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Opponent Preview #1: Oklahoma Sooners

by TomRob

Oklahoma Sooners
2009 Record: 8-5 (5-3, Big 12)

OFFENSE  

Scheme: Under the tutelage of offensive coordinator Kevin Wilson, Oklahoma often runs a high-octane, no-huddle attack that preaches balance, but often reverts largely to the passing game. Wilson, who came to Oklahoma from Northwestern several years ago, has led some very potent offenses at Oklahoma, including record-setting units in 2007 and 2008. Although Oklahoma lost offensive players at the rate Spinal Tap lost drummers, the Sooners still managed to average 424 yards and 31 points per game, although they were held to 20 points or less by some of the better foes they faced (BYU, UM, Texas, Nebraska, Texas Tech).

Quarterbacks: Perhaps the biggest in the myriad of injuries OU suffered last year was the loss of QB Sam Bradford. Bradford, who won the Heisman in 2008, was injured in the opener against BYU and eventually was lost for the season. In stepped Landry Jones. Jones, now a sophomore, had his share of growing pains, but also showed flashes of brilliance. Jones (3,198 yards, 58%, 26 TDs, 14 ints.) showed off a good arm and pretty good poise and led all NCAA freshmen in passing yards. Working behind a makeshift line, Jones was often pummeled and threw 7 interceptions in losses to Nebraska and Texas, but coaches hope the year of experience will allow Jones to put his considerable physical tools to better use. Jones will likely still have his rough spots, but he has the ability to be a great QB.

How Right Are The ACC Writers?

By Ryan for ChantRant

Every July, a group of ACC media, coaches, and players descend to Greensboro, North Carolina, to discuss the upcoming football season. While there, the ACC media make their annual preseason predictions for how the ACC will turn out. While some use this as tools to feel better (or worse) about their team heading into the start of the season, let me be the first to burst your bubble. You see, the ACC media is only consistent in one piece of their predictions, and that is getting them wrong.

Granted, training camp has not started yet, and injuries and suspensions can affect the final outcome, but the numbers do not lie (note: all information is from 2005, when the conference changed to their current alignment):

Picking the Atlantic Champion: 20% (1/5). The media likes Florida State, picking them to win the ACC every year with one exception (2008, Clemson). However, outside of 2005, the Seminoles have made the media look silly.

Picking the Costal Champion: 60% (3/5). Much like the Atlantic, the media likes Virginia Tech a lot, picking them every season except for 2006, when Miami was chosen. The Hokies obliged, winning in 2005, 2007, and 2008.

Picking the ACC Champion: 40% (2/5). Odd numbered years were once good to the media, as they successfully picked the 2005 ACC Champion (Florida State), and the 2007 ACC Champion (Virginia Tech). However, they are on a two-year losing streak.

Not picking any of the ACC Championship Participants: 40% (2/5). In 2006 and 2009, the ACC Media whiffed on both the Atlantic and Coastal participants.

What does this all mean? Well, for being subject-matter experts, the ACC media is consistently wrong over half the time. They enjoy consistently picking an FSU-VT matchup, even going so far as to pick the two teams to meet again in 2010.

If you are keeping score, that would be four times in six years, including twice in a row. Virginia Tech, for the second time in a row and third time in four years, is also being picked to be the ACC Champion.

Based on the historical evidence, though, take the predictions with a grain of salt. While FSU and VT are once again the “sexy” picks of the ACC Media, a drunk monkey could pick with the same consistency as the ACC.

Police Blotter: Nigel Carr in Leon County Jail

Here's the mug shot.

Here are the details of the arrest and charges.

While Christian Ponder is heralded as a model player at the ACC media days, the news about Carr has undoubtedly put Jimbo's blood pressure into the stratosphere. Clearly, Nigel is innocent until proven guilty. But the negative press he's generated should by itself be enough to receive his walking papers.

Mister Alexander, welcome to a starting role. Christian Jones and Telvin Smith, you guys can forget about a redshirt.

Florida State not the only ACC school with slow season tix sales

While FSU's season ticket sales are expected to hit about the same as last year, the Noles aren't the only school living with reduced expectations. At Clemson, ticket sales have dropped 13 percent since 2008, when the Tigers sold a record 58,000 season tickets. Despite winning the ACC last year, season tickets are also off at Georgia Tech by about 900.

In other Nole Nuggets, Southern Pigskin ranks Doak Campbell as only third best in Noise Level of all ACC stadiums. The subtle knock on Nole fans is that we're "laid back." Ouch, next we'll be lumped in with "arrive late, leave early" Dodger fans.

And get a load of the digs of FSU's first opponent. Samford may not be a football powerhouse, but you couldn't tell it by the facilities. Check out this tour, including the nearly 40,000 square ft. football fieldhouse.

Finally, if you're really curious about the team Samford brings to Tallahassee in six weeks, take a look inside the Bulldogs 2010 media guide.

Toughest ACC Non-Conf. schedule according to Matt Hayes of The Sporting News?

A virtual high-five and autographed picture of the late Seminole Sol to all who said Florida State. Matt Hayes' column puts the Noles on top in terms of toughness of Non-Conf. ACC schedules, though he dings FSU for playing the worst -- as in most cupcake-y -- for kicking off with Samford.

Expect this to change in coming years. The Florida State welcome mat will be out for two bona-fide pushovers each season if Jimbo has anything to say about it (and, duh, he just might).

In fact, how long before A.D. Spetman schedules the Jaguars of the University of South Alabama as a semi-regular whipping boy? You get the best of both worlds with these new-kids-on-the-block: An easy victory (in the foresee-able future), and strong ticket sales to USA fans who'll undoubtedly follow their team down I-10 and help fill Doak.

And, who knows? If the Jags explode on the college football scene as fast as, say, South Florida, then FSU vs. USA could be an exciting non-conference rivalry a decade from now.

Update: Another ACC team will have the first crack at playing South Alabama. N.C. State is one of two Football Bowl Subdivision teams on the Jaguars 2011 schedule.

Just how bad do you want FSU-OU tickets?

Maybe second only to the Oklahoma land rush of 1889 is the scramble by FSU fans to claim a seat at the September 11 game in Norman. Our Sooner source at Blatant Homerism assures us the 5000 tickets allotted to FSU is the norm for visitors, due to the yearly demand by Okie fans.

OU single-game tickets go on sale to the general public Monday, Aug. 2. But if you want to be a little creative and act fast, you might be able to sneak in before that.

Try the Ticket Marketplace Pre-Sale Tuesday, July 27. The OU site says "Members of OU's Ticket Marketplace will be eligible for an exclusive pre-sale on July 27." You can join the Marketplace for $25, a small price to pay to get ahead in the line for single game tickets. Check it out here. There doesn't appear to be any loyalty oath that you're a Sooner fan.

Boomerblast Pre-Sale / Thursday, July 29. Subscribers to OU's official email newsletter get access to a separate pre-sale on July 29. Sign up here, but you have to do it by today, July 23 "to gain access to this sale." The Boomerblast is FREE. Anyone with an email address can sign up for the weekly newsletter.

Beyond that, get out your wallet. We checked prices on OU's hometown ticket selling site, Totally Tickets, and found prices for two together selling for $175 to $675 -- each.

StubHub.com has them for $135 to $739 per.

Ncaaticketsnow.com has a slightly cheaper price range: $123 to $662 apiece.

Or take your chances September 11. Sooner fans on message boards are confident in going the scalpers route. One says: "Ya can Find Tics before the game at the TailGate or right out in front from sellers. Ive only ONCE not gotten a Ticket there." (Their punctuation)

Ditto from another OU fan: "I have NEVER not been able to get tickets at the stadium.... Even for big games."

Of course, they don't say at what price. But as any hard-bargaining, street-market ticket buyer knows, if you're willing to miss the kickoff, prices drop like a rock after that.

Michael Frazier, A Future Seminole?

by Bill from Tampa

Michael Frazier of H.B. Plant High School in Tampa is a player Florida State verbally offered a scholarship more than eight months ago despite being just a sophomore.

And Frazier, a 6-4, 185 pound SG, is a player that FSU fans would really enjoy seeing play at the Civic Center.

The statistics alone tell you why. Michael is a deadly rangy shooter averaging 26.7 ppg last season and was the first 10th grader in Hillsborough County history to score more than 1,000 points in a season. In addition he added 7.8 rpg to go along with 40 steals.

Frazier is clearly not just an offensive player.

But more than his statistics is his work ethic. Frazier is notorious for his early morning (we’re talking 6 AM) thirty minute workouts every day of the week. It’s a fast-paced, 200-plus shooting workout that covers the various types of shots a well rounded shooter needs to have in his arsenal.

Add in the weight training he does three times a week.

And this is all fit into his schedule while maintaining a 4.0 GPA at what is known as one of the better public high schools educationally in the country. Academics will never be an issue for Frazier.

The rise and fall of Ed Imeokparia

It's hard to top this video for a proud moment in one's life. There was Ed Imeokparia on national TV back in 2008, looking and sounding sharp as he announced his signing with Florida State. He was finishing his senior year at prestigious Blair Academy in New Jersey -- rubbing elbows with future corporate barons -- where he scored a 1010 on his SAT.

Fast forward to Aug. 5 at 1 p.m. when Imeokparia will be arraigned on grand theft charges at the Bay County Courthouse. He was arrested June 15, charged with swiping an expensive cell phone in Panama City. 

Not exactly the direction any of us expected Imeokparia's career to go. The 5'10" athlete was a Rivals 3-Star and Scout 2-Star and a late signing day addition to the Noles 2008 class. For what it's worth, he was recruited by Chuck Amato.

Would Imeokparia have ever been able to move up FSU's depth chart, especially after the setback of a knee injury last year? Probably not, what with will all the competition now at Safety. But it's a shame to see a seemingly good kid screw up his life with a potential felony conviction -- if proven guilty. 

Best case scenario: Imeokparia finds his way back into an FSU uniform. A check of the current roster at Seminoles.com shows that he's still listed.

That said, we highly doubt it. This is the first character blemish on Jimbo's watch. Apparently character now counts as much as talent at FSU. Unless Imeokparia somehow walks with no conviction, allowing him to return is counter to the message Fisher is trying so hard to send.

Sorry, Ed. Coach Bowden gave second chances, and that was enough for many players to clean up their act.

Those days appear to be over at FSU and probably most all of college football.

FSU Women's Golf Shooting For The Stars

by Bob Perrone of Nolefan.org

The 2009-10 Florida State women’s golf team completed one of their finest seasons in school history. They won three tournaments, came in second twice and finished the year in 10th place in the NCAA Championships. The future looks bright for the Lady Seminoles as only two of the golfers are graduating and five of the top six will be returning.

Tenth place is their best finish so far in the NCAA tournament, but they did place higher in national level tournaments that preceded the NCAA. The NCAA did not govern women’s athletics until the 1981-82 school year and the Lady Seminoles did not join the NCAA until the next season.

Women’s golf did not become a varsity sport until 1968 when Florida State hosted the Fifth Annual Florida Intercollegiate Golf Tournament for women; however, FSU had some excellent women golfers before then.  Jo Ann Whitaker and Mary Lena Faulk are two of those golfers. They were probably good enough to make the men’s team in 1948 as they both shot close to women’s par which translated to about six extra strokes from the men’s tees. Whitaker won the Florida Women’s State Amateur Tournament that year and Faulk later joined the LPGA and became an outstanding player.

Pictured above is the 1981 women's championship team. Standing: Barbara Bunkowsky, Michele Guilbault, Head Coach Verlyn Giles, Lisa Young. Kneeling: Jane Geddes and Marla Anderson

Read Bob's full article on FSU Women's Golf at our site for Seminole history and heroes, Garnet & Great.

George Steinbrenner was a serious Seminole supporter -- just ask Mike Martin

Under that gruff exterior, George was known to be a generous guy who did things for others with no thought of exploiting them for PR value. This story from the Lakeland Ledger reveals how Steinbrenner was a major supporter of college sports in his home state. It's true he probably wrote more checks to athletic programs at that school to the Southeast. But his impact at FSU, at least, was more than just monetary.

...Steinbrenner also paid to light baseball stadiums at Florida State, South Florida, the University of Tampa and Jacksonville University. And he partly funded baseball and softball fields at Eckerd College.

"George was one of the first gentlemen in the major leagues that showed a tremendous interest in college baseball," FSU coach Mike Martin said. "He just was a tremendous humanitarian. He genuinely cared about the growth of college baseball."

Martin became FSU's head coach, in part, because of Steinbrenner.

In November 1979, Steinbrenner hired Dick Howser, who had just finished a 43-17-1 season at Florida State. FSU then promoted Martin.

Howser served just one season as Yankees manager. Martin has won more than 1,600 games at FSU since 1980.

Steinbrenner donated annually to Seminole Boosters Inc. since at least 1984, which is as far as the club's records go back. But Charlie Barnes, the executive director of Seminole Boosters, said Steinbrenner had contributed to the club well before then.

Steinbrenner also owned a Ramada Inn in Ocala, which is where then FSU coach Bobby Bowden and Barnes would stay on Bowden's spring booster tour.

The Yankees' owner, who was an assistant football coach at Northwestern and Purdue in the 1950s, always wanted to talk football with Bowden.

"Steinbrenner would wait in the lobby to say hi to Bobby when we drove in late at night," Barnes said. "Very, very impressive man."