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R.I.P. Major Billy Smith, FHP

Almost as familiar a face on the sidelines during the Bowden years as Bobby himself was his security man, Major Billy Smith of the Florida Highway Patrol. Smith spent 46 seasons shadowing Bowden and must have had some great stories to tell about those times. Sadly, he took those stories to his grave. Smith passed away on Saturday. His obituary is here.

Succinctly Random and Dejectedly Meaningless Thoughts

1. I think I speak for all Seminoles fans when I humbly and succinctly say ...... Dammit!!!!

2. Apparently on Black Friday FSU did some shopping at Turnovers 'R Us. Hope they got them on sale.

3. And on that turnover number five, the good news was at least FSU fans didn't have very long to wait to see if EJ Manuel would re-enter the game after he took that bone jarring hit causing a fumble giving the gatros (their ...) aka crocs of XXVI the ball. Eight seconds to be exact. I'm guessing the Seminole defense was anxious to see as well. Thus the quick score. Just a guess mind you.

4. From the ever observant Mrs, BFT following the gift referenced in 3. came the comment from the couch, "We certainly have that aspect of the game down pat today." I could be wrong because it is awful hard to tell sometimes with the missus but my guess is the sarcastic button was on. Just another guess mind you.

5. Let's see .... last year the aforementioned gatros (their ...) aka crocs of XXVI turned the ball over four times in losing to FSU in Gainesville. This year, FSU in this season of giving, hands the ball over to the gatros (their ...) etc five times leading to a loss for FSU. I'm seeing a trend here. So next year we can obviously expect six turnovers and a loss by our short legged scaly friends to the south. You can say you heard it hear first.

6. And on this weekend of Thanksgiving let us all (well, maybe not the gatros (their...) etc) give thanks to Notre Dame for winning their regular season finale, definitely eliminating all chance of a certain team that shall remain nameless from playing in the national title game in January (here's a hint though .... they wear a eye numbing color combination).

7. The Block of the Game Award goes to Devonta Freeman for his down the field pancake block during the 27 yard pass to Rashad Greene. Too bad it was on the sideline cameraman. Oh, and it was out of bounds as well. Surprising the ACC refs calling the game didn't throw a flag on that.

8. OK, who was the smart guy who said the gatros' offense was struggling? Well, it may have been struggling earlier in the season but obviously they waited to give Peace a chance to install his offense. Get it? Huh? Huh?? Give Peace a chance? Never mind.

9. From Desmond Howard on Saturday's Gameday show: "Florida (apparently he does not know the correct term is gatros (their ...) aka crocs of XXVI) is not a sexy team to see in the national championship game .... they don't pass the eye test." I can only assume he was talking about the previously alluded to color combo because I know it hurts my eyes.

10. Sign seen at Doak by an obvious FSU fan:: "Turkey on Thursday, Gator on Saturday." Too much of that latter dish on Saturday if you ask me.

Bonus Succinctly Random and Dejectedly Meaningless Thoughts

Debacle at Doak Game Gallery

Credits and kudos to Chris Holder Photography.

Seminole Soundbites: EJ, Dawkins and Hopkins reflect on the disapointment that is their last game at Doak

Three seniors who won at lot of games at Florida State talk about the pain of leaving it behind and coming up short in their final game at home.

Everett Dawkins

EJ Manuel

Dustin Hopkins

No. 1 gator beat writer picks the Noles to win

Here's our annual, exclusive interview with veteran UF beat writer, Pat Dooley. As usual, Pat pulls no punches when it comes to what he thinks of the gators.

The obvious first question: How mobile is Jeff Driskel going into the game?

Dooley: Everything I heard from Tuesday's practice is that he was running around like there was nothing wrong with him. But you never know for sure. I don't think his ankle sprain was as bad as last year against Alabama that kept him out. But anytime you've had an ankle sprain, you can tweak it. It doesn't even take a full strain to bring it back. So I think he'll be fine as long as nothing else happens to him.

Do you see Jacoby Brissett getting better with increased playing time?

Dooley:  He's okay. He's not mobile. He can't run, he can't move. He throws the ball pretty well -- probably as well as Driskel. But Driskel gives them that element of not only the run, but the threat to run. And I think that's a huge factor. If you have that element of fear of the run it helps you a lot in the rest of your running game.

Why do you think Florida's offense has slowed down from the first half of the season?

Dooley: That's what I wrote for Saturday's paper. It's a combination of many things. First is, they aren't that skilled offensively. Number two, their offensive line has been beat up a little bit. They're fairly healthy for this game, but they've been beat up, had guys missing and lost continuity -- and their backups aren't very good. And then as the season went on, I don't think they had the personnel to adjust that much offensively (as opponents figured out how the gator offense ticked).

Also, and this is a theory of mine. Florida had a very early bye week. And usually in a bye week you self scout and figure out what you're doing and try to get away from tendencies. Theirs was so early I don't think they could do any self scouting and I think that hurt them a little bit, too.

Will we see any new wrinkles from the Boise State playbook?

Dooley:  It's easy to think that. And I wrote a whole column about that -- that gator fans are saying we've been saving something for FSU. And I'm like, you don't have anything to save. I just don't think they have the athletes at wide receiver to do a whole lot different. You're going to see some things, but I don't think it's going to be that different from what you've seen before. They're going to try to win the way they've won ten of their eleven games. Which is running the ball, playing good defense, winning the special teams battle and not turning the ball over. They lost one game and they turned it over six times.

Has O.C. Brent Pease been held back from the wide open offense he ran at Boise State?

Stat Shootout: Noles have the edge in all but one important metric

Total Offense - NOLES

FSU 493.55 ypg (Rank #14) / uf 332.91 ypg (#104)

Passing Offense - NOLES

FSU 281.45 ypg (Rank #32) / uf 143.36 ypg (#114)

Rush Offense - NOLES

FSU 212.09 ypg (Rank #24) / uf 189.55 ypg (#40)

Scoring Offense - NOLES

FSU 42.91 points per game (Rank #7) / uf 25.82 ppg (#79)

Total Defense - NOLES

FSU 236.27 ypg  (Rank #1) / uf 281.00 ypg (4th)

Passing Defense - NOLES

FSU Rank #5 / uf #19

Rush Defense - Noles

FSU 70.64 ypg (Rank #1) / uf 95.18 ypg (#6)

Scoring Defense - reptiles

uf 11.73 points per game (Rank #3) / FSU 13.09 ppg (#5)

Sacks - NOLES

FSU 2.55 per game (Rank #27)* / uf 2.09 per game (#56)

Penalties (Fewest yards per game) - Noles

FSU 59.45 ypg (Rank #83) / uf 63.27 ypg (Rank #94)

*Down from #6 at this time last season.

Noles escape another home court ambush

by Bill from Tampa

Early on what looked to be the start of a runaway turned into a tougher than expected fight as Florida State held off the North Florida Ospreys 75-67.

Led by Michael Snaer's 21 points, 18 of them in the second half, the senior guard showed his leadership in taking control of a struggling Seminole offense and was responsible for turning back several charges by the Ospreys.

The 'Noles led the entire game and raced out to a 16-3 lead with just over five and half minutes gone in the game with almost all of the scoring occurring at point blank range.

The aggressive quick paced offense forced UNF head coach Matt Driscoll to burn two of his timeouts to regroup his team.

The adjustments paid off, notably the double teaming of the ball. The result was nine consecutive possessions by the Seminoles with 7 turnovers and 2 missed field goals. The miscues allowed North Florida to work some of their transition game. A fast break layup by Will Wilson closed the gap to 16-11 at the 9:39 mark.

FSU looked poised to take control of the game again moving out to a  24-13 margin after a jump hook shot by Keil Turpin.

But the 'Noles were just slightly out of sync helped in part by Ian Miller who did not play due to a bone bruise to his right foot suffered in a shoot around on Tuesday. The walking boot was just a precautionary measure.

Seminole Soundbites: Chris Thompson lining up for FSU again? It could happen

After his recent surgery, Chris Thompson sat down with the media this week and talked about the possibility of playing football again. He talks about all the "if's" involved and how he views both of his serious injuries as minor ones that happened for a reason.

Seminole Soundbites: Timmy Jernigan on his conversion from the dark side to FSU

Growing up in Lake City it was pretty much expected that Tim Jernigan would root for that team a few exits down I-75. Here T.J. talks about what made him change sides late in the recruiting game. He also talks about what FSU coaches have done for him, especially his position coach, Odel Haggins.

FSU passes the last big test before the season's final exam with flying colors

by Jeremy Z. at College Football 2Day

Another road game for FSU? No Problem. The Noles clearly came out focused and ready to claim their spot in the ACC Title Game. It wasn’t like any of the years in the past where Florida State had control of their destiny and screwed it up. This year, the Noles made sure nobody would second guess if they should be there in December. Now, all that remains is Florida. First, let’s see where the Noles got it done this past week. 

Offensive line: A-
Huge improvement from the last few games. I think we are still seeing some missed assignments, but this group is still learning. They opened up running lanes, and at times, gave Manuel the time he needed to make some good passes. I was very relieved to see this group get some of their swagger back (it seemed to be missing the last few weeks). This is just the kind of game they needed to get their confidence up for the big game against the lizards.

Running backs: A+
The Stats certainly looked better for the backs this week. They combined for 237 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Freeman had a huge game. James Wilder Jr. looked strong. Anybody else think we should be giving him the ball more? I’d like to see him get the ball twenty times or more. He is a back that could handle the load. Either way, Freeman and Wilder have their work cut out for them against the lizards. This may be the game that Wilder really makes a name for himself.

Quarterback: A
EJ Manuel may have hit most his passes (17-23 2 TDs and 1 INT), but he missed some that he can’t afford to miss this week. Hard to pick on him though, because he did throw two touchdown passes that were picture perfect throws. I hope EJ can take a few less sacks this week. Maybe throwing the ball away, or taking off sooner would be a good strategy this week. That has seemed to be a common problem with him most of the season. I’d like Fisher turn him loose and just let EJ be EJ. I get this feeling that Fisher has kept him bottled up for most of the season. Other than option runs, when have we seen him on a designed run out of shotgun formations? Point being, he hasn’t been running enough, in my opinion. I think we will get to see the offense at another level this week. Let’s hope so, right?

Wide Receivers: A-
Rashad Greene had another solid game.  He and Nick O’Leary had touchdown catches. Rodney Smith was thrown to a few times, but only managed one catch. One pass looked like Rodney lost track of it which almost caused an interception. Kelvin Benjamin is still trying to find his place in the mix of talented receivers. Benjamin had three catches but for only seven yards. Again, that could be because Fisher is holding something back. All this talent at receiver has to translate into something big eventually.

Defensive grades after the jump.