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Cardiac Noles Do It Again

by Bill from Tampa  Once again the early tough tests for Florida State paid off as the Seminoles held on to hand the Cal Bears their first defeat of the season by the score of 80-7, winning the Global Sports Classic in Las Vegas.

Leading 62-49 with 5:37 to play FSU did its best to keep the Bears in the game by committing unnecessary fouls, allowing Cal to close it to 79-77 with three seconds left and Jerome Randle at the line to attempt his second free throw.

Randle missed however and Pierre Jordan made a big rebound, was fouled on the play, and made the first of two free throws. A last gasp heave by Cal was not even close and the Seminoles escaped thanks to free throw shooting of their own.

Credit the Bears down their stretch for attacking the ‘Noles defense and drawing fouls that stopped the clock giving Cal the opportunities to almost pull off the win.

But FSU made enough plays down the  stretch to hold on.

It wasn’t easy though as three players fouled out in the final minutes, two in the last half minute. Chris Singleton committed his fifth foul with just over two minutes left. Luke Loucks joined him with twenty four seconds remaining.

The biggest loss though came ten seconds later when Toney Douglas fouled out. Douglas displayed the poise expected out of a senior scoring 28 points converting 10 of 11 charity shots.

It was a little like The Choke at Doak, only in reverse

Why even mention FSU lost by almost the same score as 2007? Here's why: Last year the Noles were outmanned. This year, with more playmakers and speed powering a souped-up, higher scoring offense, you expect better than three more points on the scoreboard. Especially since that offense had its chances. But there was just no fire and fight in what should have been the season's emotional peak. And in their own house.

Instead, it was arguably the season's worst played game, on both sides of the ball. Two examples that had Seminole fans keeping liquor stores busy Saturday night: WRs suddenly couldn't catch a cold (though guys in orange & blue didn't have a problem in the rain), while the Seminole D yet again gave opposing TE's a free pass to the end zone.

And while we're at it:

If Ponder was iffy because of a bad back, why was he used on running plays that probably added to his problems?

Forget the ACC championship. Noles aren't ready for another big game in a week (some would argue they don't deserve it). Best thing for this team is a month to regroup and practice for a bowl game. Think of it as an early start on the 2009 season.

Note to Jimbo: Please sit Corey Surrencey in critical third and long situations. We don't often knock individual players, but no. 1 has proven he can't make a clutch catch.

Sharing the blame. The curse of crummy clock management continues to haunt FSU offensive coaches.

Deserving the shame. A Christmas stocking full of Renegade's poop to the so-called Noles who sold tickets that ended up in the hands of reptile fans.

One bright spot. Kudos to no. 94, Justin Mincey, who had his best game. He showed the potential FSU fans have waited for, and why he might be the pitbull of next year's DL.

No mercy for Percy. At least the Noles inflicted some pain that could help Bama win next week. Sorry, but that's the way we feel when it comes to that team from down South.

Note #2 to Jimbo: Uh, don't pick your nose on national TV, Coach.

Q & A with Pat Dooley of the Gainesville Sun, including FSU's shot to win and the chances of Tebow going pro

Pat Dooley, the go-to journalist for everything Gator, joins us for some straight up answers about that team down South.

Pat, the same first question as last year. How can FSU beat the Gators?
Turnovers. The only game they lost this year is when they turned the ball over against Ole Miss. If they don't, they're pretty hard to beat. So FSU will either have to create them or hope for Florida to make mistakes, which they have occasionally done, but not very often.

Besides turnovers, what did Ole Miss do to win?
What happened was two fumbles to start the second half. That killed Florida and allowed Ole Miss to have a little bit of ball control. And then they hit a big play when the safety messed up and didn't come over on two deep coverage. They also ran the ball pretty well and broke some tackles. Ole Miss is a good team.

After four wins in a row, is this still a big game for the Florida players and coaches?
Absolutely. Rivalry games never go away, no matter who wins or how many times. And for the players, because they've played against so many of these (FSU) guys, it's a huge game no matter what the records are.

During the Spurrier years, at least, when Florida came to Doak, they seemed to be looking ahead to the SEC Championship game.
There's no question with the '92 game. But I think the Choke at Doak kind of changed that. After that Spurrier probably had the same feelings toward FSU that he did for Georgia.

Will Urban be pulling some new wrinkles out of his playbook?
In fact, they'll have the full arsenal. One of the players said their scouting report is a lot thicker than it's been the last few weeks. They haven't needed many specialty plays in the last six weeks. They've been dominant just with basic plays.

Has Tebow talked about going in the NFL draft next April?
I think it's about 60 - 40 he goes. He's said he hasn't even thought about it, and I really believe it's a decision that'll be made after the season, especially if Florida's in the national championship game.

Money doesn't seem to be his motivation, though.
No, but on the plus side for going pro is the opportunity to do more of the charity work he wants to do. The NCAA restricts what players are able to do, and I think that frustrates him at times. He's trying to do good things and they're saying 'No, you can't do that.' But if you go to the NFL you can do pretty much anything you want. So that's going to be a factor, too.

But in the end I think it'll come down to what he's accomplished. If they lose to Florida State or lose to Alabama, and don't win the national title or the SEC, that will weigh into it, because he'll have not won a championship as a starter -- only as a backup.

Highlights of the game the Noles hope to duplicate on Saturday

Rewind to September 25th, the day Ole Miss shocked the Gators 31 - 30 at Benny Hill Stadium. Florida led in all important stats except one -- turnovers. The Rebels shook five fumbles loose, recovering three. They also blitzed Tebow all day, sacking him three times. Credit those sacks in part to the Ole Miss secondary that played a smothering zone and took away the deep threat.

Florida still had a chance to win with a late drive, but they stalled at the Rebs' 32 with a fourth down and about two feet to go. So with 40 seconds left and down to their last gasp, who gets the ball? That's right, and watch what happened.

Of course Tebow was sure he'd made it. But a voice from the bottom of the pile foretold his fate, as described here. Later, the humble Gator QB (NOT) told reporters, "We're rarely stopped on fourth-and-1. That's part of our swagger." 

After the game a teary-eyed Timmy choked back his emotions, and made this vow. We're eager to hear that hurt and see those red eyes again Saturday night if FSU's D can replicate what Ole Miss defenders did to burst no. 15's bubble.

"Hang on everybody, here come the Noles!"

FSU fans still get the chills when they hear Brent Musburger signal the greatest fourth quarter comeback ever. It was 1994 and the reptiles had a 37 - 3 lead late in the game. Gator fans were high-fiving. Spurrier was smiling that smug smile on the sidelines. Then lightning struck. And the rest was college football history. So to kickoff our Garnet & Gold Grudge Game coverage, here's the video none of us ever get tired of watching.

Seminoles blow out Western Illinois, at least for awhile anyway

What looked to be headed towards a blow out when Florida  State led by 24 points turned into a relatively close game. But the Seminoles who never trailed held off Western  Illinois to win 67-55.

In the first half FSU had slowly begun to pull away from the Leathernecks. A steal by Jordan DeMercy and pass to Toney Douglas who laid the ball in right before the halftime buzzer gave the ‘Noles a 34-20 lead.

At the start of the second half Florida  State continued to pound the ball inside exploiting their definite height advantage against Western four guard line up. Xavier Gibson’s three point play put FSU up 46-22 with fourteen minutes to play.

At that point it appeared FSU would cruise to victory.

Frigidly Random and Suggestively Meaningless Thoughts

1. HEY MARYLAND!! Did you not watch last week’s FSU game against Boston College when the Seminoles thought it would be reeeeeeeeeally nifty to have a Blackout game too? You must have missed how that one turned out. Just a suggestion for the black unis, FWIW  … bonfire. On second thought, Florida State fans enjoyed you wearing them. Just forget that piece of advice.

2. In watching the highlight show this afternoon I could not help but notice how empty the stands were behind Bobby and Gene as they did the show on the field. Sort of like how empty they were with 8:44 to play in the game. Must have been the really cold weather that sent the Maryland fans home early. Yeah, that’s the reason.

3. Falling under the category of more than I wanted to see, thank goodness the cameras cut away from Myron Rolle as he changed into his uniform. It was getting pretty close to an X-rated broadcast there for a minute.

4. I just want to take this brief moment to compliment Maryland’s Dave Philistine on a fine tackle of Christian Ponder. Unfortunately for Dave, Ponder was already in the endzone.

5. With Maryland moving the ball in the fourth quarter, Mickey Andrews decided to insert some of the starters back into the lineup which prompted this prophetic comment from William Floyd. “I guarantee you (Terrapin QB) Turner doesn’t want to see Everette Brown again.” Three guesses (and the first two don’t count) on what the next play was.

6. From Gene Deckerhoff on Brown: “Everette Brown is the cashier because he is making the Terrapins pay.”

7. Best comment as the game wore down (again from Floyd): “Right now Maryland is looking like, Coach, will you please run the ball so we can get off the field?”

8. Also from Deckerhoff, “The ‘Noles are playing like we hope they will for the next five or ten years.” What, he couldn’t hope for 100 years?

Toney Douglas Out-Duels Coastal Carolina

by Bill from Tampa

Toney Douglas scored 30 points that included six three pointers in leading Florida State to yet another come from behind victory, this time over Coastal Carolina, by the score of 82-70.

Said Leonard Hamilton on Douglas’ performance, “You almost expect that from Toney” who added 6 rebounds, 5 assists, and 4 steals to his boxscore line.

The Seminoles as they have done in the three previous games this season got behind early in the game before eventually grinding out the win. In this game, however, FSU was behind by its largest margin yet when the Chanticleers built a 25-10 lead on the strength of five three point baskets with 8:35 left in the first half.

Last week a loss to B.C. This week a win thanks to a different kind of B.C.

This week B.C. meant Ball Control. FSU played smart and aggressive, got four turnovers, and hogged the ball, keeping Maryland's offense chilling on the sidelines. The result was some memorable numbers:

36:02 Time of possession

8:19 Time of FSU's first drive of the second half, eating more than half the third quarter and resulting in a Gano field goal

172 Yards rushing by Nole runners

81 Rush yards by Ponder alone

3 of 3 Gano field goals, with a longest of 48 yards

252 Total yards allowed by the Seminole D

6 Sacks of Terps' QB Chris Turner

3.5 Sacks just by Everette Brown

9.20.03 Date of the last game FSU beat an ACC opponent by a bigger margin (56 -7 vs. Duke)

2000 Year when the Noles last beat a ranked team on the road by a bigger margin

17 - 2 FSU's lead in the series with Maryland

"Mickey Andrews preference for man defense will help FSU": A Maryland preview from Turtle Waxing

Matt at the Turtle Waxing blog tackles our 5 Questions segment this week. We appreciate his insights and in-depth preview of the Terrapins.

Why have the Terps have been so erratic, losing to Middle Tennessee and blanked 31 - 0 by Virginia, yet beating nationally ranked California, plus Wake  and UNC?
I've been asked this question by every blogger I've done a Q&A with this year. Frankly all my answers probably don't amount to any more than grasping at straws. I don't think anyone, even the team on sodium pentathol, could explain it. For a team loaded with seniors I think there is a deficit of leadership among the players. Many of the better players who are seniors are the lead by example type which doesn't make for much peer pressure on the team. It is probably also worth noting that when these seniors arrived on campus the program was past the 31 wins in three seasons heyday. They've known more mediocrity than excellence. The staff hasn't always done a great job of game preparation or game planning either.

Friedgen turned the offense over to coordinator James Franklin. How do you rate his progress as a play caller, and how will he attack FSU?
I think Franklin has improved since the beginning of the year when the offense really sputtered. Now it is merely average. About the best you can say is that, with the help of QB Chris Turner, the offense just doesn't make mistakes. Franklin has shifted to more of a power running attack as the season has progressed even though he came in with a "west coast" style scheme. I think he could do a better job of getting the ball to the playmakers on offense and he seems to prefer underutilized players like WR Danny Oquendo and TE Landsford Watson. My guess is that Franklin won't be confident that he can protect Turner with the shaky offensive line so look for him to try and run the ball and mix in short passes. I think Mickey Andrews preference for man defense will help FSU, unless they surrender some big plays. Sitting back in a zone plays into Maryland's hands.

Is the Terp D better at stopping the run or pass, and do they play more Man or Zone coverage?
 I'd say Chris Cosh's defense isn't particularly good at stopping
either the run or the pass. I guess If I had to pick one I would say
trying to pass the ball exclusively would be more difficult because they do have some decent cover guys in the secondary. Virginia Tech dominated the defensive line with a running attack that in prior weeks had been moribund. The line is a collection of undersized "effort" players with limited athletic skills, though younger guys like Travis Ivey and Dion Armstrong have played more in recent weeks. The pass rush mostly comes from linebackers like Moise Fokou coming off the edge on obvious passing downs. I think Cosh usually plays more zone, or did play more zone at the beginning of the year, but will mix in blitzes and man coverage. The style of defense is a read-and-react scheme and the linebackers have struggled at times with those responsibilities. In passing downs you'll often see Maryland rush the four linemen and drop everyone else. Cosh does very little to try to fool the offense. The Terps are 67th and 76th in rushing and passing defense but are 23rd in scoring defense. This defense has bent and bent but hasn't broken as much this year with the exception of the Virginia game. An athletic and talented offense like FSU should scare the you know what out of Maryland's defense because they probably can't match FSU's speed, especially in the front seven.