The team showed a lot of character today by eeking out the win.  Here our some of my thoughts on the game.

1. Many people, including myself, forgot that Maryland had Da'Rel Scott back today after missing five games, no coincidence they lost all five.  He is a difference maker and provided UM with enough of a run game to open up the passing game. 
   
2. Jimbo tried to open up the playbook and it did not work.  Putting EJ alone in the back field with five wide was befuddling and unnecessary early in the game.  I would have liked to have seen the I formation and more North South running plays.  We were too impatient with our running game and I think Hudson being out played too much into the play calling.
   
3. EJ has all the tools to become an outstanding quarterback at FSU.  He has also showed, understandably, some weaknesses.  A number of under thrown/behind balls to receivers and a few bad reads, however this will improve as his experience grows. 
   
4. Reliford will be better than expected, and made a great catch at the one, but also seemed to have run the wrong route on one of EJs interceptions.  He like EJ will only improve.
5. Lonnie Pryor is having an excellent rookie season.  His blocking has been instrumental and his toughness is very apparent.  A fantastic surprise and a great one two punch with Thomas. 
6. Defense, what can you say?  In Mickeys last year he seems to have abandoned everything that made his defenses so great, corner blitzes, safety blitzes, just blitzes in general and frequent.  Bump and run coverage has also gone by the wayside.  Alarmingly no aggressiveness on the defense.  One could argue he does not have the athletes, and he doesn't, however the coaching is not there nor the effort from certain players.
7. We need some talent but more importantly SIZE on our defensive line as soon as possible.  Along with that the team has missed far too many tackles this season which I think is partly a result of a poor weight training program mixed in with some young d lineman. 
   
8. The reverse call by Jimbo was perfectly timed.  UM had been over pursuing most of the game and he gashed them with the call.  Also the roll outs and play actions work great with EJ, however a running game is vital for those to work. 
   
9. It was wonderful to see Mickey go out at home with a win.
10. As SWFLNole put it, G5, enough said. 
11. Last, but certainly not least, Nigel Bradham is growing into a great football player.

Recently there has not been much if any good news of or relating to Florida State football.  One of the few bright spots was the outstanding play of Christian Ponder.  His passion and toughness trickled down to the rest of the team and in my opinnion elevated the play of the whole offense, specifically his receivers.  The wide outs saw how their QB was willing to put it on the line and in turn they themselves did the same, something WRs at FSU have not done for their QB in years. 

With the no doubt devastating loss of the team leader, my question is not why will we lose the next two games, but how can we win the next two games?  Being what some may call overly optimistic I am curious as to what the rest of Tomahawk Nation thinks are the keys to winning the next two games.  

Go Noles.

Does anyone know if we even require guys to work out on the baseball team?  They look like, and have for some time, a beer league team.  The amount of overweight guys on our team is high.  For some reason guys get fatter as they go through the program.  Along with the future pitchmen for Nutrisystem that fill up our dugout we have also lacked speed for years.  We usually only have 1-2 guys in the lineup that can actually get down the first base line faster than Coach Martin himself.  Is this a legimate concern?  Thoughts?  Has anybody else noticed this?

I do not like Jimbos theory of bigger is better when it compromises speed.  I will take a 5-9 burner over a 6-0 230 quick guy anyday of the week.  I am in favor of speed, speed and more speed.  You can not teach 18 year old kids to run faster, by that age if they are not breaking 4.5, they never will.  On the other hand a kid can always hit the weight room and add muscle.  Luckly we just landed Chirs Thompson so no worries for now.  Thoughts?