Lousiville

Tradition. That word is funny. It almost always denotes positive feelings, because we cling to traditions like the last branch on a cliff. And yes, I know at Florida State we have our wonderful, exhaustive list. They are so amazing that Clemson and Virginia decided to carbon copy steal two of them with the graveyard and our Renegade entry. But, how about your own family Nole traditions? Maybe it is putting on that faded lucky tee, hanging the special flag at dawn or making that one-of-a-kind pimento cheese. For my goofy family, after every Seminole touchdown, we have a ridiculous complicated high five with arms, hands and pointing all involved. Who knows when this mess started, but let me tell you this. Sitting in Doak this weekend with the Chiefs playing, and my entire family sitting next to me, standing up to high five all three of them after a score is the very definition of happiness for this idiot. It also gave the people around us a peek behind the curtain into Sickmon lunacy as we all took turns banging each other and pointing skyward. Loved the crazy comments from rows all around us, and would never trade the feeling. The few, the proud, the 46 thousand.

In 2018, the FSU offense was historically awful. It was around 100th in the country, so there were only a dozen or more teams in the country that were able to matriculate up the field worse than our favorite collegians. In 2019, that same unit is in the top third of the nation. If you watch this offensive line live, that is freaking nuts. There were about a half dozen plays this week (including the one where James gets hurt), where at least two lineman completely missed their block. Imagine lining up in a phone booth against a 275 pound gentleman and not even getting a fingertip on him as he slithers out the door. That is really hard to do, but to coordinate this awfulness with your teammates who are also 300 pounds and standing right next to you. Just how? Even if you immediately turn sideways and give the defender a hard push towards your QB, it seems crazy to think that our guy get get walloped that fast sometimes. The upside is that the inside 3 guys in Johnson, Arnold, Scott and Lucas are a little better than average. Our tackles are ummm, learning. But the theme here is what an absolute stud Kendal Briles is. Yes, we have had leads and then taken Jamaican vacations for a half dozen drives every game (whoa, maybe that Jamaican theme explains the mid-game slide...I do see a lot of guys eating snacks in the second and third quarter...). But, you can not blow a 21 point lead multiple times unless you score that many. That is a testament to a well coordinated unit.

All you need to know about James Blackman is that with a possible serious knee injury, he is limping up and down the sideline encouraging every garnet clad kid in his reach. I actually thought it was his best game this year before he was blasted to the bench. I daresay that Alex Hornibrook did not show much athleticism in Camp Randall. How could you when you were only allowed to throw on 3rd and an Uber. But, this old man can move. He feels a rush quickly, which is imperative as you just read, and crucially sees the whole field. I have seen multiple times this season the sideline non-verbal tango between Kendall and the head coach. Since they inexplicably do not allow me on the headset, I have been assuming that who is behind center is the root of their hand signals of love. Now, we get it. Listen, I learned all I needed when Briles chose Hornibrook to come in with under a minute to go before the half and James still healthy. Alex was masterful in getting us into FG range. Lightning decisions, and you don't need a rocket arm to hit wide open dudes in tempo. And how in the world did Terry sneak off the bench to get that wide ass open to turn the game around? The duces garbage that #15 flashed going into the end zone was luckily ignored by the refs, or the TD would have gone off the board and it would have easily been the leader in the clubhouse for the dumbest penalty in Nole history.

Which leads me to the subject of swag, arrogance and altogether false bravado that this group of players seem to want so badly to grab. Every game, we get to see the peacock preening, dabbing, grabbing, high stepping and American Bandstand tryout dancing (hey geezers, how about that reference?). I think we all ask why? What have you done to strut...win 4 home ACC games in 3 seasons, blow double digit leads like like a whitehead, or breaking a lifetime bowl streak. But, with the game still in doubt, our defense is so busy jawing, chest bumping and pointing, they did not line up and got burned on consecutive plays that gave a team that had not won a conference game in 9 tries a chance in our stadium. Then we danced in the locker room. Of course we did.

Kids, whether it is our new analyst or it just took 2 months to discover what our kids could do, there is no question we are improving on defense. What is happening is a baby boom, especially at linebacker. Gainer and McRae both played well and Warner is much better inside. But the key is the beast in the middle. Marvin is meaner than a homeless hornet, and Durden and J-Rob played their best games holding the edge. In the second half, the Cards went almost exclusively to stretch runs which tested our LB run fits. The gashing began, so there is still work to do, Coach Leavitt. Then a qb who was less than accurate found a bomb miracle when the ball bounced off Asante into their guys streaking hands. Forty thousand people sat down at once and stared at the scoreboard in disbelief. But on the next drive, hell got chilly. The defense got a turnover. DJ made an acrobatic grab and then Terry was the first one out to practice. One boneheaded roughing penalty and the blowout was on. Well, that may be as close to a blowout we get this side of Alabama State...so maybe we should be dancing too. The bummer is that we have lost two five stars in consecutive weeks, and they were also both incredibly classy, quiet leaders. Jaiden and Josh were model Noles on and off the field. Not the kind of kids we need on the bench, while our DB's are doing the wave after every incompletion.

Logan Tyler dressed out this week, but obviously did not get in the game. That did not stop him from being the last Nole in front of the band singing the fight song and saluting the Chiefs postgame. Gotta hope good things for this kid. Ricky was, gulp, awful. But, in good news, it was not Miami week, and those 9 points did not lose a game. Giving up a called back kickoff return continued the first truly tough day for our less than special teams.

Driving back to Tampa, I heard three different Sunday morning talk shows discuss the empty seats dressed up as fans this week in Doak. Hey its fair. My freshman year was 1983 and the 4-2 Noles came home with absolutely no defense to face Louisville on a Thursday night. We were only a season removed from the last time we did not go bowling and only 42,000 souls showed up. The good guys won, and the next home game saw a 10k jump. With parents weekend coming up next week, the same should happen this year. What floored me this week was the pitiful student turnout. It was not a nooner, so the Friday hangover had time to heal. There were markedly more, ummm, lightly dressed collegians in College Town Friday evening than in Doak on Saturday. The dadgum game is free for our kids, so cost is not an issue and it was gorgeous this week, so weather was also not an excuse. I know that we are in the top 20 public schools in the nation now, but have classes really risen above football on the priority list? What is wrong with you children? Who are your parents, and what Ivy League institution did they attend? Alabama has lowered their entrance standards to one click lower than Franklin County Community College, and they seem to have solved their student attendance problem (psssst, Paul...they have won a couple big games lately.....Oh Shut Up whisper parentheses voice, I am trying to make a point!). Don't know, but ouch that was a pitiful corner to look at all game with 12,000 empty seats that can not be sold even if we wanted to.

So, on parents weekend, grab your kid and drag them to Doak and start your own redonk tradition. You will thank me later.