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Posts Tagged ‘E.J. Manuel’

The Year in Review: Florida St. (9-4, 5-3)

Imagine we live in an alternate universe, one where the University of Alabama system Board of Trustees can’t unilaterally dictate the ebb and flow of its athletic programs located outside of Tuscaloosa. It’s a difficult situation to consider, I know, but suspend your disbelief for the interest of this scenario. So it’s the winter of 2006, and U.A.B. reaches out to — nay, actually agrees to a contract with — L.S.U. offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher, who had just completed his seventh season as an assistant in Baton Rouge. The contract, which hovered around $600,000 annually, was very much in line with what Fisher demanded as a national title-winning assistant coach; in addition, two members of the U.A.B. community offered to pay half of his annual contract.

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    Big East Wins, Loses: B.C.S. Themes

    Fittingly, the two programs that left the Big East in the cold — that first left the Big East in the cold — were the conference’s lone losers on Saturday. In a weekend where the Big East fared well, notching two wins over B.C.S. conference competition, the primary development was the league’s impending destruction: Syracuse and Pittsburgh are gone, soon to be joined by at least one, perhaps two conference brethren, and the Orange and the Panthers followed up that disappointment with a pair of disappointing defeats. Thanks for nothing, says the Big East. Touching on that and other themes from Saturday’s B.C.S. conference action:

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      No. 4: Florida State

      Vintage. Vintage is watching Notre Dame not for the sense of schadenfreude you get from watching Syracuse win in South Bend but for the fact that the Irish are a title contender. Vintage is Nebraska-Oklahoma, and we’re all sad that rivalry is officially dead. Vintage is Steve Spurrier riling up the SEC; is Alabama intimidating all comers; is T.C.U. back as a national power after decades spent in the background; is Michigan not cowering in front of Ohio State; is West Virginia going the unorthodox route. Vintage is Florida State in the top five, where the Seminoles made a home for 14 straight years, from 1987-2000. Vintage is all that the Seminoles are in 2011: big, fast, strong, quick and mean — now that’s vintage, both for Florida State and college football at large.

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        Taking Spring With a Grain of Salt

        The line is so good that it’s worth sharing. In providing profiles of some of the lesser-known teams in the F.B.S., Bill Connelly at Football Study Hall gives statistical analysis of both the season past and what to expect in 2011 on both sides of the ball. In his Louisiana Tech profile, Connelly says the following about quarterback Colby Cameron’s spring showing in Sonny Dykes’ high-flying passing offense. In a wonderfully succinct summary of all spring game performances, Connelly says the following:

        Spring game stats are completely and totally worthless, but… well, throwing for 275 yards and five touchdowns is still better than not throwing for 275 yards and five touchdowns.

        Beautiful. And Connelly raises a delicate point for fans and objective bystanders alike: What can we really take from spring ball?

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          Spring Storylines: Florida State

          National titles hopes are back in vogue in Tallahassee. It’s been some time since Florida State held such realistic aspirations; you might have to go back to 2003 — give or take — to find the last time the program put together a team and coaching staff truly capable of running the table, even if the dedicated fan base was able to fool itself into thinking otherwise in the years since. This is a new era, one piloted by Jimbo Fisher and a talented staff, one propelled forward by a roster loaded with young, athletic talent. In short, it should be an exciting spring for Florida State. One can’t blame a hungry coaching staff, team and fan base for counting down the days until the Seminoles retake the field.

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            The Countdown

            A bottom-to-top assessment of the F.B.S. landscape heading into the 2011 season.