USF

Hungover.

When you are young, you bounce. You bounce back, you bounce up and you bounce to the next party. You are Tigger with a Busch and an attitude. A decade later, and the springs embedded in your orange & black tail have lost their elasticity. You are now a walker. You might pop up, but then wisdom and experience teaches that bouncing, running or anything quicker than a steady gait will not lead to spectacular happiness. That soiree will still happen if you get there on time or after a pit stop for a gallon of water and a t-bone at the Steak Shack. And then, when did it happen? A snap of your finger later and there is no popping and no walking; you need a walker. Begging for sensory deprivation of the highest order, the very concept of imbibing brings pain to your extremities. Cancel your plans, and get an IV. No wonder, seniors eat at 4:30. They can load up, then get loaded and still crash by 7 and snatch ten hours of sleep before the paper hits the driveway.

Like it or not, our boys were hungover this week. Thankfully, it was more of the middle aged variety than the more dangerous later version. The Bulls, playing in front of 27,000 (out of 60,000 in the house) rabid home fans, were fired up for a signature win, and the first quarter validated their excitement. Their first two drives delivered 125 yards, ate up over 9 minutes of clock and... put 3 points on the board. Eight possessions later, they had added 39 yards to that total, were down by twenty and the enthusiasm on the field was matched only by the wobbling drunk fans in Green heading toward the exits. I really hope we play this team in Tallahassee again, so we can reciprocate the incredible kindness they showed our University (exhibit 1A your honor is putting our band in the corner of the 3rd deck where only Gabriel can hear the horns). We can have their cheerleaders bungee-tied to our flag poles over the Varsity Club and their Ragin Bull Band can perform their brilliant one song halftime show from the Reservation...we can pipe in tuba highlights at the quarter break. We can give their boosters 1,000 tickets to buy in the upper corner, tell the World that the game is sold out and then give away 15,000 end zone tickets to children's charities rather than (gasp!) sell them to fans who might wear their colors. Who needs ticket revenue when you have made a conscious game experience decision to eschew your band music for 124 video board commercials (sidenote - I dabble in sports marketing so I understand the merits of an ad or two). Finally, we will get a one day license to sell alcohol at Doak so that every visitor is absolutely surrounded by garnet and gold inebriation of the highest order with the only escape being a liquid refund or a police escort.

It was an enlightening first period. This was the first team that decided to attack our line of scrimmage head on. They combo-blocked our interior boys and dared Vince Williams to fill a gap and make a play. We nor he did. Apparently, we were expecting a steady diet of misdirection, and instead got sucker punched to the gut. The good news is that our eventual adjustments worked...this time in reverse of the Clemson game. We went from a tight man to a looser zone in the defensive backfield. Our interior guys stopped occupying bodies and began to blow them up. Give Mark Stoops credit, he has not been coming to the test with the answers written on his wrist, but somehow he has found a way to copy from the pretty redhead one row over each game and scratch out a B. They challenged Tank this game with about 75% of the runs going in his direction, and if the other side is the Luftwaffe, he might be the Russian Front. Hard to imagine Brandon Jenkins having a better year than this young man; but we desperately need some blowouts to give more time to not-yet-shaving backups Mario Edwards Jr. (who looks incredibly slow off the ball) and Georgio Newberry (who just gets taken out by one guy on almost every down). Tank was our Plan B, but Plan C is frightening. Telvin Smith has Derrick Brooks speed, but needs to mix in a geometry course, because no one takes worse angles. You could make a highlight reel of #22 shooting by the ball carrier at blur speed. He was like a reverse matador wearing garnet flying by the Bull. Darby, Waisome and Rhodes played terrific again. Short passes were contested and deep balls were picked or knocked down. They will really be tested this week by an accurate and future pro in Mike Glennon. Werner had a quiet game - but I believe that was by design. Asked to contain BJ Daniels rather than sprint rush upfield, he still managed to alter at least four throws, was held at least 7 times, and with the exception of imitating Telvin on their first TD, prevented any plays from getting to his outside. We lost a little pep in the 4th period, but as they cut off beer sales at the end of the third, maybe we were simply reflecting the crowd.

On first blush, I was not happy with the point makers this game. But the benefit of time and the TV replay has made me feel much better. EJ made a lot of nice throws on third down that changed the game. He hit on over 70% of his passes and all 6 throws to our TE's were difference makers. Take away two Rashad Green drops late in the first half and this was another 300 yard game against a better defense than we faced last week. Thompson played very well and is all kinds of tough after contact for a man smaller than my son. Cam Erving struggled mightily for the first time this year, as their speed rush DE really handled him. This made the stretch plays a mess, and without Brandon Jenkins to practice against every day - may be a recurring problem. Maybe he can practice against Telvin...Stork got ACC lineman of the week, which was a little surprising given he fell off the bus steps because he was wearing skates. But, we do need to give a shout out to the off-season workouts that enabled Josue Matias to dive into that green pile after a rare Lonnie fumble and rip the pigskin away from all those enemy hands. Game changing play. Shame that KB held on that Thompson dart to paydirt, because that was the last we saw of him for the day as he entered the Dawsey Doghouse. We were also a little fumbuzzled as to why JWJ was not given a shot late in the 4th to pound away from the I and seal the win in front of his homies, but my gut tells me a bad read on the goal line earlier in the game had him sharing a bone with Benjamin on the sideline. Every time we embarrass a LB by hitting a wide open Nick O'Leary means that we are one step closer to having him be covered by a safety, and when that happens - Look Out! The deep ball is open for business and we can send streakers Rodney Smith, Kenny Shaw and KB right down North Monroe until they hit Quincy or the end zone - whichever comes first.

Special Teams continued their recent trend of spitting up on their bib again this week. A blocked punt (a great individual play by them BTW), a slew of bad kickoff return decisions and another missed FG made for a tough night for Coach Gran. The offset to this was that a brilliant Karlos Williams return in the 1st set up our initial score and Golden Toe did nail 3 of 4 by the end of the game.

Finally, I have to comment on our (team re: Jimbo) decision to kneel in bounds on the last play. Yes, I know that this prevents even the only-scientists-can-see microscopic chance of the other team getting the ball back and then scoring, onside kick, scoring, onside kick and scoring again (all in 20 seconds).  But dadgummit, I want to score again. We are fans and winning 37-17 is more fun than winning 30-17. We are not throwing bombs in the fourth up by 50 to run up the score. If they are too tired to tackle a 5'7" dude, then he should be allowed to run until the wall stops him. Rant over. And no, I have never gambled on FSU, so this is not a cover the spread issue. Just saying...

The Revenge Tour is over, and let's hope the reverse is not true, cuz we put a lifetime whooping on next weeks opponent in Doak last season. Go Noles!