Grading the 'Noles:  UTC

Offense
GOAL: 3 or less Punts + Int’s +Fumbles
This encompasses both fumbles lost and fumbles. It does NOT cover “turnover” on downs.

D The ‘Noles punted twice and didn’t throw an interception, so why the low grade? The men in garnet and gold put the ball on the ground 3 times. That isn’t acceptable against an opponent the likes of UTC.

QB
 

QB Rating >190
Quarterback rating s a great tool to use when evaluating quarterback play because it balances out all the factors of quarterback play. Against the hapless Mocs, Seminole QB’s should be able to reach this lofty goal. Last week they had numbers north of 215.

B+ I am very tempted to give this unit an “A” for this goal, since they were victimized by 4 drops. These drops were made on good passes, so “B+” it is.
 

Y/A > 11
Yards per attempt is a very important indicator of quarterback play. Y/A is much better than yards per completion, because it shows how many yards a team can expect to gain per passing play. FSU struggled mightily in this area over the past few years as they were continually handcuffed by a lack of talent at the position. Realizing this Seminole offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher made the QB change. FSU’s current QB’s, Starter Christian Ponder and super-sub D’Vontrey Richardson represent a huge upgrade in this area. 11 is a reachable number against the Mocs.

C The ‘Noles needed to hit more big plays here. They averaged 8.2 Y/A. Think this grade is too low because of the drops? Try 9.28 without the drops; still well below our goal.
 

No Big Mistake Throws
Interceptions on a hail Mary before the half don’t really hurt a team. Instead, we focus on interceptions AND balls that were poorly thrown so the defender had a reasonable opportunity to intercept.

A- I didn’t see any throws that made me think “wow, that was dumb.” There were 2 tosses that weren’t thrown particularly well and could have been intercepted, but they weren’t bad reads. One toss brings this down, however, as I don’t want to see our QB’s slinging off balance when they are in the clutches of a defender.

No Fumbled Snaps
Get the snap. These can be devastating to a team. Against UTC, there is no reason for the Ryan McMahon (our center) to pull out early. Nobody on the Moc’s presents a real danger.

F I understand that these don’t often happen with the starter McMahon, but this is inexcusable.

Use the whole field.
Self explanatory here, but I want to see the Seminole QB’s throw a variety of routes. If we light up the Moc’s on the strength of four bubble screens that go the distance, yet look bad on other throws, the ‘Noles QB’s might not earn an A. Obviously, they don’t care about earning an A from Tomahawk nation. Jimbo looks at the same stuff though, and you can bet they care what he says.

B+ I was glad to see the ‘Noles use more of the field. We laid off the bubble, as Jimbo is pretty sure we can run it, and opened up some other stuff. Christian doesn’t throw the corner particularly well, but he doesn’t throw it poorly. I’m glad to see that we haven’t lost much when it comes to throwing crossing routes.

RB
Executing the play according to its design.
This is important in a big game, but it is even more important in a game where FSU will undoubtedly roll. I have no doubt that our RB’s can run all over the Moc’s without following their blockers or playing with the scheme. We don’t need that. Doing that encourages bad habits. Those habits don’t pay off in a big game, where an opponent has athletes that are listed on NFL Draft preview sites. this is really a test of timing, as the ‘Nole RB’s will need to be patient as the hole develops and then aggressive at the right moment to burst through the hole. This isn’t pop Warner, don’t simply try to bust everything outside now. If the ’Nole backs try to pad their stats here by going outside the scheme, it may come back to haunt the team.

B+ I thought that our guys ran within the design of the system.

Pass Protection (Blitz pickup)
This is another “play within the scheme and know your role” type goal. If Christian ponder goes down because one of our backs misses an assignment as some slow linebacker who might not even have started for his high school crashes through the line… Tomahawk nation will not be happy.

B+ What’s not to like here? The pressure on our QB’s was more than I wanted to see, but Christian and other commented that the backs did a nice job picking up the blitz. I think it was more than lip service.

Pass Catching
Catch the ball with your hands. Get good depth on your swing routes. If you miss a pass in the backfield, swat it out of bounds, do not wait to see if it was a lateral. Swat, Swat, Swat. We expect perfection because this not the opening game, and the field should be in good condition. Additionally, UTC is horrible. Two writers for this site received offers from better programs.

A I don’t often give out "A"’s, but unless I am missing something (and please do correct me in the comment section), I thought this group caught the ball well and deserved an “A”. Antone did a nice job on a ball that Ponder might have floated a bit too much. I worried that he would try to turn upfield first, but he took care of business and then turned on the jets.

WR/ TE/ Correy Surrency
 

Line up correctly
You are a wide receiver, it really isn’t that difficult. Freshman Avis Commack Drew Jimbo’s ire as he forced a wasted timeout when he couldn’t line up.
 
Run the right routes and run them well.
Our ability to tell what is happening here is obviously limited. We’re not often privy to the play call. If there is an obviously incorrect route, however, and we catch Jimbo reaming someone for it, let us know in the Game Day Open Thread! If we catch it, or see a route combo is obviously incorrect (two players in the same spot at the same time), we’ll not it here in the Monday edition of “Grading the ’Noles.” The Garnet and Gold pass catchers cannot afford to get into the bad habit of running lazy routes, even though those would probably work against the Mocs. Do not play down to the level of your opponent.

Incomplete. Honesty time here; I don’t have tape of this game. I didn’t notice us running poor routes, and I didn’t notice Jimbo reaming any player, but I don’t want to judge this since I don’t have the right info. Sorry.

Catch the ball well.
The ‘Nole receivers need to attack the ball with their hands and really need to secure the ball on their first try. Too many times against Western Carolina, a ’Nole wide receiver bobbled the catch before securing it. That works against guys who our walk-ons could crush, but that doesn’t fly against the better defensive backs of Wake, Miami, or UF. Let’s also try to catch jump balls at their highest point, as we continue the seemingly never ending task of purging the Jeff Bowden Syndrome from this team.

D Surrency’s catch saves this group from the dreaded “F”. Four drops against UTC is not acceptable. Obviously, there is a good chance they were not focused and looking ahead to Wake, but for purposes of grading this game, that doesn’t matter.

Be like Mike Corey
Smurf put on one of the better blocking exhibitions against Western Carolina that you will ever see, and everyone else joined in on the act.

C- I didn’t see a repeat of the crazy blocking exhibition we saw against WCU, but they did block well on D’Vo’s big run. Rod Owens was flagged for an illegal block, negating a nice gain by Jarmon Fortson. Cameron Wade (fan favorite, but not that promising from my perspective) drew a 10 yard flag for holding.

Offensive Line

Continue the intensity (Pretend as if Rick Trickett is actually living inside your helmet)
We don’t have a great offensive line. What we do have, however, is a line that, for the most part, gave 110% on every play. We might not know exactly who to block on every play, and we might not be big enough to block them if our angle isn’t right, but dammit, we aren’t slacking in the effort department.

D+ Ugh, Apparently the Line decided to go to lax mode in the middle of the 2nd quarter. We didn’t have great fire after the opening period, didn’t finish plays as well, and didn’t get into our pass-pro setups nearly as quick as I’d have liked to see.

Make the right reads and block the correct man.
An essential element of blocking is knowing who to block. With an additional week to study their rules, these lineman should improve on their assignment showing.

C Our tackle play was not at the level it needs to be if we expect to stay ranked. Under no circumstance, in a home game against an opponent like this, should an opposing defender ever have a free run at the QB while he is in the “pocket” (Term used in quotes because I didn’t see a whole lot of pocket for some stretches of this game.)

Continue to block well downfield.
The downfield blocking by the Seminole offensive line against WCU blew me away. Keep this up.

B, The Seminole offensive line did a good, but not great job of this. I was encouraged to see cut-blocking downfield on Antone’s TD, as defenders were scattered on the ground.

No more than 1 penalty.
A clean sheet here would be amazing, but if 5 starters combine for 1 or fewer penalty, I’ll be happy.

B Ryan McMahon picked up TWO holding penalties on the same drive, but other than that, the ‘Nole line wasn’t flagged for any other penalties. This is how it should be against a team like UTC.

because I want to move on to Wake.