Courtesy Palestra.net!

By Bill Kristoph

This much I know. The Florida State offense needs work. It needs a lot of work, but the win over Colorado bought the team as a whole a bit of a reprieve, for a week.  Up next is Miami, and the Hurricanes are ticked off after blowing another ACC home game, this time to the North Carolina Tar Heels. That is never a good recipe for the Noles, but at least this one doesn’t have to be played in the Orange Bowl.

Kudos to the FSU defense and the special teams. I never thought I’d see Michael Ray Garvin break a 94 yard TD return, but I’m glad I did. You’d think he was a track star or something. And aren’t punt blocks a thing of beauty? The defense did well against a slower Colorado team that couldn’t get the ball moving, thanks to FSU’s superior speed.

But, I can’t help but wonder what FSU is going to do on offense. I’m not saying put Drew Weatherford in, because it’s not going to happen. But I do wonder what might have happened for Mr. Weatherford had Antone Smith run for all those yards while he was in there. Throughout the Colorado game it looked like Jimbo Fisher wanted Christian Ponder to play the role of Trent Dilfer and manage the game. Isn’t that what Drew is best at, according to his detractors? Speaking of Antone Smith, someone please slap Rod Gilmore, since he couldn’t pronounce his name right at all on the ABC broadcast.

So where is the team going next weekend? I’m honestly a bit lost. If I had to give a gut reaction, I’m guessing that they play another low scoring game with Miami, as both unranked teams try to put something together. The Canes aren’t that good, but they aren’t that bad either and they generally have FSU’s number. If Antone can’t run the ball, and he won’t run it as well against the Canes, is the FSU offense going to completely sputter? Can FSU beat a fast team like Miami with defense and special teams? I guess we’ll find out Saturday.

P.S. Please, ABC, don’t ever play Bobby Bowden’s “We Are The Seminoles” again. Never. Seriously, never.

(Note: I had to redact some of this until next week… I’ll explain later)

Nice. I guess I have to really defend my poll each week now. It should be easy enough. And, as always, I ask for your help revising my ballot before the final submission, 10am Wednesday.

Rank	Team	Delta
1	Alabama	7
2	Missouri	1
3	Oklahoma	1
4	Texas	3
5	LSU	1
6	Penn State	5
7	Texas Tech	3
8	Brigham Young	5
9	South Florida	5
10	Georgia	5
11	Vanderbilt	11
12	Florida	10
13	Utah	2
14	Connecticut	2
15	Boise State	2
16	Southern Cal	15
17	Auburn	1
18	Oklahoma State	2
19	Wisconsin	10
20	Georgia Tech	4
21	Kansas	5
22	Ohio State	4
23	Maryland	3
24	Oregon	2
25	Ball State	–

All hell broke loose over the weekend. I think the ballots are going to be all over the board, frankly. But I’ll do my best to defend my ballot, if you hate it, tell me. If you need to tweak it, tell me. All suggestions should be defended in the comments, but I can be persuaded pretty easily if there is some sort of reason behind why I should change my vote.

On to the defense.

Alabama #1 - They beat the crap out of one of the “SEC’s best.” I watched about a quarter of the game total, because it was such a boring beat down of the Dawgs. If Alabama stays healthy, and they may not because they are only two deep at this point, they will play for the SEC Title and the MNC.

Missou and Oklahoma each move up a spot. The big mover is #4 Texas, who won with style. At this point, it’s still early and style counts when there is a sea of undefeateds. I like Texas orange better than LSU purple and yellow, so they hop the Tigahhhs.

Penn State has a great offense. If they keep up the scoring they’ll go far in a Big 10 that has a crappy Michigan team, a Wisconsin team that lost to Michigan and an Ohio State team that I can’t figure out since Southern Cal choked.

Texas Tech, BYU, South Florida, probably all overrated in my poll at the end of the season, but for now they deserve to be above the others and in the Top 10. If they keep winning, they keep their A’s with me. When they lose they’ll tank.

What to do with 10-25? I’m guessing, but Georgia is probably better than Vandy and Florida (suspect secondary, which Gator Hippy has been yelling at me for, for quite a while). Vandy might be good, I have no idea really, but they can have some glory too until they lose. I kept UF over Utah, Conn and the rest because a 1 point loss to Ole Miss is bad, but they’d still beat up on the teams below them. Most of them anyway.

Utah, UConn and Boise all move up a bit, thanks to the losses. I hope Boise St. gets to BCS bust again this season. Southern Cal (or whatever team showed up on Thursday Mark Sanchez) drops to 16 from #1 in my poll. That’s what you get for losing to Oregon State, and having your butt handed to you in the process. The Trojans seem to do this a lot lately, what’s up with that Pete Carroll?

The rest, well take your cracks at it, because that’s what I do. There’s some ACC bias in there, but that never hurt anybody. Wisconsin losing to Michigan is awful, fwiw. AWFUL.

By Bill From Tampa

1. Good move by Colorado for not bringing their mascot, Ralphie, to the game. They got all the trampling they wanted from one Antone Smith.

2. Clearly the Buffs were not paying attention. Jimbo told you he was going to run the ball more this week.

3. In an obvious shot at FSU’s offense came the comment from the TV booth “You can win a lot of games with great defense and special teams”. Someone forgot to mention that to Antone.

4. The Strangest Signal from the Sideline to Christian Ponder Award goes to Drew Weatherford for his sticking his tongue out and tapping it with his fingers. I’m not even going ask what that play is.

5. Best sign seen at the game yesterday:
500?
A.    Bobby’s age
B.    Turnovers last week
C.    Games coached

6. Since speeding up the time it takes time to play college football games is an issue these days, here’s a time saving idea. After having two delay of game penalties while trying to line up for the field goal, just have FSU go ahead and accept the penalty before trotting out the kicking unit and automatically deduct the time off the clock.

7. After hearing that ancient recording of Bobby singing “We are the Seminoles” that ABC showed during the game, music lovers everywhere can be VERY glad that if Bobby was considering a career as a professional singer he made the correct decision as to what path to pursue.

8. Queried at halftime as to what he will tell his team in the locker room, Bowden responded “I told you no penalties, no turnovers, so stop it!!” Asked further if they will get any dadgummits Bobby replied “Oh yeah, they’ll get that.” I wonder what the over and under was on the number the team got?

9. The poignant question of the week came from Mrs. BFT who asked after learning of Wake Forest’s loss to Navy, “They couldn’t play like that last week?”  Obviously FSU showed the Demon Deacs how to turn the ball over and they learned well.

10. And speaking of Mrs. BFT, following her other question, “Why do they call it Old Miss?” I’m not sure why I got that special stare reserved only for annoyed wives after providing a sincere and well thought out answer, “because it’s old?”

Bonus Carelessly Random and Rapidly Meaningless Thoughts

11. Sign seen at ESPN’s Gameday show on location at Athens GA.: “Hi Mom” Aside from the fact that we have no clue which Mom was being referred to, someone please tell this person there is this new fangled invention called cell phones.

12. To the UGA fan also at Gameday carrying the sign reading “I wash my dirty clothes in Tide”, will you be changing brands?

13. Another sign seen at Gameday (yes, we were really into the signs yesterday): “Richard Gower” and a downward pointing arrow. So the next time you see some guy who looks like a big piece of cardboard with that name and a direction indicator on it attached to a stick be sure to stop and say hello.

14. More Gameday stuff: If anyone saw that camera shot of the bulldog pup named Little UGA, can you tell me what he looked like. I was FAR too busy looking at the beauty pageant queen holding him. Lucky dadgum dog!!!

15. Southern Cal needs to schedule OSU more often. No, not that one in Corvallis, OR, the one they beat 35-3.

16. Urban Crier ….. er, um … Meyer … yeah, that’s it, Meyer … on the blocked PAT: “It’s illegal to hurdle a player on a field goal,” Meyer said. “I grabbed [the referee] on my sideline early in the game and said, ‘Listen, they’re doing this.’ He made a comment, ‘He went through the gap.’ With the way we teach field-goal protection, there should be no gaps.” Yes, yes …. We all know your beloved gatros (their …) aka cros of XXVI almost never, ever make a mistake. Must have been that 1% of the 1% of the times they do.

17.-20. Insert your favorite Urban Meyer or other gatros (their …) etc. whine here.

GO NOLES! >>>——|>

Matt DiLallo, Colorado Punter, likes to cook!

Among the highlights…

“I’ve tried a bunch of different recipes (this semester),” DiLallo said. “Some recipes for marinating salmon. I made some lettuce wraps that were pretty good. …”

“People tell me I make the best banana bread they’ve ever tasted,” DiLallo boasted this week.

I think the thin air is getting to him.

FSU’s recipe for Saturday? PAIN. (I hope… really really really.)

I’m not saying that Tomahawk Nation has issues… but their Rod Stewart YouTube from yesterday should “have high heels and a purse with it” (thanks Chili).

For some real FSU Inspiration… we need the KING.

As usual, Rich Halten is being reasonable. How dare he! Anyway, he’s posted a response to both Tomahawk Nation and my views about Drew Weatherford here at ScalpEm, and he’s right on both accounts, our blogs aren’t going to change anything. Also, if you want to ready another well written post, check it out at Tomahawk Nation, where the guys are recapping a pretty wild Wednesday.

For what it’s worth, I’m not trying to start another QB controversy in Tally with the Drew article, I really do think got the shaft, and wanted to make sure at least one person said something. But I also promise that’s the end of that particular rant.  It’s doubtful he’ll see significant action this year, and I certainly want D’vontrey Richardson and / or Christian Ponder to greatly succeed.

Let the screaming begin! Andrew Carter pointed out this article in the Denver Post about Downtime At Florida State. In it, FSU’s Head Coach, Bobby Bowden said the following:

“Mediocrity?” said Bowden, sitting in a hotel lobby last week. “Yeah, we’re decent, but we’re not in the top echelon. Does it bother me? I don’t let it. It’s one thing about being my age. Who cares? Hey, I can step out tomorrow and go to the beach”

Tomahawk Nation has gone absolutely ballistic over the comments. I suggest you check it out. In fact, they’re calling for Bobby to go, immediately. I’d add more, but they pretty much said it all.

Personally, I’m flabbergasted… if that quote is not taken out of context, then the program was much worse off than I even thought. Apathy is a very bad emotion.