osceolafan850

Found the top 75 for last fiscal year. The site actually puts out a quarterly ranking as well. I think this is a nice indication of fan bases and popularity of a team. Of course Texas comes in at #1. But even with our decade of suck FSU still comes in at 16. The ACC has 3 of the top 25, with UNC at 6, and Miami is just outside of it at 27. At first I was surprised to find USF and UCF in the rankings, but to put it in perspective they trail Utah, BYU and Boise State in merchandise sales.

"We don’t know about our quarterback yet; that’s always the No. 1 question, but we won’t know that until June" -Dabo Swinney

1-6 are all BCS conferences with the ACC coming in 5th.

The ACC leads in nominations as well. How the ACC comes out on these watch lists might be something worth keeping an eye on. It goes without saying that the teams with better offensive lines will have a better chance of being better offensively.

SIAP. I think this is the highest pre-season ranking, and it is a bit too high. But once the polls are released votes like this will balance out people who don't have us ranked at all.

Honestly I think this is pretty spot on with the exception that he feels that FSU is devoid of possible playmakers with the exception of Ponder and G5. I would say Bradham has a much better shot at being a playmaker than G5, J-Mac has a slight shot, and Thomas is a possibility. That is without the eternal hope that one of the 4* kids at WR blossoms quickly.

Reads like bad news to me. Article paints the picture that the conference is not looking to expand and is just dealing with the revenue. Looks like a normal tv deal instead of a network, because if we were forming a network expansion would/should be on the table just to get more sets involved in the network. Looks like a distinct lack of vision.

FSU comes in at 16, above LSU and Miami. VT comes in at 5 for the highest ACC team.

The link talks about it in respect to Auburn (hummer limo) and their Tiger Prowl, but this affects everyone. It also bans Tennessee and their "VolCopter" from landing on the football field at a local high school. The NCAA has now restricted the amount of coaches from one staff that can visit a kid to 2. This is effective immediately. This is a big deal because schools, including FSU, will send 4 or 5 coaches (UGA was sending 7, the maximum allowable under the previous rule) to see a kid at the same time to show how interested in him they are. Georgia and Auburn, however, are the prime suspects here. This increases the importance of having as many good recruiters on staff as possible because sending two guys really isn't that much more impressive than one. FSU has a huge advantage, however, when it sends Coley and Gran, a South Florida tag team comprised of two coaches who have each vied for national recruiter of the year. Few teams have a better 1-2 punch than FSU's Coley-Gran. It also means (IMO) that winning has just become more important. A power school can now slow play a kid a bit more because another school will have a harder time showing him more interest.

The whole thing being the Fulmer cup that is. Warrant issued for the arrest of 3 starters and a backup. Police found that sweet, sweet ganja and drug paraphernalia in a hotel room that the guys were in. For their sake hope they were smoking and not selling. Also hope they are out for the game against us to make for an easier win. on Thursday night. It would also let us rest up some guys to prepare for UNC.

Article itself is about the MWC's chance to become an AQ conference in the BCS. But it also has a chart that shows the computer averages of the top schools for the conferences every year, computer averages of all schools in the conferences and an adjusted top 25 ranking average. Of course in the first and third averages the ACC frankly sucks. That is the bad. The good is that the only team that leads the ACC in average computer rankings is the SEC. Surprising enough the Big East actually comes in third which I didn't see coming. Lots of good teams but no great ones.

AC breaks down the numbers for the spring game. YPP was horrible on 1st down for both defenses.

Article about the quotes posted on TN where the Pro Scout goes in on FSU's former coaching level. It sort of amazes me the reach that TN is having. I wouldn't be surprised if I saw the scroll on ESPN attribute some news to TN soon.

Funny, but harsh because of truth.

Link in the title is to the ESPN blog post, which of is based on this article by another source. We all knew UM was short on cash and their not reaching an agreement with Shannon was a sign of it. But who knew they were trying to pay him the same amount UCF is paying their coach? This is a major sign that Miami is no longer ready to play big boy football. Miami is trying to make Shannon next to last in pay among ACC coaches. Duke, the college with the football stadium that looks like a high school plays there, is now willing to pay more money for a head coach than Miami. Shannon is even quoted in the article as saying he would accept an incentive loaded contract like Dabo at Clemson. Barring a miracle Miami will never have a top shelf coaching staff again.

Bud is on record for feeling that if Fisher is successful for us and Miles keeps failing at LSU that the Tigers will open the wallet to bring Jimbo back. With LSU having a state to itself and the SEC money and tv packages behind it the job is a plum gig. But what if it gets hit with probation? LSU has self reported several violations with one player (Hicks) that were facilitated by an assistant coach (McCartney). Among them was an apartment that he lived in for half price, a one time cash payment of $350 and improper transportation. As we all know self reporting apparently means nothing to the NCAA. UCF had some of the same charges, but I think they were more numerous in UCF's case. The Golden Knights were stripped of some scholarships, but were able to backdate the loss of scholarships. If LSU loses scholarships they wouldn't be able to do that. Here is to hoping the Tigers are docked enough schollies to put Bud's mind at ease.

Just a little something from AC's blog. Jimbo likes what he sees from the defense so far and picks the secondary to have the hardest rough ahead of them. Since Fisher has already said the offense won't hold back I can't wait to see what happens in the spring game.

Everyone's fav ACC blogger posted what players from the ACC Kiper has in his top 5 for the 2011 draft. Of course it is crazy early and there is a lot of ball left to play but it is nice to see several Noles on the list.

The article itself is about the hold up in getting Shannon an extension. With Fisher and London making just under 2 mil without ever winning a FBS game Shannon wants more money than the both of them and UM is trying to talk him down I guess. But the truly interesting part for us Noles is the following excerpt: "One source said the Hurricanes had absolutely no chance with Palm Beach Gardens Dwyer standout Matt Elam, who signed with Florida.... Dwyer coach Jack Daniels, who remains a Shannon supporter, tells a different story, saying UM stopped recruiting Elam. When UM offensive coordinator Mark Whipple visited the school, Daniels told him Elam hadn’t heard from the Hurricanes "in months." An upset Whipple flipped over a desk upon learning the news, according to Daniels." If this is true, and the Dwyer coach has no reason to lie, what are the UM coaches doing? Do you think it is a case of conceding the player so they put no work in? Or just being lazy? If it is the former why didn't anyone tell Whipple they were waving the white flag on the kid? Here is hoping they keep the good work up.

Article briefly going over what the ACC is looking for with the new contract. Says the ACC is looking for around 120 mil for football and basketball, which has been said before. That number puts us 80 mil behind the SEC but the number isn't counting what a secondary package with someone like Raycom would pull in. The most interesting thing to me in the article is that the ACC has reached out to the NFL network to gauge interest. This would be a football only package, letting the ACC go out and get a separate deal for basketball. If the ACC manages to get 120 mil for the main deal and still get another deal done for the lesser games on Raycom or someone similar it would be a nice coup IMO. Right now Raycom pays 35 mil so even a modest increase puts the deal around 165-170 mil a year. Still 30 or so mil away from the SEC but when spread out over 12 teams the 30 mil is a lot less.

Clemson has given Dabo a 1 year extension to his contract and doubled his salary. I am on record as not expecting much form this guy, other than funny facial expressions. Now if Miami can just hurry up and give Randy the kind of big money that ties him to the job for years we will be set.

The article itself has a bunch of Kiffen at the begin so just skip that. Lower in the article they talk about who has been the best at each position so far in the state. It just so happens that the two best D-line performers have both committed to FSU. I am a bit surprised they go with Turene over SHazier for LB since they were raving about Shazier a few weeks ago. Out of the kids ESPN says to keep an eye out for 2012, one has a FSU offer already and the other goes to First Coast. Might have the inside track for those two as well.

Some quotes and items in there I really like. The author says the staff now spends the first two hours of every day for recruiting evaluations and meetings. Also says Fisher stopped the division on the team. I was actually shocked that there were separate buses for the offense and defense. Also a nice quote from Stoops about the defense. Sometimes people don't think about how hard it had to be for those kids to be a part of the worse FSU defense in over 20 years.

CFbdatawarehouse has system to rank teams over a decade based on win %, SoS, and championships. What most here will be shocked to learn is that FSU and UM both made the top 10.

Not a lot of info but the bit about Lawrence is interesting to me. Big, athletic kid who FSU apparently got on before anyone else. The part about Bridgewater is funny to me too.

Done by ESPN and everyone's fav ACC blogger lol. We sit at 2nd though so I guess we can't complain. ESPN appears to be firmly behind the Noles, expecting the defense to improve enough for the offense to win a lot of games. Va Tech comes in at first place.