More Academic Trouble at FSU

It is somewhat ironic that on the day the NCAA’s Academic Progress Report was released, FSU announced its former starting left tackle will be transferring to a JUCO after being declared academically ineligible.

Daron Rose started 11 games for the Semis last year, but was suspended in the academic scandal that hit the FSU athletics program last December. It’s a case of “when it rains, it pours” for a program that lost projected starting linebacker Marcus Bell when he was released from his scholarship on Monday and still is without WR/RB Preston Parker who by school rules cannot participate in athletics due to an outstanding felony charge.

It would be easy to take some cheap shots at the school over these matters, but it’s almost a case of old news since Rose and Bell both were suspended in the academic scandal. Plus, college football players being charged with felonies is nothing new. The real problem is the way the school dealt with the fact that some key players will be suspended for the first three games next year due to that academic scandal.

FSU chose to have its schedule begin with not just one, but two I-AA teams in Western Carolina and Chattanooga. And it’s not just that they’re I-AA teams - they’re bad I-AA teams. They went a combined 3-19 last year. FSU’s scout team could probably win those games.

It effectively turns the sanction into a one-game suspension, with the game against Wake Forest being the only team with a pulse that the penalized players will miss. It’s one thing to have a mid-season suspension conveniently line up with a game versus a bad team; everyone does that and if it’s not a coincidence, you can at least make up a plausible lie. There’s no way to frame structuring a schedule around a suspension without it being a completely overt weasel tactic.

The sad thing for a once-proud program is that it will need those wins. The Semis will probably lose to Wake Forest due to missing those suspended players, and the Deacons have had FSU’s number as of late anyway. Florida never wins easily in Tallahassee, but the Gators are a lot better and a lot deeper than FSU is and will almost certainly win.

Of the remaining schedule, Colorado, Miami, Virginia Tech, Clemson, and Boston College will be as good or better than FSU at full strength will be, so the Semis will need to 4-1 in those games to have a chance at the ACC championship game. A 3-2 mark would mean missing a January bowl yet again.

In the end, though, wins are a Pyrrhic victory if the academic side of things doesn’t get back in order. That’s not an impossible task considering plenty of schools keep their players in good academic standing without any shenanigans. Perhaps with new AD Randy Spetman and the eventual takeover of Jimbo Fisher, FSU can once again be a winner, only this time without any dark clouds of controversy.

45-12

Only two teams this year failed both to score 20 points or get in the endzone against Florida: Western Kentucky and FSU. Think about that for a second. It’s great to be a Florida Gator.

Oh, and Timmy, if you don’t win the Heisman, it’ll be a bigger robbery than Rex in 2001. There, I said it. I mean, 51 touchdowns?! Dominance. Truly dominance.

A Quick Note on Kansas

One thing I see put forth in Kansas’ favor this year is that yeah, they have a weak schedule but at least the Jayhawks have been blowing everyone out. This is actually true - KU leads the NCAA in margin of victory at 31.62 points per game. The next highest is Boise State at 25.88 points per game.

I calculated margin of victory back to 2000 (the earliest the NCAA’s comprehensive online stats go) and found that sustaining a margin of victory of over 30 points a game is rare - never has more than one team managed to do it, and no one could do it in 2006 or 2003. The following are the teams that could do it:

2007: Kansas (31.62 points per game), 77th ranked SOS (as calculated by the NCAA)

2005: Texas** (33.75), 7th

2004: Louisville (30.05), 70th

2002: Kansas State (32.97) 49th

2001: Miami, FL** (33.7 19th

2000: FSU* (32.12) 3rd

**Won National Championship

*Played in National Championship Game

Notice a trend? If the SOS is among the best, the team at least played for the national title, if not won it. If the SOS is not so good, the team was not in title contention.

The 2004 Louisville team appears to be the closest match to 2007 Kansas. For a refresher, 2004 Louisville romped through its final year in C-USA, lead by QB Stefan LeFors and RB Michael Bush. It lost its only game against good competition, a 41-38 classic against Miami, who would finish 9-3.

The 2002 Kansas State team had an odd year, going 11-2 but finishing second in the Big 12 North to 9-5 Colorado thanks to the Buffs having just one conference loss compared to K-State’s 2. Those Wildcats in those heady days were lead by the electric duo of QB Ell Roberson and RB Darren Sproles. The losses were to Colorado by 4 and Texas (who’d finish 11-2) by 3. They did, to their credit, have a huge 27-20 win over USC.

The point? If you run up the score that much, you’re going to finish with a nice record. After all, bad teams won’t win enough games to run it up that much, and likely aren’t able to run it up at all. However, unless you do it against a top-flight schedule, you’re probably not good enough to make the national title game. Kansas will get to play Missouri and possibly Oklahoma, which will help in the SOS department, but I doubt they’ll get higher than the 49th of ‘02 KSU. Plus, with as good as the Tigers and Sooners are, it’s not likely they’ll sustain that 30+ margin of victory. It’s also overwhelmingly likely that the Jayhawks will lose in the next two weeks based on all of these facts.

One interesting thing though, is that in 2000, the top three teams in SOS were 1) Florida, 2) Miami (FL), and 3) FSU. That’s got to be a record, having the top 3 in SOS all play in the same state.

FSU

No team gets me angrier, faster than FSU. Georgia may be Florida’s oldest and most traditional rival, but being born in 1985, I grew up in the 1990s. During that time Georgia was Florida’s whipping boy, and the FSU game had national title implications almost every year. That fact is reflected in the fact that College GameDay has visited the Florida - Florida State game more often than any other.

The rivalry looked like it was going to tail off this decade with the coinciding Jeff Bowden and Ron Zook eras, until the 2003 Swindle in the Swamp reignited it. Again, no game makes me angrier, faster than that one. Let’s just move on.

Then you had FSU QB Wyatt Sexton in 2004, visiting the homecoming game against South Carolina while wearing a Florida sweatshirt.

The following year, Florida won what Gators fans call the Ron Zook Field game, launching a 3 game (and counting) win streak. Let’s count how many ways FSU’s hubris showed in honoring ol’ Bobby at the game against its biggest, most fierce rival:

1. Named the field after him
2. Unveiled a statue of him
3. Unveiled the 5th largest stained glass window in North America with his image
4. Announced bronze busts of him would be for sale

Now, not only are items 3 and 4 disturbing on several levels, it also served up more than enough motivation for the Gators that day. It’d be one thing to do all of this for your homecoming game against Duke or something, but you don’t do that against your biggest rival. That is, of course, unless you’re concerned that you’re not going to fill up the whole stadium for any other game, which is entirely possible.

FSU is not known for being smart.

Now, this year has some excitement provided by one Geno Hayes, an FSU linebacker known for physical play. He has said Tim Tebow is “going down,” that “the bigger they are, the harder they fall,” and that he plans on ruining Tebow’s Heisman campaign.

That’s fine; after all, the Semis ruined Matt Ryan’s Heisman campaign a couple weeks ago. However, Ryan is no Tim Tebow. Neither, for that matter, is Mr. Hayes - Geno is listed at 6′2″, 218, while Tebow is listed at 6′3″, 235. Credit to Hayes for picking a fight with someone bigger than him, but he should be warned that Tebow steamrolled LSU’s prized safety LaRon Landry last year, he of the 6th overall pick in the draft. Tebow said he’s going to remember the words on the field, and if you recal, Tebow grew up a Gator fan in the same era as I did so he’s going to have similar feelings about FSU as I do. He’s going to have plenty to play for even if he really is not thinking about the Heisman at all.

What’s got two thumbs and players who can’t keep their traps shut? This guy!

FSU comes into the game a minor mess of a team. The much ballyhooed change of coaching staff has yielded almost exactly the same stats as last year’s team. The Weatherford-Lee quarterback carousel has been spinning again, though Lee is now permanently out the rest of the season with severe brain cramps. Only a Weatherford injury will cause him to see time again.

In recent weeks, FSU had an epic 4th quarter collapse against Virginia Tech, and it nearly blew a big lead against Maryland. The best success they’ve had on offense ironically has come from taking a page out of Florida’s playbook - having WR Preston Parker take over at running back. The Semis needed some stability back there after having no less than nine players register a carry against VT.

As for the passing game, the Jeff Bowden jump ball will likely be employed early and often against Florida’s weak and banged up secondary, especially since 6′3″ DeCody Fagg and 6′6″ Greg Carr are going to be the targets under those jump balls. Hopefully, the SEC refs will grab the correct glasses for the game, because Carr commits offensive pass interference on nearly every jump ball thrown to him, but I guess it’s never called because he’s just so big and tall.

I can say without snark that the offensive game plan for Florida will likely play out how it did against FAU. FSU is 15th overall against the run, but 74th against the pass. It’s likely going to be Tebow distributing the ball at will with his arm, and some running every now and then on the side to keep the defense honest. I really don’t see a situation that leads to FSU winning this game if Florida plays up to its potential and continues its hot streak from the past couple games.

Another FSU season spirals down the drain.

FSU has finished conference play tied for 6th (!) in the ACC with Georgia Tech. I don’t know how the ACC tiebreakers work, but the bowl that takes the ACC #6 is the Meineke Car Care Bowl in Charlotte on the 29th, and the bowl that takes the ACC #7 is the Emerald Bowl in San Francisco. Right now, GT and FSU have identical records, but if GT beats UGA this weekend (oh Lord, please make it so) and UF beats FSU, then the Semis will probably end up reprising their role as the ACC rep in the Emerald Bowl. Florida, for its part is still hoping to sneak into the Sugar Bowl.

But, back to the game on hand. FSU will move the ball and score some points. Our defense hasn’t shown it can hold anyone but Western Kentucky to under 20. However, I expect Florida to win, and possibly win big. Why?

For one, Urban Meyer has come out with the right game plan each of the last two years. Last year, Florida was just happy to get out Tallahassee with a win, which is fine since UF has had so much trouble winning there over the years. The year before that, though, it was a 34-7 drubbing that could have been worse. Meyer has the team playing some of its best football of the season right now, and Tim Tebow is playing at an unbelievably high level. Saturday, we make it 4 in a row.

A Couple Things

First, FSU is still worthless. The Semis managed to lose at Wake Forest despite them wanting revenge for the 30-0 beat down they received from the Deacs at Doak last year. So much for Xavier Lee being the answer to all the problems. The classic Xavier Lee meltdown is half complete, with him going 24-44 and 2 interceptions last night. All that’s left is a 3 INT + a fumble or two and him getting yanked for Drew Weatherford in the 3rd quarter, who will promptly lead a drive that stalls out in the red zone for a field goal.

In other news, security is being stepped up in Lexington for this weekend’s LSU-Kentucky game after complaints of unruly fan behavior after UK beat Louisville earlier this season.

“We all want to celebrate the success of our winning football team, but we want to do it in a way that is safe for everyone and respects our neighborhoods,” said Lexington mayor Jim Newberry.

In other words, they can handle 24,000 crazy Wildcat fans leaving Rupp, but not 70,000 leaving Commonwealth Stadium after a big win. Speaking of Rupp, apparently the LSU team is staying in the hotel connected to Rupp Arena, and tonight will be the “Big Blue Madness” celebration there. That means the Tiger players could be (read: will be) disturbed all evening by rowdy basketball fans making noise in the area and the surrounding area all night. Luckily for them, it’s a 3:30 game.

Coach’s Show Review: Bobby Bowden

This is the second is a series of reviews of coach’s shows. The first was Urban Meyer’s show.

Official Name: The Bobby Bowden Show

Episode Reviewed: After the Clemson game

Theme Music: Syncopated strings in a minor key with light, electronic percussion

Co-Host: Gene Deckerhoff, voice of FSU football and basketball; voice of the Tampa Bay Bucs

Intro Graphics:

It’s a flyby of a 3D virtual model of Doak Campbell with a strange color filter and focus blur. I think they spent more money on this intro than the rest of the show combined.

This is literally the only frame where the show’s logo is centered. It quickly gets out of the way to show logos of the show’s corporate overlords sponsors. Again with the amber color scheme.

Set:

This is the first sight that greeted you on that Sunday after the Clemson loss. I apologize if your computer screen just broke.

That’s right, it’s a green screen! It’s a desk with red trim and a green screen. The graphic behind them is supposed to look futuristic, I suppose, what with the rounded walls and Millennium Falcon turret-like window back there, but the fake fluorescent lights and TV screens (which do not change; it’s just a still picture) make it almost like a dark news studio in a warehouse. Mixed genres there, bad form. If you’re going to use a green screen, at least have your graphic have taste. Grade: C-.

Show Format:

Five segments: opening remarks, first half highlights, Inside the Program, Great Moments in FSU Football with Burt Reynolds, and second half highlights. There are brief closing remarks at the end.

Opening Remarks

Opening remarks after losses are either completely gloomy or delightfully funny depending on the coach and depending on if you like the team or not. Count this one in the funny category. Gene, trying to be upbeat, says the FSU program started off “with a bang in the second half” after “Clemson [took] us to task in the first half.” Bobby drops a dadgummit and repeats his line about never seeing the FSU offense play worse. More on this later.

First Half Highlights

No fancy graphics here, but there is a spiral video transition from the “set” to the game footage. Apparently, the Bobby Bowden show is produced on a 5 year old iMac with iMovie 2.

This is where the Bobby Bowden show makes its reputation - game review. Ol’ Bobby has trouble keeping track of his own players names a lot of times, usually just calling them by their numbers. There wasn’t as much as usual in this particular episode, which was disappointing, but it did include statements like “Nice block there by… someone.” Gene and Bobby start by talking about generalities and ignoring the footage, and throughout all of it he’s not sure which plays are next. He also forgot which drive their only field goal of the first half came on, which is remarkable since it came after a blocked punt. Grade: D+

Inside the Program

Your standard garnet-and-spear look for FSU.

Gene’s voice over says it’s your exclusive, all-access pass to FSU football. In actuality, it’s about 40 seconds of Jimbo Fisher working with the quarterbacks at practice. There are some interesting quotes in it though, like “Eyes go, ball goes,” and “Cornerbacks lie, but safeties tell you the truth.” Still, an exclusive, all-access pass? Hardly. Grade: C-

Great Moments in FSU Football with Burt Reynolds

No, I swear, no photoshopping was done to the above picture. Really.

Of every coach show I’ve watched so far, and I’ve watched over half a dozen of them, this is the only show where they bring out a celebrity who went to the school to talk about something that happened years ago. Isn’t there anything that they can talk about that is going on, you know, right now? Apparently this is a feature every other show, and they’ve been doing it for 24 years. The great moment the segment shows Deion Sanders returning a punt for a TD against Clemson.

Let’s review: green screen (again), horrendous green screen graphic, Burt Reynolds shot full of Botox in a Hawaiian shirt, and it has nothing to do with the program today. Grade: D-.

Second Half Review

No Star Wars-style wipes this time, but for the fourth quarter, like the second before it, they have black bars come in to make it look widescreen. I think that’s why they did that, anyway.

It’s just more of the same. Bobby is more upbeat, probably because FSU played a lot better in the second half, but possibly because someone got him some coffee during the last two segments. The widescreen look for the fourth quarter highlights also has the effect of hiding the score and time remaining. At one point he compliments a Clemson player’s coaching, which means he’s complimenting his son without being obvious about it. Clever, Bobby. The same spiral wipe as was used to enter the highlights in the first half was used to leave them in the second. Grade: D+

Embarrassing Commercial Starring the Coach:

Bobby’s version of the Simply Orange commercial. No fist pump, but you do get the gratuitous flash of the national championship ring.

Bobby only had one commercial - for Simply Orange orange juice, just like Urban Meyer. Here, though, it becomes crystal clear why Bobby is the fundraiser and closer extraordinaire for recruiting. He’s a great pitchman; he’s congenial, believable, and has good camera presence. Unfortunately for him, this category is embarrassing commercials starring the coach. Grade: F

Interesting Quotes:

Two words: blocking, and tackling.

Grade: A++ for unintentional comedy.

Overall:

If you’re looking for insight into the FSU program, this is not where you’ll find it. If you want fodder for Bobby’s-too-old jokes, it’s a gold mine. Still, when you watch a coach’s show you’re looking to hear things from the coach that you didn’t from the press conference, why they ran plays when they did, and get an eloquent description of how the coaches view the game. You’ll find none of that here, unless you think “Dadgummit, we just couldn’t play well enough to win” is eloquent. Grade: D+

Blockin’ and Tacklin’

According to Bobby Bowden and Charlie Weis, football comes down to blockin’ and tacklin’ the other guy. I’m pleased with this video; it came out exactly how I wanted it to.

Unrest in Tallahassee

Bobby Bowden has said that he’s never seen his offense play worse than it did in the first half against Clemson. I don’t  know if someone could come up with some stats to prove otherwise, but when you go for 62 yards in 31 plays, and the first play of the game was for 22 yards, that’s really bad.

Sunday Morning Quarterback says that those comments may be some kind of strike against Jimbo Fisher and Rick Trickett. That’s something I didn’t think of when I first read that story. I and a lot of other people probably assumed that Bobby was upset that Jeff left, but that he’d move on because nothing is more important than winning in football. However, this comment could be a sign that he’s still upset about Jeff being gone and it’s his way of letting everyone know that he still doesn’t think Jeff was a problem.

If all that is true, it could set up a spectacular self-destruction in the FSU program if Bobby is really going to be obstinate about this issue. If the offense doesn’t improve, it will only be the new coaches’ fault to a degree because the talent, especially on the line, is just not there. However, since Bobby didn’t think Jeff was a problem in the first place (despite him being a huge downgrade from Mark Richt), he might just be at the point in his career that he’s willing to prove a point for personal reasons. He has nothing left to prove and no one at FSU will ever try to force him out, so why not try to save your son’s reputation by proving that even the hotshot Jimbo Fisher can’t save the offense? He knows the media eats out of his hand anyway, so more comments like this could be a way to try to get them to start writing “It wasn’t Jeff’s fault after all” columns.

Now, as much as I dislike Bobby, I don’t think this is the case. He’s competitive, and competitive people don’t tend to sacrifice wins for anything. In addition, though I question some of his tactics he teaches his players, it’s a pretty big leap to go from defenses being overzealous in their hitting and sabotaging your own team to save your son’s reputation. It’s a nice conspiracy theory and could lead to hundreds of posts on message boards, but I don’t think it’s true. Unless…

Bowden Bowl 9

My goodness, what a horrid game. FSU came out completely flat and looked like a helpless team in falling behind 21-0. Then, a snap over the punter’s head by Clemson led to a momentum change in FSU’s favor which led them to a deficit of just 6 at 24-18. Then, it became an epic battle between Tommy Bowden’s proclivity to give away games and Drew Weatherford’s uncanny ability to get sacked in the worst possible times.

ESPN’s Lou Holtz and Mark May didn’t have their A games either when it came to picking the winner in this stinkfest.

The most exciting part of this game was watching the students run on and off of the field as the final play was reviewed and the stadium announcer told them to get off of it. Now, maybe the Clemson students were just looking for an excuse to rush the field, but a word to Tiger fans: beating FSU doesn’t mean much anymore.

The GameDay guys both missed it too.

The FSU defense only looked fast and nasty for about 10 minutes on the game clock. Players were routinely missing tackles, leading to numerous stat boxes showing that something around 80-85% of Clemson’s rushing yards came after the first contact. The FSU offense wasn’t much to speak of either. FSU had only 1 first down in the first half. Drew Weatherford had only one good drive, and the Noles couldn’t run for most of the game. So much for Jimbo Fisher and Rick Trickett coming in and having an immediate impact. There was a priceless shot of Jimbo right before halftime talking to Weatherford from the booth looking like he couldn’t believe what he was seeing, and not in the good way.

Jimbo Fisher, center, had no idea what he was getting into. Then again, which is worse: working at FSU, or working for Les Miles?

Hopefully this will put to rest the idiocy that FSU is a good team. I was surprised to see such a smart guy as Phil Steele predict that FSU would compete for a national title this year. In addition, the Semis were names as the most underrated team by the BlogPoll roundtable, though that was heavily influenced by Mr. Steele. I still don’t understand why because as I pointed out on my rankings, while many coaches are new it’s still the same old players who went 7-6 last year on the field. Add on to that bit the fact that offenses usually struggle under new offensive coordinators, and any talk of FSU deserving to be ranked - much less be a title contender - are absurd.

As it is, I know why the ACC puts Florida State on Labor Day evening. It’s because it has the strongest brand in the conference and probably drives the best viewer ratings (I don’t have any stats to back that up, but it’s a pretty safe guess). It’s a risk though, since FSU has been in decline and has offered up some truly eye-scarring games the past couple Labor Day evenings. It may be time to pick someone else to feature. You know, someone who will likely finish over .500 in the conference.

On a side note, bravo to ESPN for the revamped on-screen graphics where the each team’s timeouts appear under its name and the relevant stats for the relevant players appear above the score after each play. It managed to add two very useful things without adding clutter or annoying sound effects. A lot of people around the net hate ESPN, but you have to give it credit for the new graphic.

Schedule Analysis Part 6

Don’t forget to check out Part 1, Part 2, Part 3,  Part 4, and Part 5.

November 24: FSU

I’ve already written over 3900 words in the rest of my schedule analysis, and I could probably write 3900 more about FSU alone. For Gator of my father’s generation, Georgia is Florida’s biggest rival. For fans who grew up in the ‘90s like me, FSU is the main rival and it’s not even close. You’ll run into some people (like Orson) who hate Tennessee the most, and that’s perfectly understandable since UT’s a conference rival, but for most, FSU is the big one every year.

This fact probably stems from the fact that Florida-FSU has been a real rivalry since 1990. You had two charismatic head coaches in Bowden and Spurrier, each the polar opposite of the other. Now you have the new school-old school dynamic with Urban Meyer and Bowden. Both teams have nationally significant, aside from the Ron Zook and Jeff Bowden years. Also, with the exception of 2001, you knew that either team had a chance at winning the game. The series spawned many game with names, like the Choke at Doak, 52-20, the Greatest Game Ever Played in the Swamp, and the Ron Zook Field game.

Now, I was going to fill the rest of this with heckling, half truths, and untruths in a general attempt to besmirch the FSU football program, but since Mickey Andrews’ son unfortunately passed away earlier this month I’ll lay off. Don’t worry, it’ll return later this year. In the meantime, I think I’m almost set here in my new apartment and with my new classes, so that’s good. There’s nothing quite like a new set of circumstances to make you run around everywhere doing errands and meeting people and oh yeah, making sure I’m all set to graduate. That was important.