ChantRant

Thumb positives and negatives from Saturday's cliffhanger

Ponder the Warrior - Wincing with every throw, taking ongoing abuse from N.C. State's rush, he refused to lose. Christian's stats of 277 through the air and 29 on the ground were overshadowed, though, by the outrageous numbers Wilson had, courtesy of a defense that seems to have forgotten the actual meaning of the word.

38 was Grrrrrreat - 186 yards rushing was Jermaine Thomas's best ever as a Nole. And FSU's rush total of 278 should the vault the team up in NCAA stats from a lowly 98th in the nation in rushing.

ACC refs strike again - You saw it. The totally bogus call on Greg Reid for the egregious atrocity of playing hard-hitting defense.

Chris Thompson finds a role in the offense - The Warrick Dunn-sized scatback is finding ways to contribute -- and score. We still question running him over the middle in third down situations, though.

38.5% called it - High fives to our readers who voted in the Nole Poll. The majority were correct in predicting FSU would eek out a win, instead of running it up against the Pack.

***                    ***                    ***

Worst tackling ever - Just when you think this defense can't get any worse, they find new ways to make poor teams look Top 25 juggernauts.

Running Ponder when he was hurt - Don't understand that call. The game wasn't on the line at the time and Christian was hurting. Still, it worked.

WRs not holding their blocks on screens - If screen passes are going to be the foundation of FSU's offense, WR's have to do a better job of giving the guy catching the ball more room to zoom.

Relying too much on the screen game? - Then again, it's tough to hold a block when opposing DBs are practically playing nose-to-nose with receivers because they know a screen is coming.

Has Amato taken over for Mickey? - In recent games, Amato appears to be making defensive calls during games. If this is Bowden's way of letting Chuck audition for Mickey's job, The Chest is failing the test.

Empty seats - After the UNC win, and despite the fact it was Homecoming, who expected the smallest home crowd since 1993? A disappointing 67,712. So we'll just let Milli Vanilli voice our cut-'em-some-slack commentary on attendance.

Stalking the Wolfpack with James from "Yet Another N.C. State Sports Blog"

After a week off, these Wolves are hungry for an upset. Nobody knows better than our N.C. State counterpart, James, who publishes a Pack-worthy blog with a name too long to repeat. Here's how he answered our five questions about Chuck Amato's alma mater.

N.C. State is third in the ACC in Total Defense and Total Offense. Why hasn't that translated to more wins?

"I think it’s important to note that while we may be third in “total defense,” we’re #10 in “scoring defense.” We just can’t keep anyone out of the endzone. That’s a rather large discrepancy in the rankings between the yardage surrendered and the points given up…if I had to guess why, I’d say that we’ve done a poor job winning the field position battle. We tend to give up a ton of kickoff and punt return yardage, shortening the field for the opponent initially. We’ve also committed a lot of stupid penalties on both sides of the ball. Again, more “hidden” yardage. And we also shut down two FCS opponents to an embarrassing degree, which has somewhat falsely improved our defensive yardage stats. Add it all up and it paints a much more grim picture defensively. That’s why the scoring defense numbers “feel” more accurate."


Like FSU, N.C. State has had its highs and lows. What's the deal with the Pack's inconsistent play?

"Injuries seem to be at the root of most of it. Our back seven was thin and inexperienced coming into the season…losing Nate Irving—the heart of the defense—before the year began and some key contributors in the secondary as the year has progressed has really taken the fire out of this defensive unit. They’re not playing well together, as a group, and I think they’ve lost faith in themselves and the defensive scheme to put them in a place to succeed. The soft zone looks Mike Archer employs leave little room for error in order to be successful, and right now the players are making way too many errors. They’re thinking instead of playing, making them a step slower and less aggressive. It’s a bad combination."

Will the Pack's D-Coordinator have some new wrinkles to put more pressure on Ponder?

"Lord would I love to say yes! The problem is I don’t think Archer trusts his secondary enough to protect against the pass without the linebackers dropped into coverage. So I don’t expect there to be many blitzes if it’s a tight game. Archer has shown to be fairly conservative when the game is in doubt, so I imagine it will be a lot of 3- and 4-man rushes. Man I hope I’m wrong and that Archer brings the house from all directions all day long, but I just don’t see it from him."

Pondering the fortunes and future of the Seminoles suddenly hot no. 7

Getting dissed by Davey O'Brien - As much as the snub stings, it's pretty clear why Christian Ponder didn't make the list. First, he was just getting on the national radar about the time the selection committee was making out their ballots. Second, FSU's subpar record didn't suggest to voters that, despite the Seminole skid, a pretty good QB was emerging. After all, Ponder didn't exactly become a household name on last year's stats. Finally, the whole Bowden-under-fire media storm stole the limelight from Ponder's breakout performances against BYU and Georgia Tech.

Well, with only a hint of sour grapes, we say to hell with Davey's award and his myopic selection committee. The shiny hardware that really counts is the one that former Noles Ward and Weinke brought home. While it's too late for Ponder to steal the Heisman from McCoy, Ingram or the golden child, just wait til next season. That is if there's a next season for the talented junior from Texas (more on that in a minute).

Now he's a marked man - You can count on Ponder being in the cross hairs from here on out. As we speak, N.C. State's D-Coordinator is putting the finishing touches on new wrinkles, stunts and special blitz packages to increase the pressure on Ponder. Expect every other team to do the same now that he's on their radar. One nasty hit, like the kind Tebow took at Kentucky, could derail Ponder's chances of outshining all those Heisman candidate QBs at season's end.

And speaking of Tebow - If Ponder stays healthy and continues to pile up the stats, think of the super showdown at the end of November between no. 7 and Tim Terrific. We're not getting loopy here and predicting a Nole win at Hogtown. But wouldn't it be stunning if the gator's avowed Christian QB was overshadowed by a guy named Christian?

A blessing and a curse - Continued success by Ponder could salvage some Seminole pride and even take the Noles to a bowl game. But the more SportsCenter highlights and amazing stats that no. 7 racks up, the greater the chance he might think the unthinkable: leaving early for the NFL. Let's hope his Dad, former FSU D-tackle David Ponder, will help keep his focus on what a sensational 2010 could mean: a first-round pick -- maybe top 5 -- and a Brinks truck of bonus money. Besides, there must be yet another degree Ponder would like to work towards.

FSU signee Willie Downs leaves JC football due to unspecified "personal issues"

Willie Downs is the player FSU fans salivated over after seeing him dominate on defense during the Army All-Star Game. But in an exclusive interview with ChantRant, Downs' JC coach told us the Godby High grad quit the program before the season was over.

Here's what we learned from Tim Hatten, Head Coach of Pearl River (Ms.) Community College, where Downs enrolled in August after not qualifying at FSU.

"Willie left our program after the sixth game. He had some personal issues and left campus. When he was here he had a good season for us. He was a really good player. But he's got issues I think he needs to resolve to be any kind of football player. He had a Plan A, we were Plan B, now he's going to Plan C."

Do you expect him back next season?

"I don't know if has an intention to come back, but he won't be coming back to our program. That's my decision."

Can you describe the issues he had?

"I really don't know what those issues are. But I just know that in a structured environment, he just has a hard time handling that. And I think it might be related to why he didn't qualify (at FSU).

"My suggestion is for him to go to community college there in Tallahassee, not play, use that as his redshirt year, and graduate. Then he'd have three years to play three."

Does he have the talent to be a D-1 player?

"Yeah, he does. But I think he needs to get his act together and decide what Willie Downs wants to do. Not what somebody else wants Willie Downs to do.

"I think a lot of is, every time you take a kid who has a chance to go to an FSU or Miami or Florida, and then they step on campus at a community college, I think reality hits them in the face. They think the competition's not going to be stiff. We have a lot of great athletes who are here for the same reason Willie was -- they didn't qualify. Second, they see their friends that they were recruited with on TV. And if you're not real strong mentally, it kind of wears on you a little bit.

"But he is a great football player. I think he can play for anybody. But he's got to go to class at that school and be a college student."

Did he contribute on defense as well as playing receiver?

"More at receiver, but I think he's a better defensive player. More like a strong safety type. He roams the center field pretty good when we played him on defense. He made some plays like you'd expect a Division-1 athlete to make."

Note: After five games at Pearl River, Downs had 24 receptions for 402 yards and three TDs. He also returned kicks and played some safety.

Do you think he can do college level class work?

"This is not a dumb kid. He scored a 19 in math on the ACT. His academic issues were back in high school, in terms of making sure his core GPA coincided with his ACT score. And he didn't have his core classes. Now he's got to graduate from a community college to be eligible for Division-1 football. And I'm sure Jimbo Fisher knows that."

Do you think Willie is a good kid at heart?

"Yeah, I think he's a great kid. He's just got some issues he's got to work out in terms of communicating. But he's a great kid. I've got a ten-year old son who just loved him. It kind of broke his heart when I told him Willie went home.

"I don't resent Willie for making the decision that he made. I wish he's stayed, but I told Coach Fisher that I'd help him any way that I could."

Florida State 2009-2010 Season Preview: Part II of III

by Bill from Tampa

This past weekend the media that covers the Atlantic Coast Conference voted how they think the leagues standings will end up. Florida State with 314 votes was voted to finish 7th, right behind Wake Forest with 315. Duke and North Carolina tied for first.

The voting indicates a couple of things.

First, the conference could very well be one of the tightest races at any time that we have seen since FSU joined the ACC. A number of star players have moved on, notably for Florida State Toney Douglas. But a number of very highly recruited players to replace them will make their college debut in a couple of weeks. For FSU that will be Michael Snaer.

The ebb and flow of that recruiting process has brought teams closer together in terms of talent. The slots from one through eight, maybe even nine, are up for grabs. Some lucky breaks or bad breaks could really affect a team’s fortunes in the league this year.

So while FSU is picked 7th, a position that I personally think is a little low, catch a few good breaks here and there along with a talented returning squad and the Seminoles could finish as high as third or possibly with some really good play challenge for second.

That won’t be easy however. It never is in the ACC.

Second, the results tell me that that the voters put a lot of weight in the departure of Douglas and not a whole lot of faith in Derwin Kitchen.

Certainly you can understand why. The media is not much different in some ways than fans. They are often reactionary. So with losing Toney’s 21.5 ppg and its go-to guy in the closing moments of games, the media reacted in thinking Kitchen in his first year running the offense will be a drop off from Douglas.

That is their perception. Perception is often wrong.

Ponder leads the golden child in all categories except circumcisions performed during spring break

Source: NCAA statistics for games played through 10/24/09

Update: For a complete analysis of Ponder versus all other Davey O'Brien Award Finalists -- and appropriate outrage at FSU's QB being left out -- read this Tomahawk Nation column.

Seminole Screen Saver Material: Must-see shots from FSU's incredible comeback

Photo Credit: Raleigh News-Observer

Paul Finebaum on the Bowden-to-UAB rumor

We talked to Paul Finebaum, the outspoken Alabama sports columnist and radio talk show host, about that rumor. You know, the one that has Bobby Bowden packing for the coaching job at UAB, possibly with Tommy Bowden as his head-coach-in-waiting.

Here's what Finebaum told us:

"I didn't have the enough nerve to bring it up (on the radio) because I didn't think anyone would take it seriously. That rumor's out there but we haven't mentioned it because it's hard to put much credibility in a rumor.

"It may have a lot of validity and may have none. It could be he says I've had enough of this and I'm going to help out my son. And Birmingham is his home. And would anything be surprising coming out of Tallahasse these days? Probably not."

Paul says he got a call asking the same thing from "the guy who runs Warchant." So the buzz is out there and some people believe, as crazy as it sounds, that it's worth checking out.

Ponder these Thursday night numbers

395 - Yards allowed by the nation's number one pass defense, which had given up an average of just 125.17 yds. per game before last night. Pretty sure they won't be number one when the new NCAA stats are released. 

438 - Total yards allowed by the nation's number three team in Total Defense.

9 for 199 - Rod Owens catches and yardage on a career-high night.

1 - Number of sacks this year by Markus White; recorded on the final play of the UNC game when he downed T.J. Yates.

43 - Total rush yards for FSU. Difficult night for the running backs, except a few glimmers of hope for the future from Chris Thompson.

15 - 1 - 1 - FSU's all-time record against UNC after the Thursday night win.

1 - 6 - Butch Davis's all-time record against FSU.

95 - Number of passing yards allowed by the Noles. Not bad for a defense that was allowing an average of almost 254 per game.

94 - Number worn by Justin Mincey, who played his first minutes of the season against UNC. So much for a medical redshirt year for the senior D-Lineman.

32 - Number of days since the Noles last victory.

196 - Points given up by FSU's D so far this season.

1,147 - Number of four-letter words muttered by Mickey Andrews when the apparent INT by P-Rob was ruled incomplete.

?? (Lost Count) - (Submitted by a CR reader. Thanks, Robert) Number of times ESPN ignored the actual game to zoom in on former Carolina great, Lawrence Taylor. Good thing ex-UNC star Michael Jordan wasn't on the sidelines or we'd have seen nothing but highlights after key plays.

As FSU hits Tobacco Road to UNC, we roll out a Carolina close-up

It's the Seminoles first trip back to Chapel Hill since 2003. So to get reacquainted with the Tar Heels (a lot has changed since the John Bunting era), we tossed some questions to John at Carolina Water Cooler.

Are injuries the primary reason for UNC's offensive struggles, or is it partly due to coaching?

"Mostly injuries, but coaching hasn't helped. 

"The root of the problems on offense boil down to a disturbing amount of attrition on the offensive line. Simple as that. Between players leaving the program during the summer and others getting injured during camp this fall, it's been difficult to even find warm bodies to put out there on game day.

"The problem with coaching is that the offensive staff hasn't adapted to the players that they actually have at their disposal, but has instead continued trying to run a complex, pro-style offense that simply won't work with inexperienced, less talented linemen."

With two running backs out, who will start behind QB T.J. Yates?

"Carolina's top two running backs, Shaun Draughn and Ryan Houston, are still healthy, so no worries at that position; we'll still be able to showcase the same anemic, ineffective rushing attack that we've displayed in the first half of the season."

Talk about Carolina's defense, currently ranked #3 in the nation in Total D.

"The defense is made up mostly of juniors who have been starting (or at least getting significant playing time) since they were freshmen, so their success has less to do with style and more to do with experience, more years in the weight room, etc. Butch's style doesn't involve much blitzing, so it's important to have enough talent on the defensive line to get pressure on the quarterback without having to send the linebackers. The Heels haven't gotten that pressure until this year, with sophomore defensive end Robert Quinn looking like an All-American. His pressure on opposing quarterbacks makes an already talented defense that much better."

Any injuries on the defensive side that will affect UNC?

"No, despite the massive number of injuries on offense, the defense has stayed remarkably healthy. Plus (unlike the offense), they have the depth to overcome a couple of losses here and there without any significant drop off."

Any weak points on the defense that an opposing coach would try to exploit?

"Nothing glaring. The only bad defense that Carolina has played this year was the first quarter at Georgia Tech. And it's probably too late for Jimbo to convert the FSU offense to Paul Johnson's triple option. That said, Ponder will certainly be the best quarterback we've seen, so it will be interesting to see how the defense handles him."