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The Top 10 Things Mickey Andrews' wife Diane has never said

10. "Hey, you're home early."

9. "We should invite that nice Coach Amato for dinner."

8. "If you're passed over for head coach, you oughta quit."

7. "Lighten up, it's just a game."

6. "I hope your guys take it a little easier on Danny Wuerffell this year."

5. "Everybody knows it's offense that wins games."

4. "Why can't they build a statute of you?"

3. "Loyalty is vastly overrated."

2. "You've got enough to do without being a father figure to your players, too."

1. "Remember, we don't need FSU as much as they need us."

And the 2009 Marie Antoinette "Let 'Em Eat Cake" Award for Being Out-of-Touch, Entitled & Arrogant goes to...

 

Defensively Random and Flowingly Meaningless Thoughts

1. Forget the truck he got. Those last two defensive stands were the real retirement gifts to Mickey.

2. The one and only positive of Mickey Andrews’ retirement? No more sunflower seeds to clean up off the field after the game.

3. And just when the only bowl I thought I’d be looking forward to was my cereal bowl. Instead I’ll have to visit the cardiologist.

4. Show of hands please. How many of you said about 193 please please please please doing your best Judge Smails impression asking for the defense to hold Maryland in those last thirty-two seconds?

5. And on that last play of the game by Maryland before the ball carrier was finally tackled, why was I having these flashbacks to that game a few years ago where the ball was lateraled about 47 times that eventually led to a touchdown? Or that famous Cal/Stanford game of the 80’s for that matter. At least the band wasn’t on the field so I guess we were safe.

6. Dustin Hopkins is getting that ricochet off the upright through the goalposts thing down quite well. What is that …. three on the season so far? I’ll REALLY be impressed when he kicks it off the press box, bouncing it off the luxury boxes on the other side of the field, then off helmet of an oncoming rusher, and then off the upright and through the goalposts all on the same kick. Piece of cake.

7. OK, you can keep those new uniforms. For the moment. But come the first loss though …….

8. FSU was just toying with Maryland just to give you-know-who a false sense of confidence.

9. Bobby Bowden after the game: "All the games we’ve lost … it wasn’t for a lack of effort. It was lack of execution. You can see we still have a lot of work to do on that.” Here’s hoping that light goes on in the next six days.

10. Those could not possibly have been ACC refs out there. No way. Not with zero penalties on FSU. I mean there wasn’t even the token phantom holding call. Who were those imposters and can we get them every week?

Bonus Defensively Random and Flowingly Meaningless Thoughts...

FSU's defense dominates again in 39-point road win over Mercer

by Bill from Tampa

Television announcers covering the game between Florida State and Mercer seemed rather surprised at the complete domination by FSU’s defense in blowing out the Bears 89-50. Color analyst Dan Bonner even commented “No one could have seen this coming.”

Obviously they were not paying attention when the Seminoles demolished the other two Atlantic Sun members they faced prior to playing Mercer.

For the third game in a row the Seminoles’ defense overwhelmed an A-Sun opponent. The carnage included 13 blocked shots by six different players led by Solomon Alabi’s 5 rejections, 11 steals (four by Luke Loucks), and a devastating 19.7% FG where the Bears connected on just 14 of 71 shots.

At the half Mercer was 5 of 37 with all five buckets coming from behind the arc. Mercer did not make a two point basket until 14:20 was left in the game when Daniel Emerson scored on an offensive put back.

The Bears were just simply intimidated by the taller and more athletic Seminoles who could not get hardly any breathing space inside once the ball went into the paint.

That was probably not what Mercer expected when scheduling the Seminoles as their homecoming opponent. By the end of the game many of the 3,200 capacity crowd had gone on to other festivities.

Leonard Hamilton praised his defense for being active and helping out when a teammate was beaten. “There is no doubt that our defense is the signature aspect of this team,” Hamilton said.

“Our depth makes it tough on other teams as we are able to throw fresh bodies at them."

M - I - C - K - E - Y...

And thanks to the offense for bailing Andrews out on his final moment of fussin' and fumin' along Doak's sidelines. Not to mention saving the Noles from their first losing season in a generation. Wheeeew.

Maryland Terrapin close-up with Matt from Turtlewaxing

If any group of fans is more disappointed in their team's season than FSU's faithful, it's Maryland supporters. They also have their a coaching controversy of their own. So we appreciate Matt from Turtlewaxing answering some questions about FSU's annual Atlantic Division opponent -- and the one that could sink the Noles bowl hopes on Saturday.

Is Jamarr Robinson coming of age at QB, or will Coach Friedgen burn the redshirt year of promising freshman Danny O'Brien as he's said he's not afraid to do?

A: "Even with Robinson struggling to pass the ball and Friedgen making comments about potentially using O'Brien I doubt Friedgen will play him unless Robinson gets hurt. Who knows what will happen in the Spring but for now Robinson seems entrenched as the starter. Perhaps Turner will be able to come back for limited action in the finale against Boston College but this looks to be the Robinson show from now on. It is an open question if Robinson possesses the mental acuity to run the offense but for now they will just scale back the playbook and
take their chances."

Beating Clemson was the high point of Maryland's year. What kind of game plan did they use to upset the Tigers?

A: "The defense did a very good job keeping C.J. Spiller and Jacoby Ford from making any big plays. The blitzing of Don Brown's defense seemed to flummox the young Clemson quarterback. It was a game that Maryland played very close to the vest with a fair amount of luck. A big punt return by Tony Logan set up the only score of the second half and if it wasn't for a horrible game by Clemson's field goal kicker, who missed two field goals in the forth quarter, the result would have been different. Looking back it was a game that Clemson failed to win as much as it was a game that Maryland played well enough to win."

How do you gauge the team's mood? Do they feel that have something to prove in their final two games?

Seminoles Flatten the Hatters, 80-38

by Bill from Tampa

Through two games this season, it has been nothing like last year when Florida State had to eek out narrow victories over Jacksonville and Stetson.

FSU easily dispatched the Dolphins on Monday night. Wednesday night the Seminoles destroyed the outclassed Hatters.

Leading by thirty-six at halftime and by as much as forty-five in the second half, FSU led from start to finish in beating Stetson 80-38.

The ten points the ‘Noles allowed in the first half were the fewest points ever allowed at the Donald L. Tucker Center.

Leonard Hamilton said he was concerned about what kind of intensity his team would bring to the game. Those concerns were probably eased greatly by intermission (although you'd never know it if you watched Hamilton on the sideline) as FSU held Stetson to just three baskets the last one coming with 11:27 remaining.

Who says Mickey Andrews can't adjust to stop opposing offenses? Not this guy

Riley Skinner had a disappointing game against FSU on Saturday. The senior QB who led Wake Forest to so many victories during his four years was frustrated by his first and only loss to FSU -- and apparently by some of what Mickey Andrews' defense threw at him.

“We thought they’d be blitzing a good bit. We wanted to kind of work the edges of the field. There were a couple of opportunities, and we called it going downfield. Unfortunately every time we called it to go downfield they got into a coverage that we didn’t expect. And with two safeties back there it took away a couple of our routes that we wanted to take a shot at.

“We didn’t really get into a really good rhythm and the turnover in the red zone was tough. We tried to take a couple of shots downfield but I guess when that happened we didn’t execute them and sometimes they weren’t there.‘’

Post Jax game notes and analysis from our courtside correspondent, Bill from Tampa

Bill's back from Jacksonville and buzzing with thoughts about FSU's 87-61 season debut. Here they are, raw and barely edited for your first Nole basketball fix of the season.

Leonard wants us to score in the 80s. He got that. He wants 5 or 6 players in double figures. He got that. He wants balanced offense. He got that (and if we continue to have excellent shooting from the outside like that, this team is going to be VERY hard to defend). He always wants defense. He got that, too, from everyone.

A good start to the season.

Jax only had one really dangerous guy on offense to deal with, Ben Smith. But still it was a veteran team and they are picked to win the Atlantic Sun.

I was actually a little surprised we beat them as easily as we did. But by about half way through the first half we had control of the game.

There was some sloppiness which you would expect, but that was for brief periods. No lengthy stretches where we lost focus. Overall though I'd give that performance a solid B maybe even a B+ (FT shooting not good and some turnovers could have been avoided I felt).

It is no secret what we want to do on offense: get the ball to Solomon as we tried to do that nearly every possession for the first five or so. Solomon got his man in foul trouble early and had 8 points right away. Jax had no answer for him.

Then after trying to collapse on him, here came our dribble drive penetrations and kick outs to Snaer, Dulkys, Xavier, and Luke, who were hitting threes .

Keep that up and this team is going to be very hard to defend.

Defensively I liked how the guys moved, sliding over to help while still keeping their man in their sights (I felt Jax did not move very well in those situations, could have had some cutters to the basket but didn't). Shows they were keeping their heads on a swivel.

I also liked how we put the pedal down and kept it there. There was no repeat of last year when Jax outscored us 17-2 in the last 3:40.

Breaking it down: Simplicity and consistency gave E.J. a recipe for success

We keep watching the video of FSU's thunder-stealing win over Wake. And continue to be impressed by Jimbo's tightly-focused, no-frills game plan. His recipe for victory was fairly simple: screens, short passes, options and a big helping of Jermaine Thomas. Blend all those ingredients with a smooth, talented young QB who played virtually mistake-free and you get a score reminiscent of Florida State vs. Wake in the 90s.

To underscore the dogged way FSU stuck to the script, check out just how short those short passes were.

Non-screen passes (actual yards that passes traveled beyond the Line of Scrimmage, not counting Yards After the Catch): 4 (dropped), 2, 5, 1 ,8, 9 (incomplete), 4, 4, 6, 5 (dropped), 4, (dropped), 20 (intercepted), 5, 3 (TD to Forston with YACs).

Screens caught behind or on the L.O.S.: 6 receptions, no drops or incompletes, and all thrown with a nice touch (something lacking in a more experienced FSU QB in the recent past). Two of those screens -- a Jailbreak to Fortson and bubble to Reed -- turned into some of the Noles longest gains of the afternoon.

That's it. E.J. was 15 for 20. Nothing over 9 yards except the 20-yard interception near the end of the first half.

It could've been 18 for 20 if WRs hadn't dropped three well-thrown passes. The most blatant was Reliford's whiff on a perfectly throw screen on the first play of the game. With a blocker in front of him and Wake faked out by the misdirection, who knows how far Beau could've run.

Another E.J. asset: His deft ball-handling that kept Wake off balance most of the day. Only once did the Deacons really catch on and blow up a play. That was FSU's first play of the second half when E.J. faked the sweep one way and rolled out the other to throw a screen. Wake's corner was there to meet him and got WF's only sack of the afternoon.

A dumbed-down game plan? Not really. Just simplified to maximize E.J.'s chances for success, keeping the pressure off with quick throws and misdirection.

It'll be fun to watch Jimbo's game plans develop over E.J.'s next three starts (Maryland, UF, and most probably a bowl game). Fisher should be able to stay one step ahead of opposing D-Coordinators, keeping them guessing about what new wrinkles he'll add to E.J.'s repertoire.

Bottom line: Barring any unforeseen banana peels of fickle fate, FSU Football can actually be fun again.