BYU

"God Bless You"
"We are so glad you came. Welcome to Provo"
"You came all the way from Florida...oh my goodness"

This is the kind of riotous smack talk that just gets your blood boiling...and believe it or not, this vitriol continued after the game as these raucous Cougar fans really let us have it on the way out of the Stadium...

"Your team play so gosh darn well, bless you folks"
"Please be careful driving home tonight"
"Congratulations, and we sincerely hoped you enjoyed your stay"

Forget the 9 consecutive third down conversions or that we scored on our first 6 possessions or that we ran for more yards than a Tiger Woods Sasquatch blast, how about this stat. Cokes served at Lavell Edwards Stadium - none - it has caffeine, an addictive drug doncha know. Beers seen in the stadium parking lot - none - well duh. Home fans in the stadium 30 minutes before kickoff - 2,000. Why? When not a single fan is drunk, everyone is polite and parking is orderly and tailgating is not on the menu, then why not show up just before the pre-game prayer and enjoy a pleasant night at the ball yard. Everything was surreal. It was like playing a football game in the Truman Show.

I would like to make the argument that this might have been one of the finest offensive performances in the history of FSU. Yes, we have scored more points in the past - I can clearly remember a Maryland 69 point outburst in '92 and we hung over 70 on NC State after we found out that we were heading to the Big Dance in '93. However, think about the stars on those teams and think about this squad. Granted our best player ended up on the Knicks, but we had pros all over the offense then. The best player on this offensive unit is probably our Guard. Talk about excitement...pour some ice water on me. Back then, we scored in a hurry with big players making big plays. This game was a coaching and efficiency clinic with players buying into a system and making every little play work without flash. BYU had three first half possessions...three...we threw a 30 on the Provo scoreboard in that time.

Superman is wearing Christian Ponder pajamas this week. He flat out inspired the team to another level. When he did his Rix-ian leap for the first down early, the entire sideline erupted. And when he was blasted right before he hit Rod Owens on another crucial third down conversion, all five sweaty lineman dove in his area to help him up and protect our boy from a cheap shot. After the game, he was walking like he had a Pringles in his butt and he did not want to break it. He was hurting. Jimbo has his man. I bet Christian audibles on 40% of the plays and it is hard to find fault in the results. I have also come around on Ty Jones. He runs hard, falls forward and gives effort like a raccoon chasing a garbage truck. Lonnie Pryor also looked very impressive on short yardage and may be our answer there...

So now that we have all ate the pudding and are laying like a fatted hog on the recliner watching the Cowboys and Lions on Turkey Day; it is time to talk about the defense. Yup, I saw the Reid pick. Yup, I counted the five turnovers. Yup, they had 473 yards of offense. That is not small change, Timmy. You can buy some serious candy with that coin. Our contain ends and outside LB's were consistently fooled on misdirection runs (i.e. Wake and USF's whole offense), and it was not just a little disturbing that when we needed a big stop in the fourth quarter to ice the game, we gave up a wide-ass open 80 yard bomb behind Jenije and gawd-knows-what safety who must have been laying his southern rap on the BYU cheerleader (Yeah...good luck with that one bud) at the time. Watch the white boy run, and run....go Forrest, go! I liked that Dionte Allen is playing at a higher level and Nick Moody and Jujuan Harley both contributed at safety...but I was hoping to have this thing worked out by Georgia Tech, and now in the spirit of BYU, I am praying...Our best pass rush is coming from two linebackers in Watson and Mister Alexander, and our DT's are getting doubled. Summins gotta give, or we are going to be Hiroshima soon.

I also do not know if TV showed the Bowden tirade on his own boys this week. It seems that after we score a touchdown, 11 guys who had absolutely nothing to do with said score run out on the field wildly waving their arms like they are hailing a cab from the top of the Sears Tower, yapping their gums at the fans in the endzone and mocking the overweight color guard girls stuck behind the goal posts waiting for halftime. Finally, the smallest of these miscreants claps his hands and they stop their misbehavior and decide to run down the field and tackle someone. This idiocy was especially poignant as our teenage placekicker at 6,000 ft above sea level was pounding the kickoff into the first row of bleachers every time. Coach had seen enuf after TD #3. He was out on the field, hat in hand slapping it against his leg like he was taking Trickett lessons, and giving these boys whatfor. Pavlov been proud. Behavior modified.

I also think we should give a shout-out to punter Shawn Powell. He hit his practice net about 735 times this week and in his one opportunity to punt in live action, he came through in spades. Nice work son. Let's also blame him for the missed PAT, it helps me sleep. I can not even imagine a scenario where that foible might come back to haunt us.

But, the story of the day is like Loyola Marymount of old, we have an offense. An incredible, exciting, multi-dimensional, smartly executed offense. Score 40, we will hit 42. Bring it on Bulls, we are ready!