Vote for who you think had the post of the week here and winner of $25 to garnetandgold.com.
Here are the choices from nominations this week:
@Donnie_Please 's post in Champions Club - Some Positive Feedback:
My parents sat in the Champions Club Saturday. They live in Birmingham, but I am a Phd student at FSU and have attended several home games this year. I had spoken to my Dad several times about the emtpty club seats issue, so he was aware.
First of all, he said the experience was amazing, and both were completely blown away. Also, I don't know if anyone noticed, but the two lower sections on the far west side of the club section were basically full. My dad said that was absolutely because those two sections were in the shade the whole game. He said there were hundreds of people in other sections who remained inside for this very reason. If it had been cooler and less sunny we would have seen many more seats filled.
I think those upgrades look amazing, even when people aren't sitting in them, and it was always my understanding that selling all of those seats would certainly take more than one or two years. I have many close friends and family members who are diehard Alabama and Auburn fans who haves expressed many times how impressed they are that we did not concern ourselves so much with quantity as we did quality. My parents have been to Bama games this season, and both commented on how much better the view was in Doak. I have seen many games in Byant Denny and Jordan-Hare, and I must agree. The upperdeck in other stadiums is hardly enjoyable.
Be patient Noles. And thank you to those with the vision to make this a reality.
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@BigCleat42 's post in My take on FSU Clemson:
I just posted this buried deep on page 3 of another thread but decided to give it a thread of its own. Hope that's ok with everyone. I'm interested to see how many others share my optimism.
Judging by this thread (the thread I originally posted in), it seems the overwhelming majority expect us to lose to Clemson. It's understandable, they've been better than us this year. I won't be surprised by any outcome but my gut tells me the Noles take this one.
A few things working in our favor:
- Clemson's rush D has been vulnerable at times this year (141 yards to Troy, 273 to Louisville, 155 to BC) - I expect Dalvin JP and DF to move the ball on the ground with decent success.
- Clemson turns the ball over - only 4 teams have turned it over more in all of football. Our D has been pretty opportunistic - i expect we'll win this battle at home changing momentum in our favor a few times.
- Clemson's offense has not been very effective where FSUs Defense has been most vulnerable, big plays. Clemson has the 2nd fewest 30+ yard plays in the ACC (11 on the year). For perspective, FSU has nearly twice as many (20) and Louisville has nearly 3 times as many (29).
- Our D line will beat their O line. With Clemson struggling up front at times, and our D line seemingly rounding into form with Sweat and Nnadi getting healthy and better, I think we'll cause them problems. We'll surely get beat by the mobile QB some like our D has been known to do this year, but I expect us to continue our man to man/ bring pressure approach that's paid dividends lately, and I think it will be effective more than not.
- Red zone offense - Noles are the best in the ACC and 14th best in the country scoring about 94% of the time in the red zone. Clemson is the worst in the ACC and 108th best in the country converting less than 76% of the time. Huge advantage for the Noles if this holds up next Saturday.
- Pressure - like so many teams in the past that have had a string of success, Clemson looks like a team doing its best not to lose and stay undefeated. It's a recipe for playing tight while the Noles can throw caution to the wind and let it rip. I expect us to have a big emotional edge.
- Home sweet home - I don't think it can be overstated how big of an advantage this will be for us this game, this year. I can't imagine anything other than a rabid crowd playing under the lights at home for the first time this year. The new spears are going to light up and it's going to be the most electric and loud Doak has been in years. I expect the players to feed off this energy and play the most physical brand of football we've seen from them all year.
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@CobraEatr 's post in If you were Jimbo - List 3 changes you make this offseason:
Since it's an off-week I thought it might be fun to see what changes everyone would make this offseason if they were running the show. List your changes and put them in order. Also, if you fire a coach then list who your top choice would be to replace him. Here are mine.
1. Fire Charles Kelly. CK seems like a great guy but it's obvious after 3 years that he is in way over his head. He was a position coach at Georgia Tech, then a position coach here, and then we promoted him to DC instead of going out and finding a proven DC. This season is not the first time that Charles has struggled. In 2014 with the best QB and RB in college football, we had to come back from large deficits to win. Many times during this season commentators would say "they just look lost" about our secondary. Oregon blew us out and many of their receivers were wide open. In 2015 we did not play many offenses with a pulse and thus our Total Defensive rank improved from 2014 to 2015. That is, until we played Houston. Houston had their way with us. Guys were running wide open.....again. In 2016, through 5 games we had 2 losses and were giving up 35 points per game. We then played Miami (average on offense) and Wake (horrendous) and had good defensive showings. Still not enough to save CK's job.
I would go after Todd Orlando, Houston's DC. Houston plays an attacking style of defense and they are very aggressive. Orlando has been a DC since 2005 and has Houston ranked #10 currently in Total Defense.
2. Fire Rick Trickett or kindly ask him to retire. Outside of 2013 we have always struggled with our offensive line. In 2013 we had a Super Bowl winning center, and everyone else was drafted in the NFL. Besides that we have seen numerous false starts and we can't seem to block at all on passing downs. The excuse is always either injuries or "we are young." Plus Trickett doesn't recruit well. Most kids don't like his style of recruiting.
I would go after Brian Ferentz, Iowa's offensive line coach and Kirk Ferentz's son. He was an OL at Iowa, he played in the NFL for a couple of years, coached for the New England Patriots for 3 years, and now he's back with his Dad at Iowa. I say we offer him Trickett's salary and an opportunity to succeed away from his father.
3. Play the BIG WRs. We're rolling out 5'8" guys on offense who can make great catches but have zero ability to turn them into big plays. We cannot stretch the field vertically and we have to nickel and dime our way into the endzone every drive. Meanwhile on the bench sits 6'5" Auden Tate (8 catches on the season, 4 of which are touchdowns), 6'3" Keith Gavin (5-star who looks like a starting WR in the NFL), 6'4" George Campbell (5-star), 5'11" Nyqwan Murray (who has been described as Peter Warrick-esque). Why aren't these guys getting playing time? Some report it's because they don't know the scheme as well as Kermit and Bobo. Well then change the scheme. Dumb it down for the guys. I don't care how you do it - get the playmaker WRs on the field.
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@dakid_0812 's post in Observations from Doak:
I sat in the Champions club. Awesome experience and really can't see myself sitting anywhere else. The service was outstanding. The waitresses were prompt bringing the drinks and the food was pretty good. I sat in my seat the entire game and most people around me did as well, but the sun wasn't in my section.
Wake didn't respect the WR's all game. They consistently kept their safeties in the box and lined their corners 7 yards off of the wr's and didn't give them much help over the top. Why can't Jimbo call at least 2 50/50 balls to Tate every game when there isn't safety help? His TD catch reminded me of KB. Travis played outstanding, something we've looked for all year. His catch before the half was a result of Tate fighting the ball out of the defenders hands. We heard so much about Murray in the preseason, why hasn't he touched the field? It's not like we have the 2013 starters.
They blitzed the interior of the OL and confused the Center and Guards. Francois will need to anticipate better on the routes because they will not give him time to wait until the WR make their breaks. We can get the same play from the freshman Centers, 54 has to get stronger.
Patrick should play more. Dalvin played a good game, not great. Save some of the wear and tear on his body. Theirs a ton of talent sitting on the sidelines that can be utilized. Patrick runs physical and behind his pads just as Jimbo requested this year. Reward him.
The dline played with their hair on fire all game. From the opening snap. Sweat seemed to have turned the corner, Burns is a pash rushing demon, Walker is increasing his NFL value and proving to be one of the best DE's ever to wear G&G. Reminds me of Michael Bennett of the Seahawks. The DT's pushed the pocket and made for tough sledding for the dive plays on the read option.
Starting LB's should be Jackson and Thomas. Jackson plays downhill and very instinctual. Hoskins can help in pash rush some times and can sub the starters. He's slow to trigger when all the keys show run. He's regressed from last year. Why haven't we seen more of Josh Brown?
Corners played a better game then I expected. They targeted #4 and #20. Expect that to continue against Clemson. I think that #4 will be an All American next year. The freshman DB's played outstanding to be so young. Lane looks so natural at safety. He's physical and stays in his assignment. He does his job and tries to communicate. There were a couple of blown coverages due to tempo and he was the only person that was covering a couple of their receivers on one play. He was jumping up and down trying to get some help. We have to get lined up properly. This shouldn't still happen this far in the season. Another time Wake had 3 guys in bunch formation with 1 corner and a safety over the top and the Wake QB had a WR open for a TD standing alone but he didn't see him. Clemson will not miss this. Any sort of motion or bunch formation out of tempo they allow someone to be wide open.
I think that to get back to the standard of play that Jimbo wants, changes at WR coach, OL coach, LB's coach and DC have to be made. Get some younger guys on the staff. Wake looked to be the more physical team. That can't happen. I know the kids just came off very emotional rivalry game, but 17 points scored when gifted field position on 7 of those from dropped punt isn't good. Start running some Tempo, and get more of the guys involved.
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@AndyDufresne 's post in Who is the guy Francois is always talking to on the sideline?:
Personal injury lawyer
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Good luck to all of this week's nominees. Keep your post game skrong!
Last 4 winners:
Sept 21 - Theconcept
Sept 28 - fsukenny
Oct 6 - Nolefan19
Oct 12 - ol nole
Oct 21 - ????
