Texas State

Some things you think you know about Seminole Football - especially in the Jimbo Fisher era. We know that the Marching Chiefs are going to parade out of that tunnel and produce a cacophony of familiar chants. We know that when we can see a spiderweb of lightning stretching from Westcott to TCC from our seats in the bleacher cathedral that the already delayed game will be stopped again.  We know that our head coach always, always, passes to set up the run, and freshman don't usually see the field in his offense until the humidity dips to an October arid 88%. We know all these things, except that not a single one of them came close to occurring this weekend. Kudos to the FSU school of meteorology for diagnosing that the storms were nothing but a visual threat, and our follicularly challenged leader made all the right calls with our puppies on offense. But, who is the should-be-terminated decision maker who dictated that although the field was deemed safe enough for 170 players and both coaching staffs; it was much too treacherous for the woodwinds to march pregame. Well, it was sprinkling - kind of - well I saw a drop. Let's eschew 65 years of tradition and keep them in the stands...

Blessedly, the game did eventually start, and the special teams were just special. Even spectacularly reliable Roberto absorbed some Jimbo love after blasting his second kickoff awry and missing all 53 wide yards of fairway in front of him. Cason Beatty clearly spent the entire offseason working on that lettuce of locks under his protective headgear, because he reverted quickly to his spectacular 2013 form, shank you very much. His second sublime effort did not get above my seats in row 39 as it rocketed on a line toward the salivating returner 35 yards away. Meanwhile, our punt return unit was slathering their arms in monkey grease to insure that we kept that enormous ESPN News audience engaged. Thank goodness for Jalen and his highly entertaining Cher-like quick change routine before kick returns. He has a pit crew of trainers with Cholly's old jersey at the ready, and while #8 bends over, his boys rip, pull and attach until #17 emerges and they jump back over the wall.      

Speaking of Jalen, he is the unquestioned leader of this football team. He owns the sidelines, the post game quote quota, and is not too shabby when the clock is running either. Every tackle looked like a WWE teaching clinic, and his two superhero impersonations only solidified his status as alpha male.
The rest of the secondary, while not seriously challenged was solid. Marquez White, when not returning punts, made a bunch of nice plays, and when you don't notice your safeties; that means that Brutus and Andrews did their job. Only glaring weakness here was Tyler Hunter, who has been here way too long to continue to be the guy doing the airplane impression after every big defensive bust.
It was great to see a healthy Terrence Smith, he was a difference maker in the middle of the field without lower body maladies slowing him down , and JUCO transfer Lorenzo Phillips was also as good as advertised.

Nile Lawrence-Sample is just a mountain with arms. He may not make many tackles, but he is redirecting bodies like King Kong swatting airplanes. DeMarcus Walker seems to be the big early winner in the Brad Lawing transformation sweepstakes. He improved like a sorority diva going from dawn to dinner. Somehow he looks bigger and faster, but more than anything else he has shaken the slightly sardonic Sal Sunseri slow shuffle step approach to a pass rush. Young pup Josh Sweat looks similarly athletic, and when he figures out the game, look out.

Everett was solid. His best stat for me was the zero in the TO column. The most impressive and important takeaway from Saturday night was the effort of the youngsters in front of our erstwhile Domer. The left side with big Rod and Are was Blind Side dominant. One sweep was right out of the movie as #77 shoved his buddy 12 yards down the field then just got tired and fell on top of him as Dalvin swept past on his way to the end zone. No wayward snaps from our freshman center, and our RT - although not winning his battles - did not Tonya Harding backwards either. I am extremely grateful that #4 is still in our backfield. He changes direction at full speed like no one since Warrick Dunn, and Mario behind him is not a bad situational sub. Folks, we have three, yes three five star tailbacks on this roster. Yeesh, poor us. The embarrassment of riches continues at WR outside with every non- starter a HS All American. But the tight ends stole the show. Both Izzo and Saunders are massive and mobile. Poor Jeremy Kerr was not quite fast enough in the 4th when he failed to get on the field in time, Jimbo grabbed him by his attached mouthguard and yanked him back to the sideline as he asked for an unwanted timeout. Ahh, youth.

So, hopefully our steadily increasing strength of schedule remains on course next week as USF comes to town to play in the blast furnace of Doak at 11 f'n 30 in the morning. Next week, our myriad of freshman will be - still umm - freshman, and our merry band of tailgating idiots will be in Lot 8 at 6:30 am for bagels & biscuits before the Bulls. See you there...