ChantRant

Cutting to the Chase on today ACC's Scheduling Decision

Football  Each ACC member will play nine conference games, including all six teams in its division, plus its primary crossover partner -- i.e. Miami for the Noles -- and two rotaters. Syracuse and Pitt become each others crossovers.

No division shakeups at this time. Syracuse joins the Atlantic, so will play FSU every year, while Pitt lands in the Coastal Division.

Basketball Each team will play 18 conference games. Schools will play their primary partner twice during the season, which means home and home for FSU and Miami.

Here's the complete story from the ACC.

Guaranteed 4-year scholarships: Good idea or a game-changer for the worse?

The gators are doing it. Big Ten teams do it. Is every college football team, including FSU, next?

Guaranteed four-year scholarships are beginning to replace the one-year agreements. Florida and Auburn made the switch this year. And ACC commish John Swofford recently said, "I think we need to take a look at it. Maybe it's a two-year grant with a two-year renewal. Maybe it's a four-year grant. There are pros and cons either way. But I think we need to discuss it."

The NCAA Div. 1 is for it. In fact, the 4-year scholarship will be put to a vote of all D-1 schools this month.

Virginia's Mike London is against it. Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson is iffy about the guarantee part, saying coaches still need to be able to revoke a scholarship of players who break the law or can't make passing grades.

And Jimbo? He was quoted in an Alabama newspaper last fall as saying he doesn't believe players have to live in fear of being run off under the current system in the first place.

Obviously a 4-year guarantee benefits players and helps prevent oversigning. The argument against is that some kids won't give the extra effort if their scholarship doesn't have to be renewed every year.

It's no secret that some successful coaches relish the ability to practice creative roster adjustment to weed out marginal players and free up scholarships. But they soon may no longer have that luxury.

Tell us what you think about 4-year schollies in the Nole Poll on the right.

Noles set school record in win over Ga. Tech

by Bill from Tampa

Leonard Hamilton summed it up after the game. "Sometimes you just have to grind them out."

And that is exactly what his Florida State Seminoles' team did.

After trailing at the half by one point, FSU cranked up the intensity on both ends of the floor in beating Georgia Tech 68-54.

The win marks the first time Florida State has won six straight victories in the ACC since it first joined the league twenty one years ago.

Even with a slow start, the 'Noles, a Bernard James' slam dunk off the slip screen gave FSU a 20-11 lead with 6:30 left in the first half. Unfortunately Florida State scored just two more baskets during the remainder of the period.

Welcome to the Class of 2012 Seminoles (and maybe 2014 national champs?)

Let the game behind the game begin

Is determined by what happens here today.

Josh Harvey-Clemons won't narrow choice to two but clearly likes FSU

Tonight on Valdosta radio, 5-Star LB Josh Harvey-Clemons was supposed to name the final two teams he's considering signing with. The bad news is he couldn't do it. The good news: from the sound of the Tweet below, Florida State is looking good for his final choice on Wednesday.

Way to give Jimbo pre-signing day Apoplexy

Just what Jimbo didn't need less than 48 hours before signing day. Hard-tackling linebacker Markuss Eligwe announces he's putting off inking his LOI for...well, a few days, so he says.

Great. The Noles only commit at a postion that needs fresh blood is suddenly conflicted about his choice. It was that #$%! last recruiting visit, a cross-country trip to California Berkeley. Guess Markuss hasn't heard about the big one -- the earthquake that'll soon have Berkeley looking more like Bedrock, the Flinstone's hometown.

That makes 4-Star LB Reggie Northrup from First Coast even more important to FSU's 2012 class. Maybe being the Noles first, and possibly only, LB signee is enough to snag him from the Canes at the last second.

Some other marquee players that Nole fans are eager to see in Garnet & Gold have announced their signing times on Wednesday, including:

Mario Edwards    9:05 a.m. ET (Denton, Texas)
Josh Harvey-Clemons   9:15 a.m. (Valdosta)
Tracy Howard    9:35 a.m. ET (Miramar)
Eddie Goldman    10:05 a.m. ET (Washington, D.C.)
Jameis Winston    11:15 a.m. ET (Hueytown, Ala.)
Nelson Agholor    12:05 p.m. ET     (Tampa )
Andrus Peat    1:35 p.m. ET (Tempe, Arizona)
Ronald Darby    2:30 p.m. ET (Oxon Hill, Md.)

Tales from the Seminoles Recruiting Trail

Wally Burnham was a Florida State assistant, coaching linebackers from 1985-93. Burnham (pictured above) goes back almost to the leather helmet days. Now 69, he's coached for 40-plus seasons, including USF until recently. Now DC at Iowa State, Burhnam shared stories of his recruiting days at FSU with the Des Moines Press Register.

“We were recruiting a kid out of Fort Meyers, and it was between Florida State and Notre Dame,” Burnham said. “We had an official recruiting weekend coming up, but I wanted to see the kid, so I got coach Bowden and we flew down to Fort Meyers.

“We had it all set up that we’d get to the kid’s home and have breakfast with his mom. A guy picked us up at the airport, takes us to the recruit’s apartment, and I knock on the door.”

No answer.

“Now keep in mind that coach Bowden didn’t even want to make the trip, anyway, and it’s early in the morning,” Burnham continued. “I knocked two or three more times.”

Still no answer.

“All of a sudden, I saw a note stuck to the door. The mom left a note that said ‘Sorry, can’t be here. Had to go shopping.’"

They returned to the airport, where they boarded the chartered plane.

“Coach Bowden — he didn’t say a word on the way back,” Burnham said. “He went to sleep, and when we got back to Tallahassee, I figured he was going to fire me as soon as we got back in the office.”

Burnham kept his job and the recruit ended up at Notre Dame.

The success rate of JC offensive lineman at FSU: Nowhere to go but up

Every Nole fan has high hopes for FSU's two new junior college offensive linemen. But if you look at the odds for success based strictly on history...well, don't bet the farm.

We find only two (including prep school players) who made significant contributions from 1996 to the present.

The most successful was Walter Jones. He played only one season, in ’96, starting spring drills at guard but moved to tackle. Jones was an AP 2nd team All-American, who went on to play 12 years in the NFL, and was a nine-time Pro Bowl selection.

In 2006, massive OL Shannon Boatman (6-7, 309) arrived from Tyler Junior College, where he earned first-team JC All-American honors. Boatman was a regular on the OL -- not spectactular but a contributor -- in 2006-07. He then spent a few seasons with Toronto of the CFL.

Other JC or prep school phenoms we had high hopes for:

Milford Brown (2001), 6-4, 319, OT, Montgomery, AL - Regarded as one of the top junior college linemen in the nation. Played one year then NCAA ruled he was out of eligibility.

Zach Hillery (2007) 6-4, 315, OG, Chatham, VA - A Rivals Top 20 Prep School and three-star prospect. Failed to qualify academically.

Joe Tonga (2008) 6-6, 305, OL, Pomona, CA - Joined the team right before fall practice, and as far as we can tell never played a down for the Noles.

Jacob Fahrenkrug (2011), 6-4, 315, OG, Robbinsdale, MN - A Rivals 4-Star, widely considered the top offensive lineman in JUCO ball. Jacob didn't get it done at center in year one at FSU, though later contributed at guard.

But now Rick Trickett has a fresh opporunity to change the trend of JC OL that don't work out. He can do it by, among other things, transforming two raw but talented Europeans into dependable American football linemen that protect their QB and consistently open holes. In other words, this is the year Trickett truly earns the fame or takes the blame.

Menelik Watson has played exactly eight games of football

Since FSU's latest OL commitment is so new to football, not much is known about him. But back in December 6'-6" 320 lb. Menelik Watson revealed to an Auburn site details about his background, including:

• He was introduced to football last August at Saddleback CC in California. His coach wanted to get him in the lineup by the fourth game on the schedule. Watson did it, making his debut on Sept. 24th. It was the first of eight games he'd play in his incredibly brief football career.

• Saddleback's ground game improved dramatically with Watson in the lineup, going from 120.7 ypg before his first game to 153.9 ypg the rest of the season.

• Menelik's first sport was basketball. His play at an academy in Spain led to a scholarship at Marist College in New York, where he played in 29 games in the 2010-11 season.

• When he decided to try football last year, he worked out with NFL players before going to Saddleback. During those workouts Watson said he ran a 4.72 40 -- in tennis shoes.