Louisville

So, if you believe in strange pregame omens, and I know all of you absolutely do, you were spectacularly relieved to see Chief Osceola and Renegade get their awesome back this week. Many of us have been questioning why with seemingly endless young men who want the gig, we chose to employ a jockey sized Chief this season. It's not like we have a need for speed, so aesthetics would appear to be higher on the priority list. Tough to represent and intimidate when you have to lean to the side to see where Renegade is heading. But, after a drunk carousel ride of a spear planting before the high octane crowd at Miami, Durham's duo got it right this week. Meanwhile, the fat footed visiting Cardinal did not fare as well. Determined to defy convention, our aviary adversary broke through the protective ropes that keep the opposition away from our mascot's ride to glory and unceremoniously tripped in the endzone while "leading" his team onto the field. At this point, the outcome was predetermined, it was just a matter of margin...

I have a new favorite Jalen play - eclipsing the BB&T tatoo at Wake - as our alpha male decided to set the tone for a game turnaround in the third quarter. Why teams continue to try and run bubble screens to his side is astounding, but plucky Petrino called one anyway. Ramsey physically picked up the poor sap attempting to block him and threw him bodily into the wideout who had just collected the ball. The aforementioned blocker lost his helmet in the collision - went groggily to the sidelines with medical assistance - and the ballcarrier was dumped for a 3 yard loss. Jalen screamed at the quarterback to please continue to throw his direction. The freshman hurler did not follow these easy oven instructions, and while looking straight downfield just a few plays later, was rudely run over by the Derwin James freight train. Turnover, touchdown, turnover, ballgame. It has been, gulp, 30 years since an FSU cornerback ran the team, but that guy turned out to be fairly good ballplayer since you can't wear #2 anymore. Speaking of Derwin, thank goodness he chose to matriculate in North Florida. In half a season of college football, he is everything he was hyped to be. Instinctual, quick as a hiccup, and ends plays when they wander into his zip code.

All of the above is lovely except that we are not exactly the DeathStar when it comes to our weaknesses on defense. The only similarity is that an opposing coach can indeed close his eyes, and throw it deep whenever the force speaks to him. When Trey went out again this week, Coach Petrino took exactly 2 seconds to send his kids on verticals against our "zone". Two plays, 78 yards and a touchdown later, our DC was wandering down the sidelines talking to himself again. It is tremendous fortune that the next two teams we play will not be able to replicate this type of production. However, we absolutely need to see McFadden and Lewis in the game soon, and it would not shock me to see Jalen moved back to safety in some 3rd down looks. One note that I have not heard from many Nole insiders, so I will point it out. Marquez White is very quietly having himself a terrific season. The fact that you don't hear his name and he never leaves the field speaks volumes about his play.

Speaking of 3rd down - and I know you were hoping I would not- our stand-up "Dime-Rabbit" defense is proving to be about as menacing as an inebriated lovebug on I-75 in trucker season. It makes no sense on so many levels. Watching how our very talented line was absolutely wrecking them on the first two downs, does it compute to take away our pad leverage when we know they are going to pass? How about having our best lineman two yards away from the ball at the snap? What in the World are we doing? Nile and Nnadi were just making a mockery of the papier mache interior they were facing. Let Sweat, Walker and Pugh stunt and twist on the outside and take our chances. But for all that is holy, put their hands in the dirt. The number of times that Jimbo has to walk down to the Kelly estate and whisper sweet nothings at him during the game seems to be increasing exponentially.

Apparently that little #8 on offense can run. Kermit has added weight and physical confidence to a jackrabbit bottom half and is slowly making us realize that he is more than the author of one of the greatest plays in Nole history. His rapport with Everett is easy to see and should bring opposing corners all a little closer to the line where the hook and go should be wide ass open at least once a game. Our unwillingness to throw the fade to Ermon or any of the other giant 5* wideouts trolling on the bench is worrisome, as we are wearing out Roberto from the Red Zone. We also can't rely exclusively on Dalvin to always score from 50 plus (although that plan is working surprisingly well). We ought to have an outline of how to get into the endzone if we actually matriculate down the field, and using our two new terrific TE's is a great place to start. If Ryan Izzo continues to block like he did this week, he may never leave the field. His backside seals are just incredible, and just when you have leverage, he leaves them like Taylor Swift and is is wide open on a crosser as we saw on TD number five this week.

This offense is evolving every week as Jimbo and Everett continue to date. If it wasn't for so many false starts, they might be married by now. It certainly was not the crowd noise that caused these problems as I could hear EG barking signals from my seats on Row 39. Jimbo's Big Boy pep talk seemed to take hold as the offense steamrolled a Very talented Cardinal squad in the second stanza behind some dominant runblocking, and a growing QB who made some of the best throws of the day into the stands. Derrick Kelly has a Gone With the Wind length film session coming this week as he struggled mightily against the outside speed rush. If Hoefeld can recall the snap count in the five long steps from the huddle to the line, we may be able to cut back on three or four 1st and 15's a game. But with no seniors and a lot of talent, Malik Henry or Deondre Francois is really going to benefit from all these hard 2015 lessons.

All of us were a little disappointed that we did not unleash the Kraken from 57 yards at the end of the first half. If anyone in the ignominious history of Seminole non-Polish placekickers deserves a chance to hit one from that distance, it is Roberto. We will miss Trey on special teams as well in the coming weeks, and especially against the Wreck who seem somehow to be able to read their former DC's mind when they play us. Let's find a way to get up big and rest #4 for a few weeks.