Wake Forest

 For my own sanity, I am going in a bit of a different direction here. Kids, I know you understand the basics of house construction - even in Fairy tales. The house that Jimbo left was made of sticks with wolf Andy Miller blowing like crazy at every turn. We didn't know it, but that house had no chance of making it through another Florida Summer. Enter Willie; and his straw hut was an absolute joke. Every strand was pretty to the eye, but they were placed in such a disorganized manner that a wolf was not needed. Any ACC breeze or even an internal AC problem was knocking this mess over. Well, for the first time since 2013, this house has a real structure. It damn sure is not on the Parade of Homes list, but the structure is built, and the only way this structure gets destroyed any time soon is from inside the living room with garnet and gold residents banging on the walls with sledgehammers. 

Oh and by the way, if that happens, please know that no one in town can pay the mortgage if this particular house get knocked down. We would be paying for two homes we gutted in Beverly Hills, so our rental would be a trailer in Quincy. 

Crappy analogies aside, every single person inside the Moore center is 100% behind this guy. The oh-so-critical writers that watch practice every day know that this is not a Taggart mess. That does not excuse the idiocy we witnessed over the last two weeks. It just says that we have to make this one work, and blasting away as a fan asking for a new HC right now is unproductive and actually destructive. Firing Mike means that we are paying $6.5 million a year for the next two seasons for two dudes not to coach. Norvell has all this support in the building and with just about every HS coach he has ever met because he is genuine, organized, knows ball and has a plan and a structure - where there literally was none before. Now that plan is clearly not getting translated in what we are witnessing the last two weekends... I am not there, but as you grab a pitchfork, talk to anyone in Tallahassee that sees his organization. The belief is unwavering - like Bobby unwavering (I know that eroded too - as may this). Our only hope is an embarrassed circle-the-wagons mentality from our current kids, and some major internal shifts in coaching strategy and personnel (see Randy Shannon and Chubba Purdy in the suggestion box please). Most importantly, do any of you think this program changing bunch of recruits on the hook today are coming when you jettison another staff?

Nope, the only chance we have as a program to have a decent '22 and a great '24 is to somehow hope this group turns it around. Period. So, make a choice Noles. Bitch like crazy, stop coming to games and start wearing orange - or hang in there and even silently support your program.

With the gigantic above caveat, Saturday was another edition of how a well coached team full of two star veterans can wipe the floor with a uncohesive group of four stars. I remember when Bobby Knight was questioned about rape at one of his famous pressers, and he unforgivably said that the victim should just relax and enjoy it. Welp, that is how our defense looks. We watched a slow motion mesh game from Wake that has no chance of working if you blitz a gap and get to their mesh point. We blitzed as often as I cheer for Florida, and our DT's were ok just standing in place in their gaps On the edges, we were content playing man up defense with inferior corners (why are Jay and Knowles on the bench?), and expecting different results 8 drives into the game. Maybe Coach Fuller can relax, but I ain’t enjoying it. 

Offensively, Coach either has to take control or figure out how the game planning can be this wrong. Despite yourself, you discover late in the first half that Wake's kryptonite was a quick pitch and run outside. It was a scary easy. Every run was double digits, so we got inside the 20 and...run between the tackles three consecutive ugly attempts in a row. Since our short yardage offense with this makeshift mess of a line is never going to net any push inside, work around it damnit.  It is also time to dump the two QB system. I am afraid that Jordan is made of paper mâché, and Milton is simply not capable of giving you more than what we have seen. We can start to warm up the Golson, Hornibrook transfer bust bus that FSU is excelling at for this laudable young man. His value will be to educate Chubba how to be a great student, human and leader. Let's get that school in session stat. 

Loyal Noles, I have almost no time to share all my thoughts this week as I get off the plane from Wake and roll over to the other side of TIA where I depart for the West Coast with an attempt to pay for these wonderful Nole based mini vacations. So, this short note is only to let you know that my family will be in Doak again this week. Let's hope this staff can start to lay a few more bricks on the house before many of you sledgehammer wielding fans get in the front door.