Delaware State

When a huge game is happening on Saturday night in Tallahassee, you can feel it. There is tension that starts about 6 days out. By Friday evening, as the beer is flowing and the opposing fans are leaking into the wrong bars, testosterone gets the best of reason. By the time both teams leave the field after warmups, the student section is packed and the Chiefs are not even needed to inspire the warchant that crescendos across Doak. The flame on the end of Osceola's spear is already lit in every one of our bodies. This was not one of those games.

Yet another noon kick had the students that had not already bailed for home slowly filtering in with the goal of arrival by halftime. I think the postgame concert had more appeal that Delaware State, and I can not say I blame them. The Hornets did not exactly generate any buzz, pun intended. This may have been the smallest team I have ever seen on Bobby Bowden Field. At least a half dozen of our guests from Dover were under five and a half feet tall. I am not 100% sure, but I think that Marvin Wilson ate one of the running backs near the end of the third period. They were not big, fast or talented, but their innate ability to cash a garnet & gold check made them the perfect opponent the week before your rival.

I know that many of you saw Noonie being a great citizen and attempting to give his TD football to an admiring fan who happened to wearing a Delaware State jersey. But that was not the end of Noonie's goodwill efforts on this Saturday. Earlier in the contest, he caught a bubble screen that took him rolling into the DSU cheer team, where he stopped and (no lie) waved at one filly he fancied. She waved back. So, when he was fortunate enough to grab another rock, he avoided unnecessary contact and sprinted towards his fan club again where he paused, spread his arms wide and embraced the loving attention of the Hornettes. After the Head Coach benched our precocious ambassador, we did not see him emerge from the locker room after halftime. Similarly, the DSU cheer squad was also late coming back for the 3rd period. I can not confirm what I did not see, but I don't think this collective was negotiating a shortened clock when out of sight. His goodness never stops.

Watching DJ Matthews return kicks simply empowered every couch coach in the Seminole Nation. We watched in agony for more than half the season as we struggled to even catch the ball, much less return it. DJ - who is absolutely electric with the ball in his hands - had more return yards in the first half than we had all season. By more than 30 yards. Ouch. That is a system failure in evaluation of personnel. Let's blame Charles Kelly even though we know its wrong. It just seems like the right time to pile on. By the way, is it obvious to anyone but me that young three year old Charles was the kid that was on a bouncy leash at Disney. At the time, we shook our heads in judgement, but his folks were obviously on to something, as we now have to employ a full time getback coach…We attempted to break our ignominious 3rd down futility mark this week as well. On 3rd and 21, somehow the Hornet QB scrambled for…twenty and a half yards. So close.

As you would expect in a 70 point win, it was a day for youngsters and walk-ons. Justin Motlow gave us a special thrill becoming the first true Seminole to ever catch a pass, and it was a gorgeous TD grab. The incredible freshman defensive backs in this class continued to shine with Nole legend Stanford Samuels son grabbing his second pick of the season and Cy Fagan and Nasrilideen made the safety position look easy. Even though he got almost all his snaps in the fourth quarter against a tired and overmatched bunch, 5 star Josh Kaindoh racked up four sacks. This class of 2017 - which we might forget includes the QB and star tailback - are legit and really get along. The young kids on this Nole team know by now that the Senior class exiting stage left provided the leadership of a caboose. You can see them both on the field and sideline providing juice that has been missing. This is acute at linebacker, where our 3 Senior starters have sleptwalked through our entire campaign. The next time any one of these guys exude excitement after a play will be the first. The freshman are taking over, and that is ok with me.

Changing course slightly, I know that many of you hear the Head Coach preach about the need for a football only facility, and get slightly nauseous. I know that his timing cries for some PR whispering help from off camera, but his argument is more than sound. I have the privilege of traveling all around the country to see comparable facilities from schools that we compete with. 20 or 30 years ago, Bear, Bo or Bobby could walk into a living room and woo Momma into letting her son spend the next four years with them.  Now, kids need to feel constant love from texts, tweets and talk, or your school is off the list. When you do make a press conference attended Final Five and this prima donna deigns to step onto your campus, unfortunately the shiniest toys win. When we lose a kid to Alabama, Texas, Ohio State or Clemson, chances are right now, it had nothing to do with our staff and everything to do with our stuff.  Folks our stuff ain't that great. Yes, we have an IPF. Whoopty Do. Everyone has an Indoor Facility (except Florida and Miami - bit more on them later). Duke just spent over $300 million on a football only facility. Clemson did the same, and Louisville has it in the budget. When we start losing kids to Duke, Seminoles everywhere will start wringing their hands and wondering how it ever happened…Listen, we have outrecruited Florida and Miami badly for 6 years and at the time, we had better toys. Watch out. Florida now has a football only facility in the budget and Miami is right behind them. Whether our 2018 Coach is named Fisher, Fuentes or Finebaum, this is a real problem. To be blind or stubborn as alumni and think that because we are FSU, it is our birthright to be great is just wrong. Ask Nebraska what tradition has done for them in the last 20 years.

I hear that the latest solution here is to spend less than $50 million to revamp the Moore Center into a football only facility. We will see. I know it is easier to fundraise for a 12-1 football team than one that may not go bowling...until that is the norm and you wish you had done something sooner.

We never saw it coming, but someone did...and his timing seems awful...or is it?