Bethune Cookman

We lost halftime. I mean we were beaten like a weak diva at an East German swim party. It was not close, and not even the mandatory stand and cheer Military Appreciation could save our Chiefs from this shellacking. This drudgery continued throughout the second half and in what must have embarrassed our recruiting conscious staff, it was band appreciation day at Doak. School bands from all over Florida were on hand to witness this travesty. Oh, the humanity. Well, at least the boys in pads took care of business...

Lovely Chamber of Commerce day and early evening in Tallahassee. Intermittent soft and heavy downpours supplemented the low 98% humidity, and every time you even considered taking that sweat box of a poncho off, the heavens opened up and greeted you again. Apparently our spanking new IPF means that we never have to practice in bad weather again, because our stellar cast of wideouts struggled with moisture on the pigskin. I can not remember Rashad ever dropping a ball, and he left two slip through his mitts, including what would have been a signature Jameis touchdown bomb. Kenny Shaw ran to the goal line, but forgot to grab the ball first and JWJ smashed into the overmatched BCU defense, but felt so bad that he gave them the ball as a peace offering. Oh, our young signal caller had his moment though. I hate to do this to him, but when is the time you saw an FSU QB absolutely sense that a DE with bad intentions was going to blow him up from behind, and spin away to safety...no not the patented EJ spin sack...but to free ground where he could make a play. It has been (gulp) 21 years. Twice this week, Jameis escaped certain trouble from behind to make a play. One of these was the crazy falling down miracle TD to Benjamin that left at least 3 Wildcat defenders very grateful that they will not see anything like this the rest of the year.

Los Missile had another fun performance. We may want to switch up the order that we play the backs, and just let him and JWJ smash into the other team for the first half, and then after their bones are not altogether attached to their muscle tissue, bring in Devonta and Ryan Green to shake their way around. I have been a little surprised at the tendency to go right on most of the sweeps this year, even when Tre Jackson has been out. But watching how well Bobby Hart gets downfield and takes out second level players may be explanation enough. I am anxious to see how Trickett's toughs do against BC and Maryland, because there are times that Jameis knocks out a quick game of solitaire before he looks at his WR choices.

Forget all this noise about early game jitters and scheme issues, this defense is made for Clemson-esque spread teams. The fact is that our base is a 4-2-5 with the occasional DB sneaking into the box. We are outmanned on every running down, and excusing away bad opponents consistently gashing us for 5-7 yards on first down is like asking Ray Charles to play laser tag. Both Christian Jones and Telvin Smith can cover in space and stuff a run gap. Give me one more talented dude like Matthew Thomas or Eligwe on the edge, and then we are truly multiple. As it is now, we need a superhuman play from Timmy or J-Mac to get a negative result. We are just losing way too many first downs, and BC with a big physical offensive line may highlight this issue. There are times I feel like Tyler Hunter is doing an SNL Mr. Bill sketch as he comes up to the line and "Ohhh Nooo!!" he gets flattened. A nickel or even a dime on first down is ok when you face four WR sets, but we are not stopping the run right now against seriously outgunned teams. I am concerned.

On the flip side, I love our two freshman ends. Chris Casher and DeMarcus Walker are terrific in space and quick enough to encourage future QB's to wear dark pants. It would not shock me if sheer production forces us to play to play these boys over Hicks and Mario by midseason. Combined with Ramsey and Matt Thomas, this group of frosh defenders should keep the NFL scouts busy for years...

So after power washing the front of the family truckster for the second consecutive week (man do I treasure these special 3 weeks of love bug season!), we get a break and get to let someone else drive this week. Taking Southwest Northeast. See you in Beantown.