Heart and Pride

Anyone who has watched a Florida State Seminole game on television with me (very few) knows that my favorite saying is "a little fire in the belly". That went out the window on what turned out to be a beautiful Saturday night. I was very confident that our offense was going to show up and put on a show to shut up all the critics that said we were going to get blown based solely on a piss poor performance the prior week to Jacksonville State. A few thoughts here:

-did anyone realize we had 2 days of practice after losing to one of our biggest rivals in heart breaking fashion?

-did anyone decide to think that Miami might be a pretty dadgum good football team after their performance on Thursday night?

-did any of these experts care to think that maybe the Jacksonville State was going to be a sloppy effort on our part by looking at our history after Monday Night games?

The national media was just plain wrong and irresponsible in their efforts of diagnosing the Seminoles. Back to my saying of "a little fire in the belly". After we drove it down BYU's throat and scored, we kicked off and Max Hall and Co. promptly started returning the favor. This is when it occurred to me that I needed a new thing to yell constantly while pacing around the room. It is painfully clear that we are going to have continuous growing pains on defense this season. Greg Reid (more about him later), Nick Moody, Dionte Allen, Terrence Parks, ect. are going to be great players, but this is their first action and we are going to continually have problems in the secondary. This is where heart and pride come into play. We must play with heart and pride on the defensive side of the ball on every play. We must force turnovers. We must capitalize on these turnovers. After I started yelling for some "heart and pride", we caused a fumble and the first of five forced turnovers of the game. We then subsequently drove it right back down BYU's throat to take a 2 touchdown lead less the point after attempt. HEART AND PRIDE FELLAS. Now to my thoughts on the game:



-Christian Ponder is a flat out stud. He just gets it done. Hearing Jimbo talking about his attributes and skill as a leader of the football team gives me butterflies. It is the greatest feeling in the world to finally have a quarterback and know he is going to be prepared and play to win. He is probably the best unknown quarterback in the country behind Starr Jackson. What gets me really excited about this guy is how much Jimbo Fisher loves and trusts him. He talks about his commitment to the team and just how hard he plays. He plays with heart and pride for sure.

-Just when you thought Sly Stallone couldn't get any more brilliant, he pulls a quick one. I got up at 6 am because I do not possess the ability to sleep on game days. I decided I'd go run some errands (oil change, carwash- it poured yesterday-f my life, best buy, ect.) and ended up back home with the new Tyson DVD. I watched this and I found something out that I am embaressed to admit that I never knew. There is an interview with Tyson and his legendary trainer Cus D'Amato. During this interview, Cus says something to the effect that he is only still alive because of Tyson- that without Tyson he has no reason to go on- that Tyson is HIS reason to go on- and he's going to stay alive until he wins the championship. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT MICKEY SAYS TO ROCKY IN ROCKY V when Rocky is down in the dumps and travels back to the old gym and has the vision of Mickey working him out inside the ring. Pure Brilliance by Sly Stallone.

-Heather Dinich should not have a job. In her latest blog she stated that this FSU team reminds her a lot of Maryland's squad last year. Really? And her reasoning- we play down to our level of competition when we are better and up to our level of competition when we are worst. Example: Jacksonville State. For the reason listed above I am quite positive it is a scientific fact that Heather Dinich is a stupid person. Go fuck yourself Heather.

-GIVE ME A SCHOLARSHIP! Any Nole follower remembers signing day 2006. Mister Alexander from Eisenhower High School in Houston, TX refused to commit to anyone because he wanted to go to Florida State. I went to school in his district and honestly never heard of him. I was like WTF mate. Anyway, we ended up having a scholarship available at the end of the day and Mister was still waiting to sign on the dotted line. This past weekend he had a sack on a third down and put Max Hall in his place. He also stopped a touchdown by tackling AJ Alexender on his way to the end zone after an interception. It reminded me of the time that Jams Thurber threw a block in the back on purpose while I was running to the end zone after we crunched a poor fella and he fumbled. I picked the ball up and was on my way to pay dirt. I saw the yellow hankie and new immediately that Jams threw an illegal block to stop me from scoring. Wow is all I said.

-They showed a video clip of the concessions at BYU's stadium and I made a very astute observation: I do not really like regular pretzels but I love the big pretzels at ball games. Anyone else feel the same way? Also, BYU does not serve caffeinated drinks inside the stadium. Why? Because caffeine can cause an addiction. Ok- not going to open my mouth on this. Good for you BYU.

-10 Possessions- 7 touchdowns- 2 field goals- 1 punt. WOW. Efficiency. It was a beautiful thing to see. We started off the game 9 of 9 on third down thanks to great play calling by Jimbo and even better execution by Christian. It was nice to see him use his legs a little more and this will be very beneficial in the future. Did I mention that we had zero turnovers and forced 5? You're not going to lose many games doing that. Beautiful work Gentlemen.

-I have started drinking Nestea soft drink. The sole reason: Jimbo was drinking what seemed to be a Nestea in his post game interview. Has anyone noticed how awful he dresses though? He wears suits with a non-collared shirt every time. And it's always that 1988 gold suit. He needs an upgrade. The whole team actually was wearing suits going into the stadium with the non-collared shirts. Maybe I am being too harsh on Jimbo. If I really want to be like him, I guess I need to dress like him also.

-I really want to know if Bill Simmons loves Rambo. He loves Rocky- as any decent human being does- so, it's only obvious to wonder if he loves Rambo or any other of Sly's movies. I need to ask him this question in his mail bag but it needs to pertain to sports in some way. Any ideas are welcome. Thanks in advance.

-I would like to thank Jim Stark for opening his house and his refriderator to The Dos to watch the game. I recently switched to DirectTV and of course a week after I do they drop the Versus Network. Just my luck. Anyway, Stark let me go over and watch the game. I hope I didn't scare his neighbors. Versus actually had great coverage and I really did enjoy their crew. Nice job fellas. DirectTV > Cable big time. You even get a channel that has all the soccer games on. See you in December Jams. Oh wait, never mind. I forgot that you won't be able to move. Tough luck.

-The tail backs are fantastic. I want to give a shot out to Carlton "Ty" Jones, Lonnie Pryor, Tavarres Pressley, and Jermaine Thomas. Great running. They ran with reckless abandon for their bodies and that's how you got to do it. I knew this group would come around. 313 yards on the ground this game. Beautiful work.

-The Noles only had one negative play that I can remember. That is critical to keeping drives alive. No sacks either. The offensive line is amazing and I hope that Colonial Trickett Trick Daddy keeps our linemen away from reporters for the rest of the year so they don't get a big head. The holes they were creating were amazing. The pockets they were creating were amazing. And, I love how CP is starting to step up in the pocket and deliver balls even when he knows that he will be hit. It's beautiful. We also completly dominated the time of possession. Sometimes your best defense is a controlling offense and Jimbo helped out Mickey big time in this regard.

-I want everyone out there to keep doubting this team. I love the underdogg role. Heather, Kirk (even though you did vote us number 14 in the AP Poll), Lee, and the lot of you, please keep doubting us. The players talked about how they saw gameday on Saturday and it fueled the fire. Hopefully we can get up for games without this fuel, but it doesn't hurt to have it.

-BYU fans were supposedly overly nice. Surprising.

-Ron Artest says blame him if the Lakers don't repeat. This is awesome. I will bet anybody $1000 right now that the Lakers don't repeat. Ron is already starting this "I am the second most- and maybe the 1st most- important piece to this team" thing. Thanks for Ariza Lakers. Ron, I still love what you did for this team. Does anyone think that if I filmed myself burning Ron's Rocket Jersey and put it on YouTube people would enjoy it? I got to find something to do with that jersey. Or I could just simply pull a baseball move and throw it back when we play the Lakers this year. Input?

-Stepbrothers is quite possibly the most underrated movie of all time. It has become my "go to sleep" movie every night. I freakin' love it. Shot out to Dale and Brennen.

-Greg Reid is the greatest thing since sliced bread. There is no telling what this kid is going to while strapping on the helmet for the Noles. He is a flat out stud. Pick 6 at the start of the third really put us ahead for good. I cannot wait to see him grow as a player.

-Dionte Allen should line up opposite Patrick Robinson. I have read that he doesn't look great in practice. I can understand why Mickey would want him to earn a spot, but sometimes players are simply gamers. Give him a chance Mickey. As long as he puts out effort in practice and performs in a game, let him go.

-I spoke in my blog on the Miami game that I wasn't worried about the linebackers. I have sense kind of shy'd away from that statement. We are almost too athletic at the possession and continuously over pursue. Settle down boys. You could really help out the secondary by playing better coverage.

On Sunday, I woke up, played golf, ruined my back, and came home. I didn't know what to do. I was happy. I needed to pontificate about life. I went outside with a personal cooler of varied beers ranging from Coors light to Corona. There is no doubt I upset the most interesting man in the world. Anyway, after 2 hours of sitting in the sun- I've never spent 2 hours outside in a row minus being on a golf course- Grant thought it was strange. He walked outside and said "Son, do you realize you are the guy who drinks excessively by himself?" and I simply responded "You're God Damned right I am". Great game Noles. You made me happy.

The second character when the Clock reads 12:19.