Monday Morning Tomahawks 05.21.09

Some quality featured pieces today, make sure to check them out.

We lead with baseball, where yesterday Sean Gilmartin gave FSU six solid innings and Mike McGee hit a moonshot as The Noles ran BC, 7-2. 

Florida State will return to the diamond for its second game of the ACC Baseball Championship on Thursday, May 21 at 4:00 p.m. against fifth-seeded Miami, who defeated Georgia Tech 8-6 in game one of Division A Wednesday afternoon. A win for the Seminoles would clinch a spot in Sunday's championship game.

Fans can listen to Thursday's action locally on 1270 the Team and over the internet on www.seminoles.com. The game will also be shown live on television as fans are encouraged to check their local listings for broadcast listing. Live stats will also be available through gametracker.

We will have a game-thread for the baseball game, but I will be at work, so it will have to be member driven.  All of us at work will definitely appreciate updates from those lucky enough to have access. 

See something we missed?  Let us know in the Comments!!

GO NOLES!!

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Football updates inside! 

In football news, I'm happy to report that Gobbler Country, the Virginia Tech hub of SBNation, is an excellent site.  They did an excellent piece on Sack Rate in the ACC.  Sack Rate is simply "how often did you sack the quarterback", and it's better than just sacks because it's a %.  In that way, it doesn't reward teams who face a ton of pass plays (and thus have more opportunities for sacks).  Lonnnnggg time readers will remember my piece on this very issue at the old FSUncensored.blogspot site.  In my previous piece, I predicted that FSU would have their best sack performance since 2000, and they did... by a big margin.

• FSU was 2nd best in Sack Rate, sacking the QB on 9.6% of pass plays, or once every 10.4 dropbacks.  
• FSU was middle of the road in sack rate allowed, sacked on 6.4% of plays, or once every 15.7 dropbacks.  I'd attribute this to Ponder being the quickest player on the entire team. 
• The 'Noles were tops in tackles for loss rate (not including sacks), as slightly less than one in five opponent carries went for loss.
• Florida State was middle of the road in tackles for loss rate allowed (again, w/o sacks), and that should improve with Jermaine Thomas.

In any case, make sure to check the article out.  

Another VT blog, CollegeGameBalls, has a really intriguing piece, using a formula to determine who has the toughest schedule in the country.  I have a problem with his formula, however, as I there is way too much difference in the equation between non-BCS 1a teams and 1-aa teams.  While there is a difference between say the Sun Belt and the top 1-aa conferences,the difference isn't as large as 0.7 to -1.1.  In any case, it is interesting, but there's no way VT's OOC schedule is tougher than FSU's or several other teams.  They also make no effort to account for differences in the non-BCS 1-a teams.  Texas has a pathetic OOC schedule this year, and they score almost as well as FSU. 

The real key should be "what chance does the best team in the nation have of running the table against this schedule."

Hurricane Fluff Piece on Mark Whipple.  Also, Miami was horrible in 2006 like FSU was.  A mutual low point for the two schools.

Schedule Change

West Virginia University Director of Athletics Ed Pastilong has announced that the Mountaineers and Seminoles have switched the locations for their series scheduled for 2012 and 2013. The Mountaineers will now travel to Tallahassee, Fla., in 2012 and will then play the 2013 meeting in Morgantown. The teams have played two games previously, and the Seminoles hold a 2-0 lead in the series which started in the 1982 Gator Bowl with a 31-12 Florida State win. The two schools met again in the 2004 Gator Bowl with FSU winning that match-up 30-18.

Interesting tidbits from ESPN Chat: 

Aaron (Asheville, NC):: After VT, who has the nest defense in the league?

 Heather Dinich: First, I'm not sure VT HAS the best defense in the league. Clemson will be very good, and I really like North Carolina's defense. NC State should also be much better.

I'm glad to see that Dinnich is realizing who has the best defenses last year, and she has backed off the ridiculous notion that NC State was above average on "D."  The "Improving" language is much more accurate.

Mike Alameda CA: Any thoughts on how early recruiting and commitments are happening?

 Bruce Feldman: It's going to keep happening earlier and earlier every year as coaches try and one up one another. It's unfortunate because it lends itself to spotty evaluations.

Our coaches are aware of this.  Some kids do develop late, and it's magnified when some kids are 20 and graduating school due to failing 1st grade, versus some who have late birthdays and just turned 17.

FSU coaches were in Pahokee yesterday, visiting De'Josha Johnson and Richard Ash.  I guess they also saw Dunkley, but I wouldn't get my hopes up there.

Very good Q&A with Miami coach Randy Shannon. 

Andrew Carter:  FSU will have to wait to hear the response to their appeal. 

Smartfootball.blogspot:  a cool route concept (has video too, read it).  Maybe FSU could incorporate that, as we already have some of it conceptually.

Andrew Carter:  Jon-Kreft might be deyaled in enrolling.  (Basketball)

Writer Ricobert1 has an interesting piece on the offensive line... one I agree with in theory, and something we've advocated many times over.

And finally, in media news, a well respected blogger takes on an overzealous print writer and makes the print guy look quite foolish, primarily by acting like a knowledgeable, mature person.  We are lucky that the 3 primary beat guys (Andrew Carter, Steve Ellis, Corey Clark) are professionals.  With the newspaper industry making Detroit look stable, electronic media are increasingly the source for news and opinion.  I hope people don't see us the way that writer views that blogger.  We can only hope FSU will start to come around to bloggers, give us press credentials, etc.  

See something we missed?  Let us know in the Comments!!

GO NOLES!!

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