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Chasing down those web rumors about one of the toughest QB's FSU will face in '09

Don't give up your tickets to the Jacksonville State game just yet. Not unless you don't care about seeing one of the most talented QBs in the country challenging Mickey's defense.

Despite what you might've read on some message boards, Ryan Perrilloux has not flunked out and should be under center on the evening of September 12th.

First to kabosh the rumor was Birmingham News Sportswriter Mike Perrin who covers JSU. Perrin was surprised to hear Perirlloux was academically ineligible. "Especially because he made the Dean's List last semester," said Perrin.

Next we talked to Jacksonville's Sports Info Director, Greg Seltz, who said the former LSU QB has "consistently made a 3-point average. He's also working out most every day in the team's voluntary summer program." Plus, there are no conduct issues, according to Seltz.

Jax State has NCAA issues of its own. The Ayatollahs of Athletics, otherwise known as the NCAA, recently denied JSU's final appeal banning postseason play. Their sin? Scoring below 900 over a four-year period in Academic Progress Ratings, and "failing to show significant, sustained improvement or meet other factors."

Mike Perrin of The B'ham News explains it better here, and blasts the NCAA's priorities in this later column.

The Drive That Defines Jimbo

“When you play great people, you can’t be one dimensional. Defenses today are taking the attack mode. We have to keep them off balance. When they think we are going to pass, we’ve got to run and when they want us to run, we have to keep on passing. Down and distance will dictate that."

Beyond all the X's and O's, those words seem to define Jimbo Fisher's offensive philosophy, reducing it to the simplest terms. And that was when he was still at LSU.

It's still his M.O. Here's what Paul Strelow, the Clemson beat writer at The State, said before FSU caged the Tigers last fall.

"Fisher is masterful at scripting one play off another and using multiple formations to achieve a balanced attack."

It didn't happen overnight. Not in his new job. Before he could become a masterful architect, he had to tear down FSU's offense to the foundations, bring in subcontractors like Rick Trickett, and work through old attitudes, suspensions, and countless other setbacks.

But by the end of last season, Fisher had shaped the Noles attack to a reasonable facsimile of his ultimate vision of a powerful machine hitting on all sixes.

The best example: The 16 play, 85 yard drive against Wisconsin in the Champs Bowl. Not only did it result in 7 points, it ate 7:43 off the clock -- more than half of the third quarter.

Better yet, the drive was a confidence builder the team can carry into 2009. Even 'Consin fans realized FSU's offense was in total control, having wrestled the momentum from the Badgers. Despite two incomplete passes and a 9-yard sack of Ponder, it was clear the Noles were in the zone as they drove the field and chewed the clock.

Florida State's Fullback Position Might Be Anything But Full

The buzz from FSU's summer workouts is that fullbacks Marcus Sims and Seddrick Holloway are MIA. Why? Reportedly Holloway is out of shape and Sims is more of an attitude situation.

A spokesperson at FSU Media Relations told us that both are still on the team, so nothing's final yet.

Let's hope that at least one gets his act together by the time players report for pre-season practice in August. There are no other fullbacks listed on FSU's roster. And that includes the on-again-off-again Matt Dunham, who was welcomed back to the team in May. Even so, as any fan who's kept up with Dunham since his heralded signing with FSU knows, getting him ready to contribute will be a project.

Wanted: University President to boost FSU's rankings (not the ones you think)

By now you've heard the tom-tom's beat out the news: Thomas Kent Wetherell will be retiring this week as FSU's Prez and part-time A.D. (according to well-placed sources).

Maybe T.K. is tired of the verbal rotten tomatoes coming from all sides. Some deserved, some not.

Whatever. It's time to wipe the slate clean and find a President who can do for the school what Bobby Bowden once did for the football program. Not just a leader, a miracle worker who'll take Florida State to new heights at the lowest moment in its history. Overcoming budget shortfalls and program cuts in a university system trying to stretch too few tax dollars over too many schools.

Think it's painful for the Noles to rank behind other ACC schools and the reptiles in sports polls? Check out U.S. News and World Report's 2009 rankings of public universities.

We're number 50. Not a cheer you'll hear any student or alum shout at a pep rally. And does it make your teeth hurt to see who's ranked above FSU? UF #17, Maryland #18, Clemson tied for #22 (not a typo), Va. Tech tied for #30, and N.C. State tied for #37.

Truth is, Clemson's #22 because they believe those rankings count -- driving enrollments, helping raise money and attract blue chip faculty. So maybe FSU needs a Prez like this guy. He knows how to play the game and shoot for the top.

We're really number 102. Peruse the magazine's rankings of public and private universities. It's enough to make you choke on your Lucky Charms. Duke, Wake and B.C. are in the top 30. Miami (grrr) is #51 on that list. In fact, FSU ranks last among all ACC schools.

So nothing much is riding on T.K.'s successor. Just the future of your alma mater and the value of your diploma.

T.K. was the Jerry Jones of college football, but...For all his micro-managing of the football program and the chiro school charade, he deserves credit for a few things. Not the least of which is how he went for the NCAA's throat when they tried to knock Chief Osceola off his horse. If it weren't for Wetherell's stout defense of everything Seminole, we might be cheering the FSU Fighting Sea Turtles this fall.

Where the $800K rumor about the Brewers offer to McDaniel came from

We've been in touch with Milwaukee Brewers media today about the team's alleged $800,000 signing bonus offer to Jacobbi McDaniel. Here are two differing, but interesting, angles from two sources who were asked to confirm the big bucks dangled in front of Jacobbi by the Brew Crew.

First, here's what Tom Haudricort, who covers and blogs about the Brewers for The Milwaukee Journal, had to say:

"The Brewers do not reveal bonus offers, so I can't confirm it. All I can say is it's way, way higher than that round would dictate."

Then we got this revealing response about the $800K offer from Jim Breen who covers Milwaukee for The Sports Bubbler:

"I cannot personally confirm it because it has not been written anywhere or told to me in person, but I know of a Brewers blogger/writer who has talked to McDaniel personally.  McDaniel apparently confirmed that he has received an offer of $800K and is about 50-50 on signing with the Brewers.

The Brewers anted up so much money (if true) for McDaniel because he would have been a much higher selection had it not been for signability concerns.  Teams generally pay prep players over-slot bonuses to compensate for the fact that they would make more money going to college first.

The Brewers are hoping to steal McDaniel away from football with some money.  Ultimately, I believe Milwaukee will not be successful, but you cannot fault them for aggressively pursuing the young man."

Despite Andrew Carter's encouraging interview with McDaniel, $800 Large is a boatload of bucks for a kid from a humble background. Which is why we won't issue an official "Whew" until Jacobbi has unpacked in Tallahassee.

Tribe Transformation: Or how Florida State retooled its recruiting effort after the '07 breakdown

We recently shined a harsh light on FSU's train wreck of a recruiting class in 2007. Out of 20 players signed, eight are gone for various reasons (five were academic casualties, three transferred). Seven are buried on the depth chart. Only five have contributed meaningful playing time so far (four were starters at one time or another in '08).

While you can't give the '07 class a final grade until a few years from now, we'd give it a mid-term grade of D. How did things get so crappy?

Turmoil and turnover. Back-to-back 7 - 6 seasons. All the negative buzz of the Jeff Bowden years. Perceptions of an unstable coaching staff, with four of them out the door. How bad did things get at the Moore Center?

Recruiting offensive stars became a hard sell, according to one source who was inside the program at the time. So the handful of FSU coaches actively recruiting got a little desperate. They took more chances, made compromises on talent and were less concerned about character and academics. But change was in the wind.

The rebound. Four new offensive coaches headlined by Bowden's handpicked successor. One, James Coley, became the new recruiting coordinator. Even more dramatic, the Noles created a new position: Director of Player Personnel, with Bob LaCivita ushering in a quantum shift in recruiting.

For starters, FSU locked in commitments early, instead of keeping them secret til the last moment. Over half the 2008 class was committed six months before signing day. And there was a new emphasis on kids with clean backgrounds and a higher probability of making passing grades.

The contrast between the recruiting classes of '07 and '08 was dramatic.

Only three academic casualties among 29 signees.

Travis Arnold, DB - Enrolled in January at Butler Community College in Kansas. Could find his way back to Tallahassee after graduation.

Anthony McCloud, DT - At Itawamba CC in Mississippi with plans to return to FSU in 2010 after graduating from ICC.

How much access to FSU athletic department records should the media have?

Does it have a right to such seemingly harmless info as the manifest for flights to road games? Do you care who gets complimentary tickets to games and how many? Should the public have details about summer jobs held by football players?

One newspaper thinks it, and you, should see it all (read the whole story here). The Columbus Post-Dispatch requested athletic department information from every Division 1 school. The results were a mixed bag.

A little over half the schools delivered, the rest ignored it. Half of those that complied censored flight manifests. Only 20% gave info on summer jobs.

Getting down to the nitty-gritty about certain schools:

- FSU was one of the universities that censored some information.

- The Noles were one of the schools reporting an NCAA secondary violation for athletes who used their scholarship book money to buy supplies for friends.

- Florida blacked out info about NCAA violations involving football and basketball, but was forthcoming about other sports.

- Some schools avoided providing information by charging prices for it that the newspaper was unwilling to pay. Maryland put a price tag of more than $35,000 to cough up the dirt.

What the Post-Dispatch is challenging is a 35-year old federal law (FERPA) that protects the privacy of students from kindergarten through grad school. The paper believes major schools are using it to "keep their NCAA violations secret."

The issue is too complicated to dive into here, but check out the law and the story. See if you think it's juicy enough to be the media's next body slam of college football or just a clever way to sell newspapers.

"Bowden will get his wins back," predicts Sporting News college football writer

Matt Hayes, opining on his Sporting News podcast, has a cynical take on the NCAA and what he believes is an unwillingness to punish for fear of killing the golden goose. The side effects of that would be good news for Bobby Bowden.

"It's in the NCAA's best interests for everybody to be healthy and for teams to make money...You put a team on probation now, you take away bowl money for a year. You take away X-number of scholarships for a year, you're impacting that team years on down the road. And I don't think they want to do that...They are not going to take programs down like they used to in the good old days of the 80s and 90s. It's just not going to happen. That's why Bowden will get his wins back. That's why if anything comes of this USC stuff...one way or the other they will not connect it to coaches knowing about it. And that's the way of getting out of everything. 'Well, the coaches didn't know about it, so you can't punish them.' And that's how it works."

Terry Bowden building FSU-North, but don't count on Preston Parker just yet

When Terry Bowden took the reins at North Alabama he put out the Help Wanted sign: Players Needed, FSU Connections a Plus. To date, he's rounded up four former Nole players, plus two coaches with Garnet & Gold roots.

Included are running backs Brandon Paul and Jamaal Edwards. Paul redshirted in '07 at FSU and played in one game in '08 before mysteriously turning in his gear. Edwards was a blue chip star with huge high school stats who never got it together in Tallahassee and left after the '07 season.

O-Lineman Will Furlong, often injured and slipping down Trickett's depth chart, is the latest Nole at UNA. He joins another OL, Kyle Futch, who was listed as a senior on FSU's 2008 roster.

Preston Parker? Who knows? The Times-Daily, the Lions hometown paper, reports that Parker has visited UNA but hasn't signed yet. Possibly shopping other schools?

Coaching UNA's receivers will be Terry's little brother, Jeff. Cynics might say he's a gift to North Alabama from FSU Boosters. Their generous Bowden buyout allowing Jeff to become an unpaid volunteer coach.

Another volunteer is blast-from-the-past Pat Carter. One of FSU's all-time great tight ends, Carter was drafted in 1988 and spent 20 years playing and coaching in the NFL.