Andrew Carter guest wrote a spring review for the ACC Sports Journal, where TomahawkNation friend James Young writes.  Defense worrisome (you'll remember that the offense was on an 800 yards per game pace in the vast majority of the scrimmages), Offense needs to find receivers and gain consistency. 

Jimbo Fisher will speak to the Orlando Seminole Club this Monday, May 18th at One Eyed Jacks in downtown Orlando.  Networking & Happy Hour starts at 6:30pm with the program beginning at 7:30pm.  Hospitality Prices for Seminole Club Members. Don't forget your membership cards! There will be a $5 entry fee for non-members (waived with new membership).  I can't attend this, but I'm sure everyone on Tomahawk Nation would really enjoy a blow-by-blow.  Can one of you attend and report?  We'd love to have a guest blog.  Maybe you are a reader who hasn't yet signed up (free)?  I hope we can get this done.

Bowden & Fisher will also be in Fort Myers, my hometown.  Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden and coach-in-waiting Jimbo Fisher will be in town for a golf outing and banquet Saturday. The Seminole Golf Scramble will start at 8:30 a.m. (7 a.m. registration) at Pelican Preserve Golf Club in Fort Myers. The cost is $125 per person and includes lunch, pictures and prizes. The FSU Garnet & Golf Banquet will start at 6 p.m. with a social, with dinner at 7:30. The cost is $30 per person, $10 for children and a Circle of Champions table can be had for $500. For more information, call Bob Votaw at 481-0230.  I might go attend.  

A review of the new coordinators across America, including BC OC Gary Tranquill (terrible hire), Clemson OC Billy Napier, Miami OC Mark Whipple, and Clemson's new DC Kevin Steele.  

Remember our piece on True Run Defense in the ACC?  Team Speek Kills did the same type analysis for the SEC.

On the Recruiting Trail, we learned via twitter that Coach Coley was in Jacksonville and some other coaches were in Atlanta.  FSU offered Tight End Neil Basford of Jacksonville Bishop-Kenney H.S.

Here's a spring practice report on Pahokee, from Luke Stampini of SoFlaFootball.com.

Speaking of Pahokee high, you probably know that they kicked out Tennessee coaches this week after Tennessee head man Lane Kiffin basically said that were homeless and shoeless (paraphrase), and accused Pahokee High of preventing kids from singing with UT and pushing them to UF.  Kiffin's comments were in poor taste at best, but I happen to think there is something to this pro-UF stance.  Others do as well.  One of them being www.RockyTopTalk.com.  It appears that some in the Pahokee administration are very pro-UF, even going as far as putting Florida Gator Logos on their school's website.  Here's the picture:

Click the picture to view it in full size.  That web site screen capture is courtesy of RockyTopTalk.  After being called out for his blatant homerism on a government run website, Principal Ariel Aliejo, who is very involved in the school's athletic department (see picture in link), removed the logo.  If you want to see how the page looked, pre-alteration, go here.  I'd like to think every school goes into Pahokee with a chance to sell themselves without having to fight a decidedly non-Di$intere$ted administration looking to push kids to UF.  I expect FSU to get wide receiver De'Joshua Johnson, but some comments from other Pahokee players give me cause for concern.  Someone is in their ear.  Maybe Principle Aeilo could tell his kids that since last season, UF has had more Felony arrests (including beating women) than FSU has total arrests. 

Bowden Article Slam Piece

BlackShoeDiaries.com is a very well run Penn State site.  Yesterday they ran a piece that I disagree with, titled  "Bobby Bowden is Pathetic"  It''s basically an attack piece that doesn't do the site justice.  It's also not well researched.  They cite a poorly researched Florida Gator website article.  FSU will not trade scholarships for wins.  I'm not aware of the NCAA upgrading penalties post appeal.  If they give back the wins and take scholarships, I will give up TomahawkNation and cease to be a Seminole fan until Bobby Bowden and T.K. are gone (retired, not dead you cynics), because they would have turned Seminole football into a personal organization, and I won't support that.  Other than that major issue, which is basically the entire reason for their rage I don't have any other major problem with the piece.

I'd like to point out that as of July of last year, 46 Penn State football players had been charged with a combined 163 counts resulting in 27 pleading guilty to 45 crimes.  HT:  Chantrant.com

Our friends at Scalpem.com have some fun with the article and NoleCC takes issue with the fairness aspect and with attributing the cheating to Bowden. 

As MattD suggested yesterday, Bowden and T.K. really need to lay low right now.  They embarrass the university every time they speak about the NCAA issue or discipline.  This off-season has been a massive series of public relations gaffes by Bowden and Wetherell.  Nothing they can say in the media will sway the NCAA to agree with the appeal.  Their best move is to refrain from further comment until the appeal is finished.  To do otherwise is to continually draw attention to an embarrassing topic. 

ACC Meetings

Andrew Carter has done a great job covering the ACC meetings.  Here's his final report. 

The 18-game conference schedule in college basketball seems to be a dead issue. The coaches once again shot it down, said Karl Hicks, the ACC’s Associate Commissioner for men’s basketball. The league will stay at 16 conference games for the foreseeable issue. The hang-up regarding going to 18 games is that the coaches don’t see the benefits of it. There’s no tangible evidence that it would help teams make the NCAA Tournament. And coaches believe it would lessen their chances to schedule marquee non-conference competition. So 16 it is.

In contrast to Carter's work is ESPN's Heather Dinich.  I really don't think she watches games and I know that she never played football. If ESPN ever looks for a quality ACC blogger, Andrew Carter would be a great choice.

In a recent article with her "Spring Observations", Dinnich didn't mention the ACC's top rated rushing offense: 

This conference can run. Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, Wake Forest, Maryland, NC State ... the list goes on. The question now is how these coaching staffs will split the carries. Some teams welcomed former leading rushers back from injuries, like NC State's Toney Baker and Duke's Re'quan Boyette. It seems like every team in the ACC has a legitimate difference maker at running back, and it should be a strength of the league this fall, especially considering

Dinnich mentions Wake Forest, but the Deamon Deacons has by far the conference's worst rushing attack, and it's not even close.  Further, Virginia Tech was very middle of the road when it came to rushing proficiency, they just happened to run the ball more often than most.

Knowing which rushing attacks are good doesn't necessarily require a football background.  A simple search will suffice.

A football background would be helpful, however, in understanding what new rule changes mean, which Dinnich failed to do when she confused everyone with her update on the new ACC rules.  Dr. Saturday has the full story.

Also within the last week, Dinnich gave us this piece, citing renewed confidence as the reason NC State will have their best defense in quite some time.  Much like the Wake Forest gaffe, NC State had the worst defense in ACC games last year.

ACC fans deserve better.  ESPN brass already commented on the colossal failure that has been the blogger experiment, but they could improve it by getting a better writer.  But I do have to credit her for this excellent article on staff sizes and schools hiring "video assistants", "staff assistants", "equipment guys", etc.  These guys are pseudo coaches and most probably have no idea how to operate video equipment.  I've implied that FSU doesn't have enough staff before, and this is exactly what I was hinting at.  As some of you know, I go to Alabama for law school and have come to know a few of the people associated with the program here (it's a small town and if you stay slightly more sober than most of the local crowd, you hear things and eventually meet people).  Bama has a huge staff.  FSU needs a huge staff.  We have made some more hires since Jimbo came on, but this is just another example of something Coach Bowden didn't think of at the turn of the century.  And really, why should he have?  What he was doing was working in 2000.  When Jimbo came, he was able to highlight some of the areas where FSU had fallen behind.  The key is for the old guard to sense the need and embrace the solutions, which are not cheap.  UF has a small army of guys in dri-fit polos as well.  The ACC has an interest in changing this rule because they have some smaller schools who absolutely cannot afford to have 70 "video assistants" running around the program.  Most SEC schools can.  FSU can afford it when boosters give.  This isn't against the rules, and to be an elite program FSU must do every single legal thing they can to get better.  FSU needs to be on the cutting edge to the point that they force the NCAA to change the rules if they don't like something. 

Georgia offered Corey Miller today.  It's officially on for his recruitment.

Summer Interview

An excellent job by Seminoles.com on the interview with Christian Ponder and Dekoda Watson.

Q: What are some things that the team is doing to build relationships and get more unified?

Ponder: Well we are going to be doing a lot of team meetings and group activities over the summer. Some community service stuff that I think we really need to do. We have this misnomer right now that this is kind of a thug university and so honestly I see that we need to do some stuff out in the community and give back. I think things like that are really going to bring us together and bring us closer. We are a team, we are a family. So that's really what it needs to be.

Awesome.  We really need someone to gather the team and hold them accountable for their attendance at "non-mandatory" offseason functions.

Q: How is your MBA coming along?

Ponder: Right now, I lucked out in summer school because I am taking all online MBA classes. It's pretty easy for me right now but I will graduate with my MBA next spring and so I have summer and fall and the year after. I don't know what I am going to do after that so we will see.

Ugh, he could have left out the part about online coursework.

Q: What's the team's plan for the summer?

Watson: Really, it's just about being able to get extra work in. We've got plenty of time to get back on our feet and at this particular time you want to get conditioned, you want to get stronger, you want to get faster. (You want) to just be able to make it through two-a-days. It's really trying to help you be ready for two-a-days and once you get in the season you should just be ready.

He needs to get bigger.

GO NOLES!!

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