Miami (Game 5)

If you are a long time fan of Seminole football, as the second half dragged on and our special teams found every way imaginable to spit up on themselves, you knew we were going to lose; it was only a matter of how. When that onside kick was gobbled up in the Miami muck by Taiwan Easterling, it was almost reverse shock. Holy crap, we really won this cluster. It is possible to have a better team – outplay the Canes for 60 minutes -and win a close game in this craphole of a city. Zowie.

If you were not a long suffering fan of our kicking travails in South Florida, then this was just another wildly entertaining game featuring gawdawful weather, a doddering old coach and some really fast boys from FSU and Miami Northwestern HS.

First some huge offensive props. Jimbo Fisher called an absolutely spectacular game, start to finish. I can only quibble with the two Antone dives on 3rd / 4th and 1 and I think the film of Marcus Sims, Jermaine Thomasa, and Ponder sneaks having success on these same down & distances will show him how to go forward. How about the two reverses to Parker and Easterling on the last deciding drive? That – my friends – is new. That is 1980’s vintage BB. Playing to win and leaving nothing in the bag is wonderfully refreshing. Throwing the ball up to Greg Carr on occasion was also a nice addition – as we ranted last week. Maybe the biggest shame of the game is that Carr’s patty-cake play to himself was negated by a ref calling a false start – apparently about 15 seconds into the play (which is a shade counterintuitive). A new star was born on Saturday as well. Taiwan Easterling was a certified stud. His block on the last run won the game. Yes, Antone ran hard. But it was Easterling putting his helmet in the heart of a Cane LB 15 yards in front of the play that made it a TD and not a FG (which meant a 5 point lead and a loss)…In addition to the big reverse, Taiwan also found a soft spot in the zone on another second half drive and delivered the biggest passing play of the game. He is elusive and tough in traffic. Love this kid.

My final offensive plaudits have to go that scary old dude in charge of our big uglies. I keep trying to figure out how in the heck we are stealing lunch money from Senior bullies every day with this group of Freshman who can’t even shave yet. He is an absolutely amazing coach. One holding call this week. 281 yards rushing against that team – who along with Clemson is the best front four we will see this year. NO SACKS. Folks, we had one 200 yard rushing game in the last four years. We have had 4 this season. My goodness. He acts like an East German swimmer that has missed two meals and her meds -all day long - and these kids love him. The only rationale must be that he takes them all out preseason, feeds them heroin and hookers and then takes dozens of digital pictures with his tragger finger on their parents’ email. This line plays like they have something to prove every down.

Defensively, those of you waiting to see Myron Rolle have a breakout game, you just got it. He was terrific. Stuffing the run and stopping two huge plays on sprint draws where the rest of the D was fooled was only the beginning. He had at least 4 of our amazing 13 pass breakups and never hooked the WR to bring a flag. He was left on an island by the blitzing Amatos, and did not flinch. Best game as a Nole for the future Dr. Rolle.

In true Miami fashion, I appreciated the fact that Dakota Watson also snuck a slab of cement into his arm wrap. That certainly came in handy shedding would-be blockers and smacking wandering wideouts on crossing patterns. I am not so sure it helped on one potential pick that hit his arm and bounced violently away. However, he did make a super self-tip pick as well. It is also apparent that Everette Brown will not be moving to Tight End anytime soon. He may be able to pick up women, checks from his friends and an occasional and curable virus, but he can not pick up a softly tossed pigskin to save his life. Thank goodness he and Neefy Moffit can rush the QB.

Now the Special (pronounced like the SNL church lady) Teams. Yikes. A long time ago, Deb and I were at a Nole gathering and were speaking to the parents of the long snapper who participated in the puntrooskie. They said that they watched the play on TV – saw the punter jump up and start running backwards – and shut the tube off crying and despondent. Our boy just lost the game. Yes, they turned it back on and sat in stunned and amazed silence looking at the replays. The point is that every boy has a momma. Boy, did I want some Lauren Conrad clone to be our young long snappers Momma this week. He needed a quality hug, and he needed it bad. I also cry foul on the obvious illegal grease coating that the Cane’s allowed to be spread all over Travis Benjamin making him impossible to bring down without spiderman weblike assistance or Watson’s club. Kinda think we also need to throw out the 20 yard kick-it-to-the-cheerleaders pooch kickoff. Methinks we might spend a few minutes the next 12 days on some kick drills. However, all this being said, the game was won by 2 points and our hero – Graham Gano – hit a 53 yard bomb along with another now pedestrian mid-thirty’s kick on Saturday. It did not come down to a last second kick, but I have not had this much confidence in this position since the Polish powder keg.

Finally, I have certainly been in my share of ridiculous weather games. However, last year, team Sickmon skipped the BC game and this year we did not trek down to Little Cuba. My luck seems to be solid lately as both games appeared to be much more comfortable and a smidgen drier from my big brown couch. I will be traveling to Raleigh next week and I now expect a lovely cloud free 65 degree evening.

Go Noles!