Obligatory Vacated Wins Post

In no particular order: I’m still sick of it – I was sick of hearing about FSU vs. the NCAA months ago. I’m still sick of hearing about it. Florida State has egg on their face. Can we move on now? Money well spent? – We couldn’t have put the legal fees defending this stupidity to a better use? Track National Championship – It’s a shame that it had to be vacated, but in the long run the 12 football wins that were vacated are more meaningful to the general public. FSU Baseball – They only vacated four wins? Who is calculating the totals for Florida State? Do they have a clue? Timing of the announcement – On Super Bowl Sunday. That’s spineless. Smart, but spineless. Who cares? –... [Read more]

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The Zen Of Coley: Volume 2

(OMG! OMG! OMG! We’ve got some more stolen journal entries from everyone’s favorite Coley, James Coley. These are from just after signing day!) ZOC Entry #39 – ColeyBot looked at me at 12:01 AM on National Signing Day and said, “ALL YOUR RECRUITS ARE BELONG TO US!” No more Zero Wing for ColeyBot. ZOC Entry #40 – I liked the WAR ROOM on NSD. The only thing that would have made it more awesome would have been ACTUAL WAR IN THE ROOM. I’m thinking GLADIATOR STYLE, where WARRIORS wrestled LIVE GATORS to the floor, while impaling an IBIS and slapping around a Tiger or two. ZOC Entry #48 – NOLES finish with #6 Class in the country. OTHERS WOULD BE PLEASED. Me? I HAVE MORE WORK TO DO. FEAR THE SPEAR, I’m... [Read more]

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FSU Pulls Away From Miami, 71-65

Leonard Hamilton had a short talk with his two point guards last Wednesday. What he told them was sometimes you need to step out of your comfort zone and be aggressive. Unselfish is not always a good thing and the usually unselfish guards responded. Two days after Derwin Kitchen obliterated his previous career mark, Luke Loucks followed Kitchen’s lead in scoring 19 points, five better than his prior career high, in leading Florida State to a 71-65 victory over the Miami Hurricanes. Loucks blistered the nets connecting on 5 of 7 from the floor including 3 of 5 three pointers and added 6 of 8 from the free throw line. In addition the sophomore pulled down five boards and had only one turnover against three assists in 25 minutes of court time. It... [Read more]

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The Nation Underestimates Jimbo Fisher

If there’s one thing that I know about FSU Football heading into the 2010, it’s that they have a leader in Jimbo Fisher. Sure, that seems pretty obvious considering he’s the head coach, but just because someone is in charge doesn’t mean that person is a good leader. I also have absolutely no personal knowledge of whether Jimbo Fisher is a good leader day-in, day-out or if his players and coaches think he’s a leader. All I have is my own power of observation. From what I can tell everyone out there is totally underestimating Fisher. I have Clemson friends that compare the situation to Dabo Swinney. Dabo hadn’t proved anything and neither has Jimbo according to them. There’s no reason to be so optimistic... [Read more]

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Post-NSD Thoughts from a Rookie

Wednesday was my first National Signing Day as a fan who had intimately followed recruiting. Months of hype all came down to one signature, on one piece of paper, done by one seventeen year old guy, that thousands of people were watching. Non-sports people must think we’re nuts. My NSD ritual started Tuesday night around 10pm PST. I sat down to my computer and began watching highlight film of our prospects. Not that I hadn’t already seen the film many times before, but I wanted to have that fresh image and impression of the guy’s talents in my mind once he signed (or didn’t sign) with FSU. Watching film and studying a host of commentary from people who know across the internet took me well into the night. Being an FSU... [Read more]

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FSU Can’t Overtake Maryland

Just when it looked like Florida State would tie Maryland Michael Snaer was called for charging into Dino Gregory with 14.5 seconds left taking away Snaer’s floater in the lane. The foul proved very costly that negated a tremendous hustle play by Chris Singleton to block Adrian Bowie’s breakaway lay up a minute earlier. Time was short and Maryland made five of six free throws in those remaining seconds to defeat Florida State 71-67 dropping the Seminoles to 4-4 in conference play. A Florida State turnover led to a two on none breakaway and what looked like a sure two points that would have put Maryland up 68-64. But Singleton came from nowhere racing at least 75 feet to block Bowie’s shot from behind keeping the ‘Noles within two and... [Read more]

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2010 Florida State Seminoles Football Schedule

It’s official the 2010 FSU Football Schedule is Out: 9/4 – FSU vs. Samford 9/11 – FSU @ Oklahoma 9/18 – FSU vs. BYU 9/25 – FSU vs. Wake Forest 10/2 – FSU @ Virginia 10/9 – FSU @ Miami 10/16 – FSU vs. Boston College 10/23 – BYE 10/28 – FSU @ N.C. State 11/6 – FSU vs. UNC 11/13 – FSU vs. Clemson 11/20 – FSU @ Maryland 11/27 – FSU vs. Florida Download the .pdf Helmet Schedule at TheACC.com.  Read More →

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2010 National Signing Day Mood Swing

I went back to the pulse of the internet last night tried my best to gauge the mood of Seminole fans yesterday during the peaks and valleys of National Signing Day. Above is my chart, which evidently indicates that while things appeared to be stable most of the day, the whims of young men can create butterflies in the stomach of fully grown men and women based on where they want to go to college. Interesting NSD facts I learned yesterday: The peak of the day was at 8am, mostly because Seminole fans were slightly overconfident. It was unrealistic to think the Noles would get EVERYONE. The drop off at 9am was either due to everyone getting coffee, or because the start of the day confidence tanked a little bit when some “maybe” recruits... [Read more]

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FSU’s Sarah Hamilton Is Better Than Danielle Lawrie

Well, in one category and that comes with a caveat. But the point of the matter is that Sarah Hamilton is good, very, very good. So is Terese Gober. The Noles will be a ton of fun to watch this year in Lonnie Alameda’s second season at FSU. The other point is that softball (and baseball of course) probably is the sport with the most inane statistics package. Seriously, I’ve seen the weirdest stats come out of baseball / softball guys. They all tell a story, but sometimes it’s just ridiculous. As we head towards the season opener for FSU Softball on February 11th I wanted to make a few of points: Women’s softball is slowly gaining some popularity. ESPN (linked above) actually has a preview of the Top 20 teams this year... [Read more]

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National Signing Day Open Thread

How to use ScalpEm.com on National Signing Day Check Tomahawk Nation (best recruiting coverage) and Seminoles.com (official site). If it’s too “loud” at TN for you, come back here and comment with our writers. Seriously, I’ll update as the day progresses and I’m sure there will be some chatter in here for the ScalpEm.com writers, but I’m not going to claim we’re going to hold a candle to the rest of the coverage out there for National Signing Day. And by “loud” at TN, I just mean they’re going to have a lot of comments and quickly, so it might be hard to get a point across. Think of ScalpEm.com as a spillover spot today for one of the most chaotic days in college football! Officially... [Read more]

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Booster Gifts Up 17% In Jimbo Era

Some people thought the economy was the sole reason to blame for the downturn in Booster donations. They were wrong. Andrew Carter at the Orlando Sentinel is all over it, as usual. Another thing to note: renewal of booster membership is up 90 percent compared to where it was a year ago at this point. Further, Seminole Boosters have received nearly a 17 percent increase in monetary gifts, according to FSU. Also: season tickets for football are up 80 percent in new sales compared to this point last year, while renewals are up from 423 to 2,327. Things continue to look up for the program, don’t you think?  Read More →

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New Year’s (a little late) Predictions

Okay, right off the bat, I’ll admit this post is a month overdue, but hey at least it’s going up. What follows is my personal (and some off-the-wall*) predictions about FSU sports, mostly football. 2010 has already proven to be an unprecedented year in FSU football history. Who would’ve guessed the retiring of our legendary coach would bring top recruits flooding into FSU? Who would’ve guessed Jimbo would assemble such a perfectly orchestrated staff, many with unique ties to the Florida area? Who would’ve guessed the fan base would feel so confident in the program after a nasty 7–6 year and a complete coaching overhaul? Well, to match the rollercoast offseason we’ve already had, here’s some more to... [Read more]

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Jimbotron Confidence Meter

There’s a reason I’ve been asking you guys to vote in the latest Scalpoll. With the new FSU Football administration, I have a new gauge here on ScalpEm.com, the Jimbotron Confidence Meter. Jimbotron was inspired by a few things. First, I just think Jimbotron is a fun name. JIM BO TRON. Say it with me. It just rolls off the tongue. Second this idea is stolen inspired by Matthew Cerrone’s Fan Confidence Meter at Metsblog.com and the Dab-O-Meter over at Block-C.com. Here are the rules: Outside of football season I’ll poll 1x per month. During football season the poll will run after each FSU Football game. Results of the poll are used in a complicated mathematical formula that is a secret. I create the current Jimbotron... [Read more]

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Thoughts on Another Type of Signing Day

As you are probably well aware, “National Signing Day” is this Wednesday. That is the day colleges nationwide find out which current high school football players will join their program in the fall. Everyone has their opinions on National Signing Day. Many don’t like it. Others think it is a great day to celebrate the future of their favorite programs. Others talk about it out of necessity. Although I personally don’t follow National Signing Day, I don’t pass judgment. In the big picture, people who celebrate the signing of 17-year old super prospects aren’t half as creepy as the people who rate, rank, and write about teen beauty pageants. That’s my 2 cents. Anyway, when the year’s hype surrounding... [Read more]

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The Zen Of Coley: Volume 1

(ScalpEm.com received some exclusive and anonymous information regarding one Coach Coley. What follows is a new series, The Zen of Coley with exclusive excerpts from Offensive and Recruiting Coordinator, James Coley’s journal.) ZOC Entry #1 – Damn I’m good. The ColeyBot is complete and allows me to be in two places at once, literally. I’ve checked the NCAA rules numerous times and it says absolutely nothing about having a genetically altered robotic clone as an aid in recruiting, coaching and life. My biggest mistake in the design of ColeyBot was running it only on Cuban Coffee. I should have chosen a cheaper fuel like good ol’ Maxwell House. I will keep that in mind for ColeyBot V2, along with laser vision and... [Read more]

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