I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

Sep 12, 2021, 6:01 PM

So, what I'm about to say may be way off the mark.

Clemson and FSU both came off a close loss. Both teams showed areas that they really needed to work on to improve.

For Clemson it was the running game (and the OL blocking). For FSU the list is too long to list, but it included making stupid penalties, especially on first down, suspect play calling (both sides of the ball) and weak offensive line play.

Looking at the box score it appears to me (Remember, I did not see the game) that practice all week stressed the run game and OL performance.

Offense
1. Balanced offense. 36 rushes, 39 passes.
2. 6.7 yards per rush. I don't know how many sacks, but from looking at the box score I would say 0 or 1 at the most.

Sure, it was against a weak opponent. But, it appears to me the coaching staff had a mission in practice: Clean up the offensive mistakes. Work on the fundamentals of run blocking and pass protection.

Defense:
Started the game with three straight three and outs.
First half no possession took more than 6 plays.
Gave up a 32 yard pass on one series, 23 yard run on another. Other than that shut them down. (I didn't look at play by play for 2nd half becasue I assume everybody played, getting game experience AFTER the game was no longer in doubt.

Seems like the week in practice for the defense was:
1. Play sound, fundamental football.
2. Smack them in the mouth from the opening kickoff.
3. Don't ever give them a chance to even think they can stay in this game.

On the other hand, it appears to me (and to Nole people who know far more about football than I) that our coaches decided to spend the week assuming Jax. State had no chance to win so we could put in a bunch of new plays, instead of working on executing the plays we already have, and run a bunch of trick stuff that would worry our future opponents.

Seems like our coaching staff was totally unprepared . Seems like your coaching staff looked at the UGA game tape and said, "Here is what went wrong and here is how we fix it."

Coaches get paid a ton of money to handle adversity and adjust. Your staff, last week, gets at least a B. My staff gets an F, only because I'm not allowed to give them a G. (Old teachers joke. "Mr. Professor, why did I get an F?" "Because I can't give you a G.")

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People are thinking our QB of the future is a senior in HS this year, A. J. Duffy. Purdy came in much higher rated than Rodemaker last year. Both played last year due to injuries to Travis. Neither looked ready. But, the problem was FSU had the worst OL in all of FBS football (not just P5). Trevor and Travis could not have led FSU to a winning season.

Most fans don't think the problem is the QB. We committed 11 penalties. Stupid penalties on offense and defense. We had an interception in the 4th quarter nullified because our defensive guy was called for targeting on the QB (and the Nole announcers agreed it was targeting). We had linemen ten yards down field blocking on pass plays (not RPOs, just routine pass plays). We were continually starting 1st and 15 or 20.

We decided we would get cute on offense. We had a series where both QBs were on the field at the same time for several plays in a row. We ran one play where Travis faked a handoff to Milton. (Like anyone would think, "Let's let the running QB fake a handoff to the passing QB. That will really confuse them."

My take, as I posted on another thread here, is that the coaches blew it from Monday morning. They didn't take the game seriously and they didn't prepare the players to take the game seriously. They approached game planning like it was an intramural flag football game.

Oh, and in answer to your question about Norvell. The fans have been cautiously optimistic about him. He was given a pass last year becasue he inherited a dumpster fire that had been 4 years in the making and was worse than we thought. He also had to deal with COVID.

After the ND games, fans were throwing caution to the wind and were 100% behind him. "We've finally gotten through the Taggart years. We're on our way."

Well, the honeymoon is over. If he loses to Wake this weekend, there will be mounting cries for him to be fired. (He won't be, but that will be the sentiment of a large portion of the fans.)

Message was edited by: bretfsu®

I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

Re: I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

Re: I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

Re: I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

Re: I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

Makes us even.

Re: Makes us even.

Re: I confess, I saw none of the SC State game.

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