Gut Feeling Game By Game Predictions: FSU Football Going 7-5 In 2008
Posted by NoleCC
By Bill Kristoph (aka Captain Killjoy)
I’ve read Andrew Carter’s blog. I’ve read NoleSports.com. I hear good old P.T. thinks the team has reasons to be optimistic, and I hear that William Floyd thinks the Noles will contend for the ACC Title this season. Maybe it’s the Mets fan in me, but I can’t help thinking that the Noles aren’t going to be much better THIS year. Why? Let’s take a look at the game by game breakdown.
Before I start, let me say this… fans should not talk smack after the Noles hand out two beat downs in the first two games.
(W) September 6, 2008 – Western Carolina (FCS) - Welcome to the Gator preseason schedule. I say that, only because UF has schedule inferior out of conference opponents for years because of the “tough” SEC schedule. This year the Gators play Miami, +1 for them on that. The Noles, trying to pick up a couple of victories while some players are suspended for the first three games for academic scandal issues, play Western Carolina, a team that has the added pressure of an entirely new coaching staff. Noles Win Big 45-6.
(W) September 13, 2008 – Chattanooga (FCS) – The game that doesn’t count. Why? Well only one win against FCS competition counts towards bowl eligibility. So unless the Noles lose this game, it really doesn’t count other than as a stats padder. Noles Win Big 48-10.
(W) September 20, 2008 -Â Wake Forest – Did you sit through the beat down in the rain two years ago? If you say yes, you’re lying. Because only Randy and Noleman were in the stands at the end, along with me. I stayed to the bitter end to witness “the bottom.” The Noles are riding high in front of a good crowd at Doak. Wake Forest will have an off day, and FSU wins after harassing Riley Skinner all day. Noles win 27-17.
(W) September 27, 2008 – Colorado -In Jacksonville, in front of a lackluster crowd. The atmosphere will be nothing like last year against Alabama. The Buffs aren’t a bad team by any means, with Dan “This Is The Big XII” Hawkins at the helm, but they aren’t super impressive either. The heat of Jacksonville will get to them, and the Noles will have a full squad available to them. Plus, FSU has history on their side. Noles Win 24-20.
(W) October 4, 2008 – at Miami – The game of delusions. Drew Weatherford is a Cane killer, like Rix was a Gator killer. The Noles win this one ugly. At least the Orange Bowl is gone, and maybe the general curse against the Canes is too? Another 10-7 win for the Noles?
(L)October 16, 2008 – at N.C. State – Tom O’Brien is still rebuilding the Wolfpack. Lucky for him, the Noles don’t play well on Thursday nights. Sadly for FSU fans, this is the beginning of the end for the season. Pack shock Noles 27-24 with a late TD.
(L) October 25, 2008 – Virginia Tech - I really don’t like the Hokies. I didn’t like their stupid Turkey calls, I didn’t like their fans at the Sugar Bowl in 1999. I don’t like their colors, or the Hokey Pokey. And I really won’t like it when they beat FSU in Tallahassee. VT wins 24-10.
(L) November 1, 2008 – at Georgia Tech - Paul Johnson has the talent to run some very weird schemes, more weird than Navy. Did I mention at GT, he likely has the brains on the team to do it too? FSU has trouble with the option, no matter how good the defense plays (in fact I’d argue the better and faster the D, the worse they play against the option). Atlanta is a tough place to play, even if the seats at Bobby Dodd are like 80 miles from the field. The dark days of November begin for the Noles, Yellow Jackets beat the Noles, 31-20.
(L) November 8, 2008 – Clemson - Clemson is the class or trash of the ACC by this point. I’m banking on the class of it, which means I’ll lose another bet, with Block-C (formerly Danny Ford Is God). Tommy beats his Dad again, Cullen Harper is a Swan, and Clemson runs up and down Doak Campbell Stadium. Clemson 35 Noles 24.
(W) November 15, 2008 – Boston College - Thankfully B.C. lost all of those seniors, and they’re going to have a tough time in 2008. The Noles get revenge from the first blackout game loss, and beat the Eagles, 28-10.
(W) November 22, 2008 – at Maryland - The “hope” game. I have a feeling that FSU will make turtle soup of the Terrapins, giving Seminole fans false hope for the Florida game. The Terps don’t seem to have FSU figured out as well as some other ACC foes.
(L) November 29, 2008 – Florida - Ugh, I really don’t want to talk about them. Tim Tebow is going to have another ridiculous season, while also saving baby seals, being a choir boy, putting Chuck Norris in his place and delivering twins of a random stranger trapped in a burning vehicle. Whatever. Gators win. I’m not predicting a score and my Thanksgiving dinner turns to diarrhea. It will make for a wonderful Monday return to work. When does Duke get back on the schedule?
So that’s it. Barely bowl eligible, maybe the Noles will be eating Emerald Nuts again? Next season it gets better, and perhaps this will be enough to push Bobby Bowden into retirement, not that I’m forcing him to go. The fan reaction throughout the year ought to be thrilling, as will the blogosphere that will be in meltdown mode. Good luck weathering it!
Disagree? Leave me your predictions in a comment. I’m going on gut reaction, not stats or preseason hype, just what my gut says.
P.S. – I’ll still make predictions before each game, and depending on what we see this season and what happens with injuries that 7-5 might get a lot better.
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Ed on 
ecwforever on 
I actually was in the stands for that entire god-awful game against Wake two years ago. That was the lowest of low points. But on to my picks.
I think our record will be a bit better than what you say right now.
Western Carolina – W
Chattanooga – W
Wake Forest – L
Colorado – W
Miami – W
NC State – W (I can see us losing on Thursday night just because it is a Thursday night game, but I don’t think NC State has enough to beat us yet. They will be good down the stretch once O’Brien gets better players in there.)
Va Tech – W
Ga Tech – W (The same thing with the Va Tech and Ga Tech game as the NC State, I don’t think they have enough to compete just yet. Va Tech lost a lot of their D from last year and I really hope they decide to redshirt Tyrod Taylor so he doesn’t convert a 3rd and 31 again.)
Clemson – L (This is Clemson’s best chance to take the conference. If they don’t do it this year then I don’t know what the hell is wrong with them.)
Boston College – W
Maryland – L (This is the annual game that is winnable that for some reason or other we throw away and lose.)
Florida – L (I’d love to be wrong here. Hate losing this game)
So, I’m thinking 8-4 this year. If it is worse than 8-4, I think the season is a disappointment.
Bill you sometimes forget that there were 10 people left in the stands at the end of that game. And we all doing the much hated wave, but only because the game was THAT terrible. I’ll be back on the beat this year for home games, until I have an potentially season ending baby related injury.
My two cents-
I think all the predictions so far are heavily underrating the Noles . Then again, the past few seasons haven’t made the case for the Noles to be any good this year, and all of these people have good reasons to not believe in the noles. BUT, from all the reports and playmakers that I have seen/read about, I feel different about this year then all of the other years. Before the other seasons, I just hoped that the Noles wouldn’t embarrass me. This year I actually have a lot more confidence with this team. I believe in this defense. I think the last two games of the season last year put a fire up Chuck and Mickey’s butts. The O-Line improved a ton last year, and I think they are going to be beasts this year with the addition of Tonga. The two positions, however, that I think are going to be extremely better are WR and the Running game. We are loaded this year!!! We have Greg Carr, Taiwan Easterling, Richard Goodman, Rod Owens, Ty Jones, Preston Parker, Bert Reed, Antone Smith, Corey Surrency, Jermaine Thomas, and Tavares Pressley!!!!! That is 11 skills guys that I am excited about and many writers have been ecstatic about. Last year I was only looking forward to Preston, Carr, and Fagg. We have a lot better odds to have many players have break out years. My only concerns are the kicking game, and of course the quarterbacks. The kicking game is obvious with the injury to Gano, hopefully he can come back strong from the injury. Hopefully Hobby and Powell can step it up, but I have strong doubts. My other concern is QB. I don’t hate Weatherford…but he doesn’t even come close to Ward/Weinke. My blood pressure has risen the past few years when he goes in. You can never have confidence in the kid (only exception was the BC game last year). His attitude off the field is awesome; he seems like a very bright guy. He just isn’t picking it up on the field however. YOU ARE A FIFTH YEAR SENIOR AND YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR YOUR JOB AGAINST TWO RED SHIRT SOPHMORES!!!!! GET SOME CONFIDENCE AND STEP IT UP!!!!! If there is doubt in him right now, then there will probably be the same doubt in him the entire season. DÉJÀ VU! I say play all three of them in the first two games. Let them battle it out and see who comes on top. In my honest opinion, I would probably go with D’Vo. He is the one who has made the most drastic improvements, and chances are, he will probably keep improving and exceed the others. I hope to god that this competition opens Drew’s eyes though. I would love for him to be successful. He is the one I am rooting for, but I have my doubts. Anywho, enough rambling, time for prediction time. I could sit here and make a prediction on every game, but it will probably be a biased one, and plus I don’t believe in preseason rankings or predictions. But including the bowl game, any more losses than a 3 loss season is a disappointment to me. That may be a little optimistic, but like I said, I believe in the majority of this team.
With the way injuries and players not able to practice not to mention the suspensions, if this team can make 7-5 basically going .500 against quality competition, then I won’t complain.
Drew,
I see all of your points, I just think you’re going to be horribly disappointed by more than 3 losses. I think the Noles have talent, but like BFT said, the competition this year is quality outside of the first two games, it’s going to be tough to improve.
BUT… I hope I’m proven wrong. It already looks like we’re going to use a 2-3 headed QB system for the first two games, and as they say if you’ve got more than one QB, you got none.
8-4…. i know you were just going off your gut feeling but there is NO WAY Georgia Tech will beat us. GT has NOBODY and have all new coaches and brand new system. GT will go like 4-8 this year at best!
I know it was against inferior competition, but that option looked pretty nice last night by GT… although the new earwax yellow is bad.
Of those wins and loses posted, two games I dont see us losing is to nc state and georgia tech. By the time those games roll around we will have a full squad and also a team with backups that have some game experince ( which is a luxury we havent had in a while) barring some major injury or distraction the noles are going to go 9 and 3 this season but shame to say no acc championship this or a bcs bowl.I wouldnt be surprised if we shock and upset a underachieving VT team that will be trying to find some consistency from its offense and kicking game.
Considering the state of the conference and the quality of work that FSU has been getting done recently, I think it is very realistic for FSU to run the table this year. The new guys are sharp, and the old guys are even better. Look for a blow out against Wake Forest and the ‘Noles will be unstoppable this year. By the end of the year, we should be back where we belong: in a BCS bowl game. The only reason we wouldn’t be is due to media bias(thanks ESPN for that game coverage).
Things to look for this year:
FSU will destroy the ACC: Clean sweep + title
Final top 10 ranking for the ‘Noles
FSU to pull off the upset over UF
I admire your positivity Believer.
Wow. Wow.
Wow.
It’s not a toomah!
I believe we will beat Wake Forest. The FSU offense has looked great, better than anyone would think. We have played lesser opponents since 2000 and we have never looked this good against them. I dont know there is something about these Noles that tell me they will get it done and execute plays. I’d say they lose to 2 -3 games this year but they could surprise many many people . Its not like they have so much to lose. These are the Noles that have something to prove. When you have that mentality you play to win instead of not to lose.
Seriously, i wouldn’t be surprised if we only have 1 loss this year… i mean our team looks solid even though we raped wcu and chatt two not so impressive teams, the way we beat them was impressive… better than a couple of years ago when we played troy and barely won… i’m lookin for this team to go 11-1 or 10-2 at worst… i’m not lying and ncstate, g tech and maryland (who almost lost to middle tenn state) are all jokes we should easily handle them.
ps we have amazing d linemen playing right now and their only second string… we won’t have the full line untill after wake