From the mailbag, the father of Gatorpilot writes:

Found this story.

As he leaned back in his garnet leather office chair and chewed on an unlit cigar, Bowden matter-of-factly said he would like to increase his win total from 373 to 400 games and, perhaps, win another national championship before he officially hands his job over to Fisher — in other words, resurrect his once proud program that failed to finish in the national rankings for the past two seasons.

“I’d sure like to,” he said. “And if it doesn’t, I ought to get out.”

At 7 wins a year that is 4 more years! Hooray!

In a much delayed fashion it’s time to close out or review of the 2008 recruiting classes of Florida’s big three programs.  The final team to be analyzed is the Florida State Seminoles.  This is part 3 of a 3 part series.
 
To see our previous analysis go here:  Miami Recruiting review,  Florida Recruiting review
 
Florida State University
Grade C+
 
Overall:  FSU signed 30 athletes, 3 of whom are Junior College Transfers (JUCOs).   Most of the class comes from the state of Florida although 40% of it is from out of state (12).  More players signed were offensive (16) than defensive (12) with two of the class athletes who will probably split (Jarmon Fortson going to WR and Ed Imeokparia starting out at safety).
 
THE GOOD
 
FSU was in dire need at the quarterback position.  Not only is Drew Weatherford now a senior but top backup/part time starter Xavier Lee left school leaving Christian Ponder as the only legitimate backup.  For that reason signing EJ Manuel from Va Beach was significant in both the short and long term.  Manuel will need to come to camp ready to play.  Expect Christian Ponder and Drew Weatherford to battle it out for the starting slot while EJ redshirts. will have the clear experience advantage next season Manuel has a chance to compete for significant playing time and at the very least will be the backup QB by default.  Manuel is a kid in the mold of Jamarcus Russell with both size and a big time arm.
 
The Noles have always been one of the top linebacker (LB) programs in the country sending numerous players to the NFL.  To continue that lineage FSU landed some big time prospects in Nigel Bradham and Nigel Carr with Vince Williams also being a solid prospect down the road.  There is some thought that Nick Moody might eventually outgrow the safety position and end up at LB.  Then again there’s a chance Bradham could grow into a defensive end (DE) although FSU would rather he keep his weight down and remain at LB.  Speaking of DEs, FSU landed a group that should provide a solid contribution.  JUCO Markus White is the jewel of this group but Everett Dawkins could also see playing time next season.  Toshmon Stevens will need a few years as he finished HS in the 200 lb range.
 
THE BAD
 
Seminole fans can all recite the party line for offensive line coach Rick Trickett.  Supposedly there isn’t a coach in the country who can do more with less.  Well if true then Trickett has put himself in the perfect position to prove that mantra.  FSU’s offensive line talent and depth is both lacking and suspect.  Offensive line is a position where more is better.  Since it is one of the hardest positions to predict when recruiting it and is so vital for any offense, linemen can take up a large portion of a roster.  Offensive line recruiting has been identified as one of the key lapses by the coaching staff in recent years.  Trying to reverse that trend Coach Tricket picked up 6 linemen for the 2008 class with Zebrie Sanders being the highest rated prospect in the class. 
(more…)

Before you start typing remarks about how I’m going off topic and why the NFL won’t match college sports, hear me out.

I’m fully aware that the subject matter is somewhat out of the ordinary. I know that college sports have that unique sense of brotherhood and competitiveness that the pros find lacking. I even know that my post might be a bit overdue.

But in the aftershock of yesterday’s press conference, something must be said for one of the greatest athletes, ambassadors, and competitors that the sport has ever known. There never has been, and likely never will be, another football player with that exact same sense of playful glee that #4 embodied in 17 seasons of a distinguished NFL career.

(more…)

So: after having been properly rebuked for unsubstantiated reporting by our friend Truzenzuzex, who is a paragon for journalistic ethics, we’re going to roll like Pigs in slop with some good old fashioned message board rumormongering. From Gatorcountry:

Well, I have been trying to get dirt on this for weeks, and tonight, I finally caught up with one of my best sources for info here in Tally. You will never believe who got all of this started for FSU, the one and only GENO HAYES.

There is a computer course they were all taking, and had a tutor for the athletes that was giving them the tests verbatim before they would take them. The key is he told them that they had to take their time so it would not be overly suspicious they had the answers beforehand. So what does smart ole Geno Hayes do ?! He goes in there and takes a 50 question test in 8 minutes, aces it, and walks out the room like he just sacked Tim Tebow. We all know that’s not possible, so the professor got pissed and flagged it. Low and behold all the athletes were acing it.

As one Paul Harvey would say, And now you know “The rest of the story…..”

Rumor? Yes. Did this probably happen? Again, yes. This so fits Geno “Big Mouth, Little Brain” Hayes that it’s almost impossible not to believe.

Thanks again, Geno, for all that you do!

CBS’ Gary Danielson made the remark that this game looked more like Florida playing FIU (Florida International) than FSU.

He might have been a little generous. Let’s not forget this Gators defense allowed 31 points to Troy and 20 to Florida Atlantic. FAU could score TDs on us… well, two of them, anyway. FSU couldn’t.

The ‘Noles were not capable of sniffing the endzone. The final score of 45-12 reflects a Gator offense that only punted twice and a defense which held FSU to 4 field goals, including a miraculous 60-yarder by Gary Cismesia (will that guy ever graduate? Seems like he’s been around forever) to end the first half.

The Bowden Boys would not score again. It was the Tim Tebow and Percy Harvin show from there on out.

The stats? Eh… Florida had another of their average 540ish yards of offense games. FSU was held to a total of 287. FSU could manage only 3-12 on 3rd down while UF was 7-11. Tebow had 5 TDs (3 passing, 2 rushing) for 350 yards of total offense. No picks. Harvin had 154 yards and a TD.

The stats don’t really matter. Here’s the point. FSU is simply not competitive with the University of Florida. Bobby Bowden, in a display of near senility, said after the game that this series tended to run in “streaks” and that eventually FSU would come back around to win again because it would be ‘their time’.

This series will not turn back to FSU. Not the way that it’s going. For similar results, pair up the New England Patriots and Michigan for a game per year for 10 years. The little guys would never have a chance to win a single game.

It’s starting to look that way for FSU-UF.

The best part? Compare Tim Tebow’s stats with Geno Hayes’. FSU’s trash-talking linebacker racked up a total of 1 tackle. The closest he got to Tebow all night was when he jawed at the herculean quarterback after an early play was blown dead, and even slapped the big fella’s helmet. CBS caught a priceless shot of Hayes wiping away a tear on the FSU sideline as the rout got ugly in the 4th quarter.

It’s great to be a Florida Gator.

Here it is… the liveblog. Trying some fancy new technology today.

Let’s be honest: Florida State’s only real chance to beat Florida on Saturday was to catch the Gators napping.

You know: come in under the radar. Be respectful. Send flowery praise and flattery in an attempt to fatten up the Gators, then come in and catch ‘em off-guard.

After all, Florida State comes in with a 7-4 record, with a loss to Miami, one of the worst teams in college football. They were also blown out by Virginia Tech. Transitive property now: if you might recall, LSU sharpened their fangs on the Hokies early in the season, smashing them 48-7.

It all points to a Gator rout… which is generally a bad omen for the favored team in big rivalry games. And if FSU had followed the script, maybe, just maybe, they could have slipped into the Swamp, unnoticed and unheralded, and gotten one of Florida’s less intense, less focused games. An FSU victory? It still would have taken their best game of the year, but stranger things have happened in rivalry games.

Well, there’s zero chance of that happening now. If you haven’t already heard, FSU linebacker Geno Hayes has issued a threat to injure our Heisman-candidate quarterback, Tim Tebow, and to “shatter his dreams.”

‘’Tim Tebow is going down this week,'’ Hayes told a roomful of reporters. “Y’all put that down. Tim Tebow is going down this week. That is our attitude.'’

Hayes went on to say he didn’t think it would be difficult to limit Tebow’s running ability during Saturday’s game in Gainesville. Last Saturday, the sophomore quarterback established an NCAA Division I-A record by being the first player to pass and rush for 20 touchdowns in a season.

Hayes leads Florida State’s defense with 17.5 tackles for loss and is second on the team with five sacks. But at 6-2, 223 pounds, he is an inch shorter and about 12 pounds lighter than Tebow.

Still, the junior linebacker flashed a wide grin when asked whether he was concerned about tackling Tebow.

‘’The bigger they are, the harder they fall,'’ Hayes said.

I can think of no better way to piss off 80-something student-athletes and coaches. I can guarantee that Hayes’ threat is plastered all over the UF locker room. And the student section… holy crap. I don’t know what they’re going to come up with, but I bet it’s going to be good.

Just watch: I predict you’ll see no FSU players getting anywhere near Tebow on passing plays. You’re also going to see some excellent lead blocking for the big fella when he runs between the tackles. You’ll see yet another Heisman-worthy performance from Tim. And you’ll see a dejected Geno Hayes in the FSU post-game interview, admitting that he, like all the rest who have tried to stop Tebow, has failed. And Tebow, when asked questions about his looming trip to NYC, will respond with grace and dignity as always, honoring his opponent with praise, and never resorting to the cheap shots on thuggery that we’ve all come to know and love from FSU.

So, thank you, Geno Hayes, for providing a wonderful source of inspiration for our boys, who might have come into this game shaking off accusations of overlooking that cute little team from the panhandle.

No mercy, Gators. Good guys win this one 42-17.

This isn’t exactly a revolutionary concept for Gator fans, but I absolutely loathe and despise Florida State University.

This is one of the south’s most vitriol-filled rivalries. The Iron Bowl is nasty, but it’s an SEC game. The Florida-Georgia rivalry is starting to perk up now that the Dawgs feel they deserve more than one win every eight years in Jacksonville. But for all intents and purposes, this one’s one of, if not the nastiest.

An example of how hateful we fans can be: if Georgia goes on to win the SEC CG and then plays an out-of-conference opponent in a BCS bowl game, I’ll root for the Dawgs. If they’re the SEC’s best team in a given season, when they go out to represent that in a bowl game, I would like them to play well and make the conference proud. (They still suck 364 other days out of the year.)

Not so with FSU. I hate everything about them. Their uniforms are godawful ugly. Their coaching staff looks like a bunch of hillbillies. “St. Bobby” Bowden used to cackle with glee when his defense would dole out huge — and illegal — late hits on UF quarterbacks. Their fans are the worst in the entire southeast, with Miami and LSU fans running a close second and third.

I like watching them lose. At times in the past two years they’ve been pretty pathetic, such as when they were blown out 30-0 by Wake Forest on Ron Zook Field. Their anemic performance against a terrible Miami team earlier this season was memorable. (Miami is so bad that they couldn’t get within 7 touchdowns of Virginia, also a pretty marginal team.) I save games like that on my DVR, and savor the taste of their delicious tears.

If the Gators win on Saturday, it’ll be four straight over the ‘Noles, although in reality it should be five. I will never forget the worst officiating job in history, and the ACC crew, led by Jack Childress, who was responsible for it. That 2003 “loss” to the Noles is remembered always as “the Swindle in the Swamp.”

I’m not big on blaming the officials for the outcome of games. Generally, it stinks of loserdom. However, the Swindle was unique. It was an incredibly overt example of an officiating crew intentionally jobbing our team. No question about it. There were at least six terrible rulings on the field which all directly benefited the Seminoles. From NBC Sports.com:

Normally, tough calls even out over the course of a game. In this case, however, there were no fewer than six key calls, ranging from questionable to downright awful, all of which went against the Gators (8-4)… Among the worst of the calls came on the opening kickoff, when Florida State’s Antonio Cromartie fumbled and the Gators recovered. Officials ruled the play over before the fumble, even though Cromartie’s knee clearly hadn’t touched the ground.

In the third quarter, Florida State’s Pat Watkins scooped up a fumble and returned it for a score, even though Florida tailback Ciatrick Fason appeared to be flat on the ground before the ball popped out.

In the fourth quarter, Chris Rix ran for a touchdown and a 31-27 lead four plays after officials awarded the ball to the Seminoles, even though Gators linebacker Channing Crowder came out of the pile with the ball. Leon Washington, who fumbled, appeared to be sitting on the ball when officials made the call…

It was mind-boggling, it was disgusting, and it’s the first and hopefully last time that I witnessed in person a crew of officials, grown men all, stealing victory from a group of hard-working kids for their own benefit. There is no doubt in my mind that we were jobbed. The Gators still came within an eyelash of winning the game, but lost after a last-minute TD by FSU QB Chris Rix.

The only positive outcome is that Jack Childress and his crew were permanently banned from officiating any future FSU-UF games. That still doesn’t make up for the loss in the record books. I don’t consider it an actual game, as such. What the refs did was reduce a great rivalry game into a paperweight. It is not a victory for FSU, nor is it a loss for UF. It is simply “the Swindle in the Swamp,” an event that occurred on a football field… but wasn’t a real football game.

Florida has a lot to play for on Saturday. The SEC is lost, but Tim Tebow is now an overwhelming favorite for the Heisman Trophy. What better “gift” for our friends in the panhandle, than for our Golden Boy to clinch the Trophy with another Heisman-like performance at the expense of the ‘Noles?

That’s the kind of gift that keeps on giving. Go Gators.

What began as a year full of promise for Seminole fans has already turned ominous, and revealed a glimpse of horrific things to come. The cracks in the foundation of the program based at Joke Shamble Doak Campbell Stadium are once again beginning to show.

It’s hard to believe that Florida State was once the darlings of college football. The Noles played an exciting brand of football that attacked on both sides of the ball, were loaded with top athletes who turned into human highlight reels and were led by a folksy, charming, affable coach whose country quotes littered the morning papers and evening sports segments. Some of the accomplishments of the program are truly staggering: 14 straight years of finishing in the top 5 in the polls, 9 straight ACC titles, 11 straight bowl wins, etc, etc.

But something peculiar happened to the Seminoles. They went from 12 straight seasons of 10 or more victories to just one in the last 5 years (2003). It’s true that there have still been first round draft picks (7 in the past 3 years), but the overall talent of the program has fallen to where FSU is now on par with Clemson, Georgia Tech and Boston College.  Worse, it now ranks below that of Virginia Tech and Miami. Peter Tom Willis made the comment that before the internet allowed kids to scour the rosters of Florida State — and examine the 3 deep — that all the top recruits used to pick FSU (link). I wonder if his point is that there is too much information around these days to simply lie to kids and promise playing time as there used to be - “That’s right Billy Joe Martinez, ole Deion Sanders is going to the NFL and that means his spot will open up for ya.” - without acknowledging the 6 other high school All-Americans already on the team backing Deion up.

I don’t believe it is the internet, with all due respect to Peter Tom, that has caused Florida State to fall to this level, although I do acknowledge it might have played a contributing role. The bottom line here is that for whatever reason the talent just isn’t there due to the recruiting slip of the past 6-7 years. Part of this is probably due to losing too many in-state battles with Florida and Miami. But most of the blame must be directed toward the rise of the schools on the states that border Tallahassee and comprise part of their recruiting region (Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, LSU, Texas). If you look back ten to twenty years, when the Noles rose to prominence, those schools were shells of their current selves. Even Florida was limping along with NCAA sanctions on its back. Times have changed and FSU has suffered to the point where their playmakers are few and far between and their depth is virtually non-existent. (more…)