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#1 Florida State Falls

The Florida State Seminoles blew everybody out of the water that they played last season starting from game one. They beat #25 Maryland 63-0. Then, they beat #3 Clemson in Death Valley 51-14 and it wasn’t even that close.

They destroyed old rival #7 Miami 41-14. They beat #20 Duke 45-7.

The only close games were the championship game against Auburn and a 14 point win over Boston College.

This year’s version was thought to be of similar makings. In their first game, the Seminoles struggled with Oklahoma State finally winning the game 37-30.

In game two, Florida State beat the Citadel 37-12. The Citadel is not known as a football powerhouse and they ran for a stunning 250 yards against what should have been one of the nation’s very best defenses.

Jameis Winston pulled another little stunt and was suspended right before his team had Clemson coming to town. Winston’s backup, Sean McGuire, took over for the night and led the Seminoles to a 23-17 win in Overtime against rival Clemson.

Jameis Winston was back on Saturday leading his team into battle against ACC rival North Carolina State. Florida State lost the last 2 times they visited North Carolina State in Raleigh, North Carolina.

North Carolina State is the last Atlantic Coast Conference team to beat Florida State which happened in 2012 when the Wolfpack surprised the Seminoles with a 17-16 win. The Seminoles lost to the Wolfpack in Raleigh, North Carolina also in 2010, 28-24.

Supposedly, 11 different NFL teams had scouts at this game to watch Jameis Winston. Wonder how they felt about North Carolina State Quarterback Jacoby Brissett?

Brissett is a transfer from the University of Florida. He lost the battle with Jeff Driskel for the Quarterback job at Florida and he transferred to North Carolina State.  He is a 6-4, 230 Junior from West Palm Beach, Florida and he’s thrown for 1,364 yards so far this year and 13 Touchdowns against only 1 Interception.

Say what you want to about Jameis Winston but he is a real champion when he puts on the football pads.

He’s just a winner on the field. Will that overcome off field issues? Do NFL teams want to spend millions on a guy that’s going to be in trouble all the time? Well, they sure did on Johnny Manziel and Winston is more the prototype NFL quarterback.

On the 2nd play from scrimmage, North Carolina State Quarterback Jacoby Brissett hit a wide open Wide Receiver, true freshman Bo Hines  for a 54 yard Touchdown.  North Carolina State took an early 7-0 lead.

Jameis Winston then proved why he was last year’s Heisman winner and  led the Seminoles right down the field and tied it up with a 32 yard Touchdown pass to Jesus “Bobo” Wilson. Score was tied 7-7.

Jacoby Brissett and the Wolfpack drove down the field and went up again 14-7 on a 3 yard Touchdown run by Shadrach Thornton.

After the kickoff and the Seminoles get the ball back, Jameis Winston was sacked and he fumbled the ball and the Wolfpack’s Monty Nelson dove on it at the Florida State 22 yard line. Nelson was more excited than most when he recovered the ball because he wanted to go to Florida State out of high school and they didn’t recruit him. North Carolina State was lucky that the Seminoles did not recruit Nelson and he has been good for them.

North Carolina State is 0-3 against #1 teams all time and this was the first time to play a number 1 team in Raleigh. There’s not a lot of history at North Carolina State in football, but they have 3 former QBs in the NFL. Jacoby Brissett could be joining them soon.

After the turnover, North Carolina State got a Field Goal by Niklas Sade to go up 17-7.

Florida State could do nothing with the next drive and punted to North Carolina State. The Wolfpack got the ball back after a poor punt by the Seminoles on their own 43. The Wolfpack looked more like the #1 team by driving the ball right down the field.

There were several injured Seminoles on the field during the first quarter which brought out boos by the Wolfpack fans and a comment made by their coach made the news later. Some coaches have been known to fake injuries to slow down games but what if the guy is really hurt, and it’s kind of shows a lack of class to boo somebody like that.

North Carolina state got down to the Florida State 3 yard line and then moved before the snap and got backed up by a 5 yard penalty. North Carolina State Quarterback Jacoby Brissett escaped the sack and then ran towards the sideline and escaped another sack attempt and  pump faked the ball and then hit his receiver Johnathon Alston for a Touchdown. The play was spectacular and a Sports Center highlight kind of stuff and I am sure the NFL scouts at the game in person were impressed.

24-7  with the North Carolina State Wolfpack leading over the Florida State Seminoles as the 1st quarter ended.

Another nightmare in store for the Seminoles at Rayleigh, North Carolina? They had lost on the last 2 trips to North Carolina State and this was looking bad for the Seminoles.

Instead of EJ Manuel or Christian Ponder at quarterback, this time the Seminoles had Jameis Winston and it was time for him to get to work.

At the time, the Seminoles could not get the running game going, so they just went to the air.

Florida State scored on the second play of the 2nd quarter with Karlos Williams running it in from 4 yards out. The Seminoles returned 4 out of 5 starters in the Offensive Line from last year’s awesome team. They should be running the ball down opponents throats instead of struggling, but it was still 24-14 early in the second quarter.

Florida State’s defense decided to finally start playing and a refs call backed up the Wolves to the goal line almost and Seminole Defensive End DeMarcus Walker sacked Brissett almost getting a safety.

Rashad Greene was the Seminole main punt return guy in 2012 and he had 2 returns for Touchdowns. In 2013, the Noles used then Senior Kenny Shaw as the return guy. Greene is back at his old job and he is dangerous as a return man. After being backed up to their goal line, the Wolfpack have to punt and there is Rashad Greene, who returned the punt to the North Carolina State 22 yard line and suddenly the huge lead for the home team is over with. First play and Winston hit Christian Green  for his first ever touchdown.

The wild first half ended with the Wolfpack still leading 24-21, but the momentum had changed and the Seminoles seemed to be in control now.

 

Florida State came out after half time to dominate the game. That didn’t happen.

 

Jameis Winston threw an interception while trying to hit Tight End Nick O’Leary but he threw it behind him and redshirt freshman Jerod Fernandez picked off the pass. The Wolfpack have some talented youth like so many other teams across the country, and they may be good over the next few years.

Wolfpack Quarterback Jacoby Brissett is really strong and should have been sacked but he threw the pass out to Shadrach Thornton and there might should have been a whistle. But, this again demonstrated the young man’s talent and ability.

The television broadcasters compared him repeatedly to Ben Roethlisberger, because he doesn’t necessarily do anything pretty but he is rough and rugged and somehow gets the job done.

Pro scouts are supposedly raving about Jacoby Brissett.
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He’s not a fast runner, but he’s got that knack of escaping would be tacklers, and can get away from opponents and controls his body very well. He is very composed and seems to be a tough guy to rattle under pressure.

Brissett is a transfer from Florida where he lost the job to Jeff Driskel who is about to be lynched by Florida Fans. I’m wondering if Gator fans would rather have Brissett right now than Driskel.

Brissett just made play after play in this game and Florida State is obviously a talented team. Again, he is not fast by any means, but is a very effective runner and he has a strong arm. At 6-4, 235 or so he is the body type that pro scouts love. He is tough and he is fearless. Personally, I’d like to see him stay in college another year and maybe develop his game a little more because he hasn’t played that much over his career and he is a junior.

This was a very impressive game for Jacoby Brissett. After the interception by Fernandez, Brissett Threw a TD pass to Running Back Matt Dayes to take the pack back up by 10 points, 31 to 21.

Wolfpack Senior Linebacker Rodman Noel seemed to be all over the field on Saturday. He is the younger brother of Nerlens Noel a former basketball player for Kentucky and 1st round pick of the Philadelphia 76ers.

The Wolfpack have 9 true freshmen that came in early and a really solid recruiting class this year.

 

Wolfpack head coach Dave Doeren was hired away from Northern Illinois where he was the head man for 2 years. Before that gig, he was the Defensive Coordinator for the Wisconsin Badgers. Dave Doeren went 23-4 in two seasons at Northern Illinois, so it seems the Wolfpack have themselves a coach.

North Carolina has great high school talent in the state. Todd Gurley is from North Carolina and so is freshman quarterback Will Grier at Florida. There are plenty of other top players around the country from the state of North Carolina, plus past greats like Carl Eller, Roman Gabriel, Leonard Little, Natrone Means, Stanley Morgan, Julius Peppers, Jethro Pugh, Heath Shuler, Perry Tuttle, and Tim Worley.

North Carolina State and their in-state rivals, North Carolina, need to keep these guys at home and they can be competitive.

It wasn’t until late in the game that the Noles finally were able to get that running game going. True freshman Dalvin Cook from Miami scored on 19 yard run. Cook is going to be the man at Florida State sort of in the mold of Devonta Freeman. He is super quick and was among the top recruits in the country this past season. Stardom is in his not too distant future.

6-7, 220 Lorenzo Featherston for Florida State is starting to make his presence known in the Seminole pass rush. He is a true freshman out of Greensboro, North Carolina and another type of guy that  North Carolina State and North Carolina need to keep home.

The Seminole defense rose to the occasion and stopped the  Wolfpack and forced a punt. Rashad Greene considered by many to be Florida State’s all time best Wide Receiver  bobbled the punt and North Carolina State recovered. Untimely for FSU because the momentum started to go back to the Seminoles before the turnover.

Shadrach Thornton scored on a run in just a few plays later making the score now 38 to 28 in the Wolfpack’s favor with 6:37 left in the 3rd quarter.

Another true freshman for the Noles, Travis Rudolph, had a really nice run after a catch making several pack tacklers miss him. Rudolph was one of the top rated Wide Receivers in the country last season coming out of high school. Some had him rated as the top Wide Receiver in the country and he looked the part on his one catch.

Make no mistake about it, FSU has some tremendous athletes and sophomore Bobo Wilson is a present and future star.

Jameis Winston hit Bobo Wilson for a 15 yard Touchdown making it 38-35, the Pack still leading.

Outstanding true freshman Lorenzo Featherston hit Jacoby Brissett and caused a fumble.  Jacob Pugh a 6-4, 235 Linebacker and another true freshman recovered for the Noles on the Wolfpack 6 yard line.

Jameis Winston hit Rashad Greene for a 4 yard Touchdown and the Seminoles finally lead the game, 42-38, with 3:24 left in the 3rd quarter. That was the 24th career Touchdown reception for Greene.

Florida State basically took over the 4th quarter and they won the game 56-41.

Heisman winner and a candidate to repeat, Jameis Winston, passed for 365 yards out of 26 completions in 38 attempts. He threw 4 touchdown passes, but also 2 interceptions.

Karlos Williams ran for 126 yards and 3 touchdowns after the Seminoles finally got the running game going and true freshman Dalvin Cook ran for 45 and a Touchdown.

Wide Receiver Rashad Greene had 11 receptions for 125 yards and a score. Budding star Bobo Wilson caught 6 passes for 109 yards and 2 more Touchdowns. Bobo is a big play guy.

The problem many have with the Seminoles and their number one ranking this season is the defense. After giving up 250 yards rushing to the Citadel, the Seminoles gave up 520 yards to NC State on Saturday. However, I would like to point out that the defense did come up big when needed and the game was on the line.

Wolfpack Quarterback Jacoby Brissett was 32 out of 48 which went for 359 yards and 3 Touchdowns.

Shadrach Thornton ran for 85 yards and 2 Touchdowns on 18 carries.

True freshman Bo Hines caught 8 passes for 103 yards and a Touchdown.

 

 

The Florida State Seminoles have been struggling a bit this season. They have not been playing like the #1 team in the nation so I moved them to #2 in my polls moving Alabama to #1.

All that really matters is winning all of their games and making the playoffs, but they are going to have to start playing better and particularly on defense if they are going to make it.

They don’t have the toughest schedule in the nation but they do have a few teams on it that could rise up and surprise them.

I noticed that after I moved them to #2 on my poll that the coaches poll also made the same move. Honestly, I do not even normally look at any pols, just saw the headline and read it.

 

They still have all the talent that they need to win the national championship and as long as Jameis Winston doesn’t do anything else ridiculous I see them at least making the playoffs and possibly still repeating.