and I do mean UNFORTUNATLY you are right. With the majority of the staff we have now, we can not afford to play one of the toughest schedules in college football. It is not like the good ole days when we can travel to play a good program (i.e. Nebraska, Oklahoma, etc.) and had an excellent chance to beat them and the pollsters actually cared who your competition was. I am just jumping on the “play an easy OOC schedule” b/c before I thought it was just for cowards and that is not who FSU is unlike UF but you are right. You have to play the game according to how you will be ranked and to win games to keep of w/ Paterno

and we played anyone, anywhere we were an independent and the game was completely different. Not only was the game different, but the recruiting process, the media coverage, and the route to the Nat’l Championship was different.

One of the reasons that pollsters actually cared was because we were the underdog and it was an exception to the rule to play so many games like that.

The level of play in the ACC is exponentially better than it used to be. With the BCS resources to the major conferences, there has been a consolidation of talent both in players and coaches. Even if I give you that the talent in the ACC is weak (it isn’t) it is still legitimate D-1 competition, something a lot of schools don’t schedule.

Who is actually responsible for the schedule and will Jimbo be able to make changes if and when he becomes coach? One of my big concerns is that Bobby is going to take down Jimbo when he finally goes. You already hear people calling for Jimbo’s head when he is in a no-win situation. If we lose Jimbo and Trickett, we won’t be back for another 10 years.

I agree we play UF and they are the cream of the crop right now…not to mention MIA which is a rival game……and has anyone noticed how we lost to wf 3 straight years we need the idahos and out of nowhere states of the world to build our record up pad up the win column so that if we do lose to a uf it would look alot better at 11-1 than possibly 9-4

by keeping their OCC games in state is that it reinforces recruiting efforts. They keep the foundation of their program strong by playing in their own back yard. Any return on investment for playing at BYU was lost by losing to USF. I would have rather it been the other way around to be honest. At least that would have kept USF from getting bragging rights with the kids in our state.

Look, yesterdays loss was one of the all time most embarassing losses – yes I’ve said many times already and probably more. The loss can in some ways be attributed to scheduling. USF lived for that game because its the recruiting jack pot. And, I bet half the USF team contains guys with grudges because they weren’t heavily recruited by FSU. They had everything to gain and know we’re going places that may takes many more years to recover.

I was one who said I had a bad feeling – coming back from out west, high on a big win – FSU probably didn’t really start prepping until Tuesday.

We play UF and as long as we don’t play any FCS schools we are fine.

If I’m in charge of scehduling I would start getting chummy with Florida Atlantic and FIU. Many benefits to having a regular series with one of them (saves on travel, stimulates Florida economy etc.) Then scehdule some other DI bottem feeders.

Do anything to get away from the labor day big game. I’m not sure how it works, but at this point I’d take the ACC fine or fee for refusing to play Miami on Labor Day.

As a player I would prefer to take all comers. I really disliked scheduling easy opponents and did not appreciate the administration just putting some W’s on the schedule for good looks.

With that being said, I feel that a Spartan schedule year in and year out temps a much stronger, more mentally focused young man rather than a schedule where you just play your IC games and hope that that is strong enough competition.

Bring me USC. Bring me OSU. Bring me UF. Bring me Notre Dame, Nebraska, Oklahoma. If USF gets a win. Fine. Bring em again next year. I’ll knock em out.

I hope this is the first in a series of extremely Spartan schedules. As a player, if I know there is going to be a tough schedule I know that there is going to be a lot of injuries, fatigue— I know I have a faster route on the field… I know that the team will need me to be an active participant on their team.

I want to take on the best, ‘cause eventually I’ll be the best.

With regards to not getting Bowden’s scheduling, this is all about history. He’s still living in the past when he built the program playing anybody, anywhere.

I myself have questioned the logic behind our recent scheduling. Their is no reason to play as tough of a non conference schedule as we do. Look at UF and Texas, they play cream puffs every year and it gets them to the title game.

We’re only 4 games in, haven’t even gotten into ACC divisional play & ponders already beat to hell. In the 80s & 90s you could have 100 guys on scholly. You could afford a few more injuries then.

should have the attitude and drive to want to play all comers. That is great from a players perspective. You also want to play for a conference and national championship. It is the job of the administration and coaches to find the balance between “playing anyone, anywhere” and positioning yourself for a run at the national championship. It is a long season, and you need to be able to keep your team healthy and ready to compete. I would venture to say that the players will be more amped to play in the national championship than they will be to go 9-3 against the hardest schedule in the country. Here’s how it plays out when the kids go home on break:

UF player : “How you like my new ring!”

FSU player: “we played the hardest schedule in the country”

UF player: " How you like my new ring!"

FSU player, “we ain’t afraid to play anywhere, anytime, anyone”

UF player: “How you like my new ring!”

USF player walks up, “We have a winning record against FSU, they’ve never beaten us!”

Yes, the schedule is only one factor, but it makes a difference. It will suck to get the talent, recruiting, coaching, and administrative problems fixed, but be so caught up in having to prove how tough we can schedule that we still end up shooting ourselves in the foot. You pick your battles. No one is saying we should schedule The Citadel and USF’s New College intramurals every year. An elite team doesn’t have to prove anything, you make the upstarts come to you and earn their stripes.

In 79, we went 11-1, the loss being in the Orange Bowl to OK, so we went undefeated and still didn’t play for the NC. We only played one team that was ranked at the end of the year, and that was Oklahoma. So, we started scheduling harder. We made a name for ourselves. But, you know what, we lost more games. In 81, we had the road trip that made Bobby’s reputation. We ended up going 3-2 on a road warrior trip to Neb, Ohio St., ND, Pitt, and LSU. We came home and beat Western Carolina, ran out of gas, lost our last 3 and finished 6-5. You can take your moral victories and the satisfaction of playing the “best competition”, but if you don’t have the record at the end of the year, you still watch someone else go to Disney.

There is nothing wrong with having a balanced schedule so that your team is in the best position to play its best game when it matters the most. Do you think USF would have beaten us if they had just played 3 hard games and been worn out, or if we had lost the week before and felt like we had something to prove? Scheduling impacts other games you play and so you have to schedule judiciously.

Look at UF; OOC they have Charleston Southern, Troy, FIU, and FSU. Two of their conference games are Vandy and Kentucky.

Boise St., Houston, BYU, TCU – interestingly, these guys are all still ranked even though they don’t really play anybody. BYU scheduled OK & FSU this year to pad their schedule, but that backfired on them.

I agree it appears that a 10 win season is more important than who those wins are against. Even an ANTICIPATED ten win season is worth more than name recognition, schedule strength or playing in a decent conference.

You know when I played football years ago and we went up against teams that hit hard and would knock you down every play and basically punch you in the mouth every single play that was our WAKEUP CALL saying these guys came to play today and they are openly challenging us to a hard hitting football game.

But if you look at FSU this past Saturday, not only were they being punched in the mouth on every play by USF they simply didn’t do anything about it.

FSU teams of old wouldn’t have stood for that during an away game let alone a home game. I am calling out every single player on the FSU squad who played last Saturday and I’m telling them they are SOFT!

It is one thing to lose a game you technically shouldn’t have lost, but it is another thing to be out hit for an entire game and never respond with shots of your own. Had FSU matched the hitting going on out there throughout the game I wouldn’t be so mad right now. USF was more phyiscal and made us look bad in front of our home crowd and national TV and FSU players did nothing about it during the game. That is the most pathetic thing of all. If the hit on Pressley in the first quarter didn’t wake up the FSU players then nothing would. Back when I played if one of our players got nailed like that you be damned sure before the night was over one of our opponent players would be lit up as well. Heck I would have welcomed a personal foul penalty the other day.