Greg Reid and Nick Moody each recorded TFL's for the secondary as well. There was one play where Xavier Rhodes saw himself one-on-one in a deep ball and was beat by a step, but Price overthrew him, but this was not a trend as I don't believe I saw that happen again.
    
  • Moving in, the linebackers also performed well, appearing very disciplined on the option and read plays and hitting the holes well. There were plays where they struggled to keep contain when WF quarterbacks broke the ball back inside, but for the most part they stayed in their zone and executed their assignment. I was pleased with the tackling from this unit, as Kendall Smith led the team in tackles with 6.5, while Bradham recorded 5 total tackles, a sack and a PBU. Telvin Smith made the most of his minutes, recording three tackles and a sack. Jeff Luc was also credited with a half of a TFL.
    
  • Where it starts, on the line, the lineman continued to thrive this week. I've said this before, and most understand this, but it makes the life of the secondary MUCH easier if the defensive line is able to aggravate the offensive line and quarterback. Even if a defense isn't getting too many sacks or TFL's, if they are consistently hurrying the opposing QB and pushing the pocket, then the secondary doesn't have to cover for as long and in a zone, too much time allows the offense to find soft spots in the zone. But, in this game, the line DID get sacks and TFL's in addition to pushing the pocket. Brandon Jenkins continued to show his playmaking ability in recording TWO MORE sacks, 3 tackles for loss and 5.5 tackles. This guy is playing football at a REALLY high level and if he keeps this up, he'll be making some noise for some awards and all- lists. I've read on here that some were complaining about Jacobbi McDaniel not making plays... well there you go. McDaniel batted a pass up into the air and very athletically came down with the ball for an interception. Freshman sensation Bjoern Werner continued to thrive as well, recording another sack and 1.5 TFL's - he is really pushing White right now for playing time and if White doesn't play at a high level, you could see Werner start at some point I would think. Demonte McAllister and Anthony McCloud each recorded a half a sack. These guys not only put good pressure on Price, but they also contained well on the option plays. I saw some stunts on the line, which was nice to see, and Price simply did not have time to throw downfield. Often, the option play and read play couldn't get outside and the ends did a good job of funneling the play back to the LB's, who were often there to end the play. It was good all-around execution by the defense, and although they were playing an inferior team, it appears as if they are starting to grasp the defensive system better and better.
    
  • Consider the fact that FSU held Wake to 2.5 per carry, 7.45 per completion, and 4.82 per pass attempt - these are are FANTASTIC numbers when you consider that Florida State held Samford to 2.02 per carry, 8.26 per completion and 5.71 per pass attempt.
    
• The FACT that Ponder got to throw so much. He needed to just throw the ball in live-game situations and he was able to do that because of the nature of the game. It was very obvious that Fisher was intent on having Ponder throw the ball around often and it was smart (for the future). It seemed like the Noles could probably have run the ball on every down and have scored much more doing so, but they needed to work on the passing game, and they were able to do so, completing balls to 10 different players. We are going to be able to need to throw the ball proficiently against better teams and Ponder needs to be able to trust his receivers.
  
• The running game is NO worse than a top-20 unit in the country. Ty Jones could very well be the best runner on the team at the moment. Clearly the new strength/nutrition program has turned him into something special, but you can't teach the heart and desire the kid runs with - he simply will NOT go down. He runs with a power/burst combination that is very difficult to deal with as a defense. On 9 carries, he gained 64 yards for an average of 7.1 and caught a 13 yard pass. Jermaine Thomas finally had a good game, leading all rushers with 88 yards on 10 carries and catching an 11 yard pass. Chris Thompson also performed well, averaging 6.2 yards per carry on 6 carries. In total, Florida State rushed for 201 yards and the running backs ran well, not dancing horizontally very often and hitting the hole hard. All three runningbacks broke through the first two levels on at least one run and Thomas had a long 38 yard run that showed great field vision and cut ability. I'm not sure there is a three runningback stable I would rather have in the country right now. Let me not that the offensive line did very well in run protection and opened up good holes for the backs (their pass protection not so much as I will detail later). The running backs, in fact averaged 7.56 yards per carry while the team averaged 5.2 per carry.
  
• EJ got some time at the end of the fourth quarter and led the 'Noles RIGHT down the field, ending the drive on a FANTASTIC touch pass rolling out to the right in the back corner of the end zone. Feel confident in our QB situation for this year (should he have his number called) and for the future, because we have a great one waiting in #3. He seems to be putting better zip on his throws and didn't make any bad decisions on his drive. His stat line reads 2/2 41 yds, TD.
  
• Special teams kicking. Powell landed his only punt attempt inside the 10 yard line and Hopkins made a 34 yard field goal although missing from 51, but that is forgivable, because on his kickoffs, 2 of the 6 went for touchbacks and he averaged 69.5 yards per kickoff.
• Despite what I will discuss later about the vertical passing game, the receivers and backs did well in catching the short and mid range stuff thrown at them, which helped Ponder throw for almost 67% completions. The yards after catch were big because of the fact that the receivers caught so many short passes and screens then made things happen for a few extra. 10 different players caught a pass including a spectacular 28 yd touchdown catch by true freshman wide receiver Kenny Shaw. Willie Haulstead showed up for this game, making five catches, two of which were touchdown catches, and hopefully solidifying himself as Ponder's #3 target alongside Bert Reed (6 catches-39 yards) and Taiwan Easterling (6 catches-112 yards).
  

Continue after the break for the cons

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I don't even need to see the film to be able to write this reaction confidently. Just looking at the box score of the game should give you some indication of how the game went for the defense. The D allowed just under 200 total offensive yards, barely cracked the double digit point mark for points, 3.3 yards per pass attempt, 2.2 yards per rush attempt and a horrid third down ratio of 4/15. The defense did other great things, such as getting in passing lanes and deflecting balls (one deflection of which led to an interception), sacking the opposing quarterback on an astonishing 8 occasions!! and holding the BYU team to 2.7 yards per play on average. The defense did so many thing right in fact, that it is hard to find criticism and almost makes writing a review pointless - but I'm going to do it anyways.

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Please let me qualify this post by saying that I'm not suggesting that our offense sucks or anything of the like, I'm just showing a few plays that I found that I would like to see some more of in our offense.


Play 1 Setup: Shotgun, bunch left wide, with a back to the QB's right hip and one receiver to the right side.

Play: One of the bunch receivers runs a go down the left sideline, while another runs a quick slant (almost a drag). The third receiver to the bunch side runs a fake quick slant (mirroring the other receiver with a false first step), then bouncing the play outside to a bubble "screen". The thing here is that instead of having blockers on the screen, the WR running the bubble is using space to his advantage since the other wideouts have cleared out the left side of the field. So, in a sense, it's no so much of a screen as just a genius use of space and misdirection. For the record, the back stayed in to block and the single wideout ran a curl. The play went for almost 10 yards, and while not everybody is this fast, we have guys (like Bert Reed) that should be able to do this in space.

You can view the play run HERE by Wes Welker of the Patriots at 8:07 in:

Two more plays after the jump...

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Officially, the team has already begun correcting mistakes from the Oklahoma game, and according to Coach Jimbo Fisher, he is pleased with what he has seen in practice this week. I strongly suggest you go to Seminoles.com and watch the free video about Tuesday's practice. Everybody step off the ledge because it's going to be alright. Anyways, I wrote about the defense already in another fanpost and I, like many educated readers on here, did not expect a dominant performance by the defense in Norman. You can't teach a 16 year old kid who has never driven how to drive and then 2 months later enter them into a NASCAR event (even if the analogy isn't perfect, the logic still holds). However, I, also like many educated readers on here expected (rightfully so) more out of the offense.

I will now break down what I saw in the offense on Saturday:

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First of all, calm down. It's a day later and the world is still here and in less than 24 hours, our football team will be back on the practice room and in the film room and you can be damn sure any one involved with out football program that has any dignity will step up their game like the none other. Anyways, I'm sure by now you've realized that we looked bad in all aspects yesterday. We were outplayed on offense, defense, coaching and just about everywhere in between.

I will now break down the different aspects of our game as I saw it.

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First of all, I'd like to say that I would rather have James Wilder Jr. committed to play for the 'Noles than ANY player in this class. Call me dumb and say Jadaveon Clowney is better or that Steward is more important, or whatever you want to say, but when I saw the Friday Night Football magazine came out, I threw up at the thought that we could strike out on the cover. Then it happened, we came out of nowhere (literally) and STOLE a recruit from UF; a feat of such magnitude that the story made the front page of YAHOO.COM. I'm not talking about Yahoo Sports, I'm talking about the main website. It also graced the front page of most, if not all recruiting and sport media outlets.

If you didn't catch the game on ESPN yesterday, Wilder's Tampa Plant high school got wamboozled and shellacked by the Hurricanes of Manatee. I mean this was not even a good football game... it looked like a JV team against a top varsity football program. The final score was 48-10 and I, without the slightest of hesitations, will tell you that if you watched the game, it seemed worse than that somehow. And then there was Wilder...

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If somehow you haven’t noticed yet, there is something a brewin’ down in Tallahassee. And if you haven’t noticed yet, just know that apparently everyone else has – so here’s your notice. If there’s one thing people love, it’s attention… right? Who doesn’t love some good recognition or acknowledgement every now and then to let you know you’re doing things right? But that is not what’s going on here. It is fair to say that there is a full on cargo train of hype heading straight through the Florida State campus right now, and the passengers are full of national and local media, along with Seminole faithful. But is this a good thing for the newly transitioned program? See my discussion after the jump.

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