Louisville

Although I am not undefeated in Louisville, I can now say with absolute certainty that I have never taken a loss at Churchill Downs. A somewhat surreal tailgate break for our group was taken at the home of the Derby where they were racing on a crisp sunny Thursday afternoon. Noles milled all over the grounds and in both races that we watched, this scribe cleaned up at the window. I made enough crazy jack to buy a hot chocolate at halftime of the nightcap. Although if you count the money the wife spent on a mint julep - which had enough bourbon in it to incapacitate a walkon - it may have been a net loss.

Having been lucky enough to attend all but one of our schools all time Thursday night tilts, we were concerned as most about playing in this "atmosphere". Well, not going to make that mistake again. I have been to noon games at Duke that were louder, and certainly never been to a collegiate game that was less collegiate. The band played pregame for about 7 minutes, and no one chanted, cheered or really cared. And oh, by the by, that was the last time the instruments carried by children in Cardinal red were used until halftime, and then they were put on a shelf until the next home tilt. At every TO, the speakers blared often profane urban rap which seemed to really inspire the middle age season ticket holders who even when their heroes were up by 21 never stood up. I know that TV showed some rowdy students, and the one section that they were in did indeed seem to have some fun. But, if you want to build a program, you may want to allow more than 10% of your kids paying tuition in the gates. When we scored late to go up by 4, people dressed up as red seats came pouring in. And why not, you have the ball and three and a half minutes left. Time to give up and beat that famous 'Ville traffic.

Our boys simply do not know how to lose, and that is a beautiful thing. Somehow in that little game in Pasadena, we found a heretofore not present arrogance that regardless of score or situation, every kid in garnet and gold believes that it will all end alright; and it does. It starts with Jimbo, and the confidence that our Head Dude exudes rolls through the quarterback and cascades to the entire sideline. I understand that I am a broken 45, but you have to be in the building to truly appreciate the hipster from Hueytown. Bad ankle, backing up because one of your lineman was destroyed again, and flicks it 35 yards downfield hitting one of his guys in stride. He throws the ball earlier than Pinellas county residents head to dinner anticipating receiver breaks. So, when freshman phenom Travis Rudolph quits on a route, or Nick takes a bad angle, the ball is going to the other team. We saw Nick's grandfather in the hopper post game, and was justifiably proud of his blood's instant Twitter sensation WWE body slam after the aforementioned bad cut.

Our offensive line is a mess, but somehow found a way to gain 574 yards against the statistically best defense in the country. Cam is playing with one arm, Bobby Hart puts on skates every other series and poor Ryan at center...oh boy. Pregame in a benign walk though running drill that thankfully was witnessed by only myself and the coaches, he was literally knocked up and back on his cushion on consecutive snaps. This was in a walkthough. I know that Eddie Goldman is good, but at half speed you have to manage to stay on two legs. Although he stayed upright on most of our offensive snaps, it was not a mystery why most of our Dalvin dashes were to the outside. Speaking of the best freshman tailback in the country, zippy skippy is that dude fast. He is now starting to break tackles and hop to the right holes. Both he and Pender catch the rock beautifully on those swings as well. Good thing we just got another 5 * RB committed this week, we are really hurting here.

Jimbo called a terrific game this week. How about the TE screen when we had not used it all season? He had Louisville on their heels the entire second half, including the back breaker when we tossed the winner to Freddie Stevenson. I absolutely love the fact that we tried to win the game, rather than the conservative alternative. Jameis told the team in the huddle that if they give him a little time, it will be a touchdown. Indeed. The Cards were more lost than Peter Pan's boys. The J&J combo took pressure again off a defense that continues to confound all of us.

I understand that we only had three healthy linebackers on the trip, but we have to find a way to disguise what we are doing. There were little Seminole kindergarteners staying up late all over America that paused in their fingerpainting homework, and yelled "Blitz" at just the right time - every time. Two opposing coaches in a row now in their midweek presser commented on how FSU has the easiest defense to diagnose that they see all year. Yowza. That is just embarrassing. We have future pros all over the field, and we are passive and predictable. Florida, BC and Miami all just line up and try and mash you, and we better find a way to get enough big bodies in gaps or there may be an eclipse of a game when our offense can not bail out another abysmal coaching effort on this side of the ball and we will be home before New Year's. This late in the season, youth or execution is no longer an excuse for the lack of a pass rush or allowing 150 yards a game on the ground. We need to have multiple sets with varying linebackers and safeties rotating in and out and at least give opposing QB's a bit of a pause before they audible into an automatically perfect play call. Needing 30 minutes each and every week to figure out what the other guys are doing is also growing old. Great, you can adjust at the half. What the heck you doing all week Charles?

To pile on Mr. Kelly, I also vehemently disagree with his policy of playing only about 15 players every game. With the exception of some line changes, we substitute less than a GA teaching a sex ed class to rotating sororities. There will be a second half when we are gassed - or injured - and we will have no where to turn. He has got somewhere between 4-7 games to fix this, or Jimbo will have some tough decisions to make.

Well, I left much drier and happier than my previous Thursday in the bluegrass State and for that I am grateful. Another weekend at home also does not suck. See you in Tally as we crank up another round in the stress filled adventure we call 2014 Seminole football.