Vote for who you think had the post of the week here and winner of $25 to garnetandgold.com.
Safe to say this was probably the angriest we've seen posts be as a whole in quite awhile, so not a lot of funny posts spreading around.
Here are the choices from nominations this week:
@bitnerd 's post in First Post - One fan's perspective:
Long time lurker, first time post. I’ve been watching the board for a long time and to be honest, this is the first time I’ve really felt like I needed to voice an opinion. The last game definitely has really put things into perspective for me and it really makes me sad. It’s not because of the coaches or the players. It’s us as fans. How quickly we turn on our coaches and players is really astounding. From the Fire Trickett or Fire Kelly or Fire Jimbo rhetoric. Or turning on players, like Dalvin – questioning his heart and effort. I understand how disappointing the loss was; heck, I was pretty depressed. But at the end of the day, that’s why the games are played. These things happen. As I reflected on everything, it hit me that we are dealing with the growing pains of youth. Not only from the players, but coaches as well.
What I’m referring to is that our staff is relatively young in terms of experience working together. Everyone compares Jimbo to every other winning ball coach but have we really thought about how well he is doing considering his inexperience as a head coach? I compiled some quick facts to illustrate what I mean. Note, I’m only counting head coaching at college level.
Jimbo Fisher – Going into 7th year. 70-15 record. 1 national championship.
Nick Saban – Going into 21st year.199-60-1 record. 5 national championships.
Dabo Swinney – Going into 9th year. 78-27 record. 0 national championships.
Les Miles – Going into 16th year. 114-33 record. 1 national championship.
Urban Meyer – Going into 15th year. 157-27 record. 3 national championships.
Bobby Petrino – Going into 12th year. 103-39. 0 national championships.
I could continue the list but I think the trend is evident. Jimbo has been doing a pretty good job here at FSU considering his short tenure as head coach. Yes, this past game (amongst some others) is head-scratching. But his total body of work is impressive. Consider also that we’ve had changes at assistant coaches as well. This group is trying to figure out their identity just as much as the players are. It’ll take time for everyone to gel and figure out what our program is about. As Jimbo puts it, we are building a program – not a class, or team or single year run. It’s about building the foundation and there will be growing pains. Think about other programs that still haven’t recovered – Miami, Florida, Nebraska, USC, Tennessee, etc. It’s a long list.
And everyone has bad games. Saban was whooped a few times: Purdue beat his team 52-28 when he was at Michigan State; Alabama rolled on him 31-0 when he was at LSU; Utah beat him 31-17 at Alabama. Urban lost to Alabama 32-13 and 31-6 as UF head coach; and to us 31-7. And how can anyone forget the 54-14 drubbing we put on Dabo and his Tigers.
I’m not trying to offer any excuses. The last game was inexcusable. But I want to point out how lucky we are to have Jimbo, who’s not only a great ball coach but a great person as well. Everyone on our staff is. We have a bunch of great kids playing for us. Things aren’t going to be perfect. I’m sure we’ll have hiccups on the way. And as hard as it is sometimes, I I’m going to try and appreciate everything they’ve done so far in getting us back into the National Championship conversation every year. And I’m going to continue and try to be patient as they build our program to be successful for the long term. I trust that the coaches and players are going to work hard to get us back on track.
I just hope we as fans can show the same type of composure and dedication that our team does every week. Let’s give our team a fan base to be proud of, just as they have provided a team to be proud of. Hope no one takes offense to this - that's not the intent. Just trying to add a bit of perspective to where we are at as a program.
Thanks and I appreciate being able to rant. GO NOLES!
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@manleynumber1nole 's post in The absolute bottom line!!!:
As we all know by now, there is something seriously wrong with this team and it didn't just mysteriously fall and break this year. There has been a something not right ever since the end of the 2013 season and before the "lightning in the bottle" 2013 season.
Before the 2013 season we had heaps of talent yet we played down to the level of competition and would lose complete head scratchers with far superior talent. 2014 we were completely loaded and even Jameis, as dominant as he was, still dropped off some from his 2013 campaign. If not for Jameis in 2014 we lose at least 2 regular season games if not more. We were in dog fight after dog fight and our defense just seemed to disappear and in the Rose Bowl we were beat down. Folks.... It's coaching! NO WAY we just happened to get every dumb 4 and 5 star players on the board.
There is absolutely no excuse for FSU to ever be outclassed by ANYONE! I'm not saying that we should win every time we step on the field but what I am saying is, there are no excuses for being beat every year by the likes of GT, NC State, Virginia etc... etc... Do upsets happen? Of course... that's just how it is. But an upset like the ones we've been accusmed too every year is unacceptable! I understand one every 2 or 3 years but we just seem to literally struggle against EVERYBODY we play and we have unbelievable talent.
Besides Alabama this program is the ONLY team in America that is consistently in the top 2 or 3 in recruiting EVERY year and we should be plugging and playing. We should be reloading EVERY year with the type talent we have been landing. Look at Bama... Look at OSU... Look at these programs with elite coaches... Bama every year just loses bookoos of talent to the league and plays with Sean Maguire type QB'S yet they win titles. OSU last year lost a lot to the league and it's plug and play. No way should we ever have to hear or use the excuse.... "Well, this is a rebuilding year and we just need to realize that." NO! Unacceptable! Not with what we bring in every February.
Speaking of elite coaches.... The only thing that makes a HC "elite" is the company he keeps on his team. A HC can look about his assistants fiddle with the schemes a little I suppose but for the most part he hires QUALITY assistants and stays out of the way until he absolutely has to step in.
Jimbo, imo, and I hate to say this but has a group of "Yes men" if you will on this team. (Seriously not bashing coaches here, i just dont know of any other way to put it) I think he does it this way because he wants to be in complete control over EVERYONE and he is being very stubborn.
This program right now is at a very pivitol point. The fork in the road is right in the face of this program. The next step will be the defining moment for the future of this program. Keep Kelly, Trickett and don't hire an OC and this program will suffer a major set back. Programs will start pointing out to recruits that we are a stagnant program with a not so good future. We have top notch talent on the bench on offense because they need a doctoring degree to play. Many OC's would salivate at what they could do with that type talent. Defense is just lost and they really can't be athletic either because they're trying to figure out where to line up instead of having fun.
I think Jimbo could be an elite HC but I'm afraid his stubbornness will be his undoing. Thing is... We will be stuck with this for at least 3 more years if not for a complete overhaul that is so desperately needed. If we're stuck with this type of coaching for 3 more years then we will definitely be set back while we watch uf miami or both take over the state.
This post was in no way to bash ANY coach because I'm sure they are an awesome bunch of guys who really do try hard but this is, at the end of the day, a business.
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@Theconcept 's post in Inaccurate Posts About Defense; Let's Get a Few Things Straight:
Warning: another long post from me...but I just wanted to clarify a few things on some defensive topics that keep coming up
a) 4-2-5 Scheme:this is essentially a 4-3 out of nickel personnel. It gives you the flexibility to play man or zone without having to switch personnel groupings. Switching personnel groupings tips your hand to the offense because you're much less likely to put a sam or will linebacker in man-to-man coverage on a slot receiver. So stop blaming the 4-2-5, because it's not the issue.
However, we do need more linebackers (particularly sam linebackers that can hold the point of attack on the strong side, take on lead blockers, and effectively set the edge...but are also decent enough in coverage to matchup with a tight end release or quickly expand into coverage windows on the outside). That would give us the flexibility to be multiple in our fronts and play some base 4-3 against run-first prostyle offenses and spread / option teams like GT and Louisville that prefer to run the ball, whereas the 4-2-5 is theoretically better against spread teams like Ole Miss that favor the pass.
Marcus Lewis and Javeon Elliot aren't good enough run defenders to be down in the box setting the edge. This is why our short yardage and goal line defense has been so poor. Teams are absolutely gutting us off tackle and going right at those guys. And it's not their fault either -- they're not built to be taking on kick-out blocks from 300 lb. lineman with a full head of steam. Case in point when Marcus Lewis ran upfield and around that block on the goal line allowing Jackson to waltz right into the end zone. That defender needs to be able to attack the kick-out block head on and spill the ball to the outside so that the safety and corner can rally to make the play.
b) Scheme vs Execution:I see a ton of posts complaining about Kelly's scheme. Again, scheme is part of the problem but execution is a much bigger problem. For example, there was one play I remember when we brought Lewis on a blitz in man coverage, and the RB ran a flare to his side. Jackson dumped it to the RB for a huge gain. Well, one of the first things you should be taught as an edge blitzer in man coverage is that when a back releases on a route to your side, you have to abort the rush and peel off to cover that guy, otherwise he'll be left wide open. It's just basic football. That play wasn't a scheme issue, it was entirely an execution problem.
The main problem with scheme right now is a direct result of poor execution -- here's what I mean by that: it's clear to anyone watching these games that our defenders are repeatedly confused, tentative, not on the same page, etc. So since we're obviously not doing a good enough job coaching and executing our responsibilities, the defensive coaching staff needs to recognize this and dramatically simplify the play book. We need to run super basic, vanilla schemes until our defenders get comfortable with their understanding of pre-snap calls, formation / motion checks, alignments, run gap responsibilities, coverage responsibilities and post-snap reads. Once we have those fundamentals down, then we can start expanding the playbook with more creative pressures and coverages.
I mentioned this before the Louisville game and got mostly negative responses when I said Derwin getting injured could potentially be a good thing for this defense if it means Kelly simplifies what he's doing and just lets our guys play (Kelly didn't do that so missing Derwin was obviously a huge blow). But anyway, the reason why I said that is because moving Derwin all around the field means all the DBs need to know each others positions to fill in for Derwin when he moves around between Star, SS, FS, WDE, etc. And the result of all that cross training with young DBs has been a huge failure. Yes, it benefits Derwin because he's amazing, but everyone else suffers. It's the old "if you know a tiny bit about everything, then you don't REALLY know anything." We need to become experts at our primary positions and responsibilities before we start moving players all over the field and overloading guys with information. What we were doing with Derwin is something you should only do with a very experienced secondary.
c) Players vs Coaching:I also see a good amount of posts saying our players aren't being aggressive enough on defense and they need to step it up. Well, when you're unsure about the correct calls and your particular responsibilities, it's really difficult to play fast and aggressive. You're not confident in what you're supposed to be doing, so you don't trust your reads and end up being a step or two late to everything.
Additionally, in 2014 and 2015 I kept giving the defensive coaching staff the benefit of the doubt when players were out of position, didn't maintain gap integrity and blew assignments in coverage. Well after three years, it's no longer on the players. That's more than enough time to be able to get guys to understand their responsibilities. And if someone still doesn't get it after three years, you have no choice but to play someone else in front of them, no matter how talented they might be.
The "do your job" mantra is used so frequently for a reason -- its the single most important thing when it comes to defense. We look like a high school defense out there...with guys running all over the field trying to make tackles on plays they have no business trying to make. And it's not just a few guys here and there doing that, its a systematic issue across the board. Which means players aren't being held accountable for trying to make plays that aren't theirs to make. If you start benching guys for getting selfish and ignoring their gap responsibilities, in order to be the one who makes the tackle and gets that five second camera close up, then I'm pretty sure guys will stop doing that.
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There were a few more things I wanted to tackle but I'm running out of steam. I don't know if I'm just rehashing old points or helping to clarify at this point, but I just needed to vent. Very frustrated watching this defense over the last few years. And also very expensive when I keep taking unders because we're a talented group and guys keep saying things like, "this could be the best FSU defense ever."
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Good luck to all of this week's nominees. Keep your post game skrong!
Last 4 winners:
Aug 24 - usmand1636
Sept 1 - PC Load Letter
Sept 7 - Jon_Reed
Sept 14 - MDM9093
Sept 21 - ???
