USF

Well it was not hot, and the good guys won. A pre-dawn start with weather that only drunk ducks would love greeted your scribe this week. It appears that the home team was still pulling sand out of their eyes until halftime as well. But when you schedule an 11:30 kick in September, and Tallahassee delivers mid 70's, well you just thank God, Bobby Bowden, the Kennedy family and any other hol(e)y people you know.

When your quarterback is a transfer senior, and is named a starter after an Evelyn Wood course in the playbook, you still have some baseline expectations. You expect him to stay in the pocket longer than a burgler in the Vatican, you expect him to occasionally throw balls behind the line of scrimmage in front of the reciever, and when he is marketed as being elusive; you anticipate a rushing stat line that does not look like the last month for the Chinese stock market. I assume the Head Coach was thinking similar thoughts judging by his frothy pre punt welcome wagon demeanor all game. Now, we are not talking about the make-sailors-blush language that Coach Mac in Gainesville employs, but Jimbo was not happy. In the second half, the adjustments were obvious. Rather than asking Everett to hit a WR on the run - or think - we had him hitting 7-12 yard stop routes in the seams with a one read toss. If this is what we are going to get going forward, get me off the Old Irish Train, and sign me up for Sean or a freshman that gives us a chance for improvement as the season rolls on. Finally, to throw more red clay on the grave,  the wife has pointed out repeatedly how Everett is alone on the sideline. I mean Hilary in a full disclosure convention alone. Nobody talks to this dude between series. It is just weird - especially coming from the most gregarious QB to ever play the game. Is it a deodorant issue or is he just that unpopular?

That #4 can play. I am very grateful that his two inebriated female friends in Clyde's went all Oliver North on us, cuz we need that boy between the white lines this season. Pender is a nice counterpunch, but Dalvin is special. You could see the added size and strength he added from last year in the open field when he just refused to capitulate to gravity and mass tugging at him from behind. However, stats do lie. Our young pups up front did not win that game. In fact, for much of the first 3 quarters, we were getting universally Rouseyed. They obviously looked at film because they brought an extra body on the left side all game long, and forced us to run right in balance. With the exception of the make em miss in the backfield, scamper for 60 Dalvin show, the base run blocking was a struggle. Ruble and Martinez were simply overwhelmed on communication block sets, and unless we ask these guys to simply put a hat on a hat, it was cringeworthy. I will say that the pass protection was not too bad, but the rabbit on a hot plate at QB often bailed on perfect pockets.

Travis Rudolph seems to be settling nicely into the gaping hole left by Rashad in Jimbo's offense. He is reliable, runs great routes and without world class speed is able to get the max in extra yardage out of every play.  Bobo needs to catch passes like he does punts or those 5 star kids on the bench are going to take his time, and Kermit made the best catch of his career with a Ringling - stop, change direction and contort snag - to keep a drive alive. It was thrown into double coverage, but with his size Mavin Saunders should have made that catch in the end zone. Kid is a nightmare Benjamin-like matchup in the redzone, so we need to get him on track.

I know I have written before about the befuddled nature of our DC after a bust. But, if I was not so angry myself at the time, it would be a stitch to timestamp how long it takes him to actually coach again after one of these breakdowns. The team comes to the sideline anxiously awaiting his wisdom on why and how the last 10 seconds unfolded. Kelly's response is to walk away from these fresh faced, front row students and with his omnipresent headset talks to gosh knows who for gosh knows how long while gesticulating to no one but a couple of water coolers and the preacher at the end of the bench. After literally 2 to 3 minutes, he comes back to the DB players area and politely points out a few items on a white board to whoever on the bench still cares. Meanwhile, one segment over Brad Lawing is channeling his inner Mickey Andrews to the entire line as Odell watches from the back. It is quite a scene. Not sure if it is functional, but it is fun to watch. Speaking of busts, since this little misdirection throwback seems to be our achiles heel, as it has been successful to the tune of 3/4 TD's against us this season, maychance we work on that this week as the anemic BC offense has played this fiddle to exhaustion in the past as well.

Our defensive uglies held up well again this week. Only young Josh Sweat seemed to struggle with holding the edge at times. It is incredible to see how far Georgio Newberry has improved since last season. We are developing some depth at LB as Hoskins tied for the team lead in tackles this week. As teams avoid Jalen like a spit free Lou Holtz enunciating suffering succotash, Marquez White shines. Maybe a game saving pick in the endzone was followed by a number of terrific behind-the-line, physical stops. He might be this generations Martin Mayhew - living on the bounty of work that eschewing Deion caused.  

Punting. Oh boy... But on the bright side Darth, apparently that Aguayo youngster is pretty accurate. Like 98.1% lifetime accurate. That sure comes in handy. So, we head up to Boston to face the #2 collegiate rush defense in the country over the last 15 games. That will give pause to the heat in your lobstah pot. We knew the schedule was going to get progressively tougher, so let's just hope the steps are paved with W's. See you in Beantown!