Samford

Impressions from the lidlifter. The lack of penalties called against the home team was impressive. Coaching. The penalty for too many wings at Beef O Brady's. Lot 8 Port O' John. I now know why Jimbo does not allow his asst coaches to talk to the media. They are clearly unable to speak after games. Stoops, Hudson, and Trickett are yelling so much during the game that our entire team is minoring in sign language so they can interpret the blown vocal cord silence of these three in the second half. Our students need to set their alarms just a touch before kickoff for the next home game. it was great that the section was full - in the second quarter. Really? You have 7 home games, and if you are at FSU for the magnet lab, then your priorities are clearly upside down.

Tough to complain much about the offense. Although, when Christian "McDreamy" Ponder left the game, so did every female in the entire stadium. I am not kidding, this was a Pomplonian rush out of Doak making us assume that George Clooney, Chris Pine and Derek Jeter were signing autographs naked in the parking lot. Yeesh, the Nole marketing staff - concerned about the 12,000 empty seats - ought to just tell our female fans that our QB will warm up without his shirt. All three backs did their job, although I was especially impressed with Chris Thompson, and his Warrick Dunn-esque style. He clearly catches the rock the best of the three, with the spin moves in traffic and the way he keeps his pads low to avoid big hits, it is impossible not to think of one of the last 1,000 yd rushers to wear the Garnet & Gold.

All the talk about the new receivers was a tad overblown. The best two darts on the field were old standbys Taiwan Easterling and Bert Reid. Taiwan runs the best routes on the team and was open like an all-night laundrymat. Bert has yet to break a tackle in three years, but since he weighs just 3 ounces more than Savannah Lee, that is not surprising. However, his speed on the edge is impossible to coach or catch. If there was one nitpick with the offense and the club overall in this mismatch, it was the offensive line. Our Heisman candidate was on the run waaaayy too much on Saturday, especially with pressure up the middle. I also did not see any big holes being created in the first half when the poor Samford defense was still able to count to 5 with two water breaks. Their performance better dramatically improve this week, or it will be Sooner & Later.

The defense was very impressive - and not because it was lowly Samford. There was a completely new discipline evident that had been missing for a half decade. Simply put, guys were in the right spots to make plays, and they made them. Even when wunderkid Greg Reid's whiffed like Baseball Casey on Amphetamines, what would have been a TD in past seasons had two Noles in position to prevent a big play. Freshman sensations Lamarcus Joyner and Christian Jones did not disappoint. Joyner was terrific both in coverage and with his physical play. I came out of my seat when this 5'8" 180 lb dynamo laid out the 270 lb fullback like a fat raccoon crossing US 19. Jones was also impressive. If his hands were not coated with teflon, he would have had three sacks. Amp McCloud and Jacobbi both held their own in the middle, and Brandon Jenkins has the quicks to make running at least a challenge this season.

If there was a weakness, and the zone style we employ now dictates it, it seems really easy for our opponent to bleed us to death with 5 yard digs if they are patient enough to try it. Let's hope Oklahoma does not try to simply do this ad nauseum to their superstar wideout Ryan Broyles, because this will be like an inaccurate acupuncturist working during an earthquake.

I now have a new favorite pre-play ritual. Before Dustin Hopkins and his gold-toed Nikes hit the kickoff, his long snapper comes over to him and slaps him twice across his helmet-less mug like a scorned diva. Dustin takes the blows and then heads out to bomb the pigskin into the end zone. Speaking of which, how about our special teams? One punt return TD, a blocked punt and 5/8 of the kickoffs were apparently filled with anthrax because they were not touched.

So this traveling idiot heads to the incredibly exciting metropolis of Oklahoma City to follow our progress from high in the Memorial Stadium end zone. After researching online the most exciting tourist attractions in the area, we have decided to...ride horses. Yup, our B&B has trails out the back door. Yippee Cay Yay. Boomer Bust...Go Noles!