TV Note:  Florida State plays Maryland this weekend.  It will be a Noon game and shown on Raycom.

After the big win and RsFr. QB E.J. Manuel got his first big win, Fisher was very pleased with the whole performance.  He said it was about as good as he could have hoped for.  Everyone did the job that they were asked.  He reluctantly complimented TY Jones, but then managed to insinuate that he was still pissed at Jones for not running the 3rd and 1 play correctly.  Honestly, any back could have made the two nice runs Jones made.  The offensive line blew those holes wide open.  Then it was back to his usual coach-speak, talking about how the team all played within themselves and only controlled what they can control.  He pointed out that the 'Noles had only 3 upperclassmen on offense.  1 Senior, 2 Juniors, 7 Sophomores, and 1 Freshman.  And that's encouraging.  (This says a lot about his ability to evaluate and develop talent and coach).  Says Manuel has great instincts.  Seems to be more nervous in drills than he is in a game.  Fisher says he can coach 80% but there's a 20% feel aspect that hes to come from somewhere else and EJ has it.  Fisher said he got on him a few times to see how he responded and thought he responded well.  Of the 20 balls he threw, 3 were dropped.  He completed 15.  On the play-action, he does it very well.  He's a natural, he's a very long guy, long arms and big hands, like Manning, and he extends the ball and it's a great natural fake.  He said some other stuff as well, but that's all my buddy could remember.

As for Manuel himself, Andrew Carter caught up with him:

How were you able to stay so calm in the game?

Our practices are so high wire and Coach Fisher puts so much pressure on us in practice to perform, the game is really easy. It becomes second nature. Today was really a glorified practice.

Were you nervous?

When you're warming up I think everybody's nervous. They'd be lying if they said they weren't. The o-line they took care of me, the running backs did a good job, and the receivers did their job and the tight ends, and the defense took a lot of pressure off us.

Was there anything different about the offense with you starting?

The nakeds (bootlegs). I'm pretty good with my feet. I felt that's what Christian would have done, too. We saw it was open so we had to execute. We're a machine. That one piece got hurt but we're going to try to mend that up and keep moving as an offense

The rest is at that link. 

Carter also caught up with injured quarterback Christian Ponder:

How was he able to stay so poised?

He has such high expectations for himself. We go out in practice and he prepares himself really well. That's the biggest thing. He knew what he was going to do, the preparation helped with his confidence.

His first pass was dropped, too (by Beau Reliford).

I know. That would have been a big one. If I were him I'd go slap Beau right there.

And Corey Clark has a nice article about getting Wake off FSU's back. 

"I knew I could do it," Manuel said. "It's not even about me, though. I feel like the offense really helped me out and took a lot of pressure off of me. I didn't feel any pressure. The O-line protected me very well today."

"I thought their (offensive) line played really, really well," Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe said. "They just did a nice job. They had a good game plan and their kids executed it. I was very impressed."

Also, please keep Democrat writer Steve Ellis in your prayers.  Steve suffered a heart attack and is still in the hospital.  He's covered the 'Noles for years and I met him this year during media day.  He's a nice guy and I certainly have him in my prayers.

Inside, check out the animated drive chart and some other articles!

Here's a nice writeup from member PBD:

Green. It was very interesting to watch our coaches, especially on defense. It seems pretty clear to me that CTC is in charge of the defense. Mickey spent a lot of time watching the offense play while CTC talked to the defense. Mickey also played a more hands off role when the defense was on the field. He got on them a couple of times, but overall didn't seem to be involved in the overall execution of the game. He seemed to be more like a position coach than DC. Offensively, it's the Trickett and Jimbo show. If any of the other coaches are doing any coaching during the game, I didn't see it.

Okay, I have to go back to the defense. I could make a list of the things that they don't do at all, or that they had a major fail at during the game, but the thing that comes to mind first and foremost is that they don't make good decisions. I honsetly don't know if this is on the coaches or the players, but we many mistakes on defense. We had guys over-running their zone when we were in zone coverage. For example, Skinner rolled out and we rolle the zone to the side of the field, and rolled right out of bounds rather than tracking with the receivers in the zones...it was sad. We had guys making terrible decisions on getting to the ball carrier, almost like to avoid them. Mangum was exceptional at this...did it multiple times, including on the 20-ish yard TD run (far endzone, couldn't see where the ball was very well). Looked like the LB was being blocked and couldn't shed the block, and Mangum cut inside when Adams cut it outside. Almost looked like a dodge to me.