'Nole Your Opponents: Week 12

The WR group is poor while FSU’s is improving. The RB is good but not great while FSU has 3 backs around the same talent level. The OL can dominate but is playing average and FSU has injuries that keep them in line with CU.

All in all the offense of both teams were not going to be the story. CU’s defense is legit top 20 and their DL is top 3 or 4. If you asked me how FSU would do if their defense was on the field 20 min in the first half thanks to the offense and penalties I would have said CU wins by 14. The defense did step up and play as well as they could have even against Clemson. I would like to get win number 8 against Maryland.

I still think we lose to UF. I hate, hate, hate the gaytors but I see a number of factors working against us. If you look at the season OU, NC State, and UNC all had enough talent to beat us. The dominate factor was their sense of FSU being their season changing game. I didn’t get that feel from CU fans or posts while these other teams and coaches are on record saying they practiced all summer for FSU (OU) or that this is their game of the year (NC STATE). I see UF coming into this as their statement game. Unless FSU rises to the occasion, which they can do easily, I see UF getting another win. Come on Noles!

to major injury now that it is obvious we are fading down the stretch. Stoops subs a LOT less than Mickey used to. So in a way, even the returning players are not used to the workload.

Maryland has a bad O, so I think a conservative gameplay by Stoops that takes away the deep ball and forces Maryland to earn their yards will work. And although Maryland’s D is pretty good, Jimbo’s balanced O should be able to find the weakness and exploit it.

Note: I don’t like the night game in Maryland though… we need to minimize turnovers (I’m looking @ u G5 & Ponder), esp. in the second half to prevent Maryland from getting any mo.

I’d almost want to see EJ get one more week and give Ponder’s elbow another week to heal for the UF game.

It’s shocking that their two worst performances were against Maryland and NC State, but to see Miami up there, UNC and BC, I don’t mind having a worse performance than those three. That said, would have been nicer to be closer to the 4.5 range.

I think I am going to refrain from jumping on this bandwagon until after the game. And only then, depending on the results of said game.

Under/over on times we see the infamous picture: 8

We need to beat Maryland (insightful I know); and not only do we need to beat Maryland, I want to beat them comfortably (14-17 points). That sentence alone might not be a big deal, BUT, I also want to do that while sandbagging.

I really, really, REALLY, want to beat the turds. I know our goals have been the ACC, but Im being greedy here. I really worry they are gonna blow the doors off us again, since they are getting to face a defense that has hit the proverbial wall.

To sum up, I hate the gators, and I am tired of the 6 straight losses. My last damn home game as an undergrad I had to watch that moron Zook get carried off the field. Payback time, especially since I think we have a better shot this year than next.

I know his whole thing on process, but he understands that the key to success is to establish ourselves as the top school in the state. This is why we did our best to dismantle Miami earlier, to secure 2nd place so we could begin working on passing UF. I believe that the whole “just focus on the ACC” approach is easily the best in this scenario and it is better for us to win our division and be a 10 win team each year so we can gain recognition and gain on UF.

However I truly believe we are in a strong position to pass them, and I think Jimbo is thinking it too, or at least I hope so. I know UF has more talent throughout at this point, but their coaching has obviously failed in a way that no one could have foreseen. Who would have thought UF could be embarrassed like they have been, and we have out recruited them this year, mainly due to Urban’s illness, but now we have the momentum, and could seal it going into next year with a win over UF.

I think the retaining of Addazio dooms UF next season, and I feel we will beat them next year with our projected improvement, and I think they will miss their seniors. Beating them two years in a row would put us on top, and then I think Jimbo will keep us there. What do we lose if we lose to Maryland and UF? Basically nothing, IMO. I don’t think our recruits are sold on our success for this year, but potential for the future, and a win here grabs the future’s attention even more, and BOOM. We rock.

I haven’t slept all night, doing homework, so forgive me if this is nuts, but I say swing for the homerun here because the potential loss is fairly minimal, imo. and the gain is outrageous. Just my 2 cents.

Rest Ponder unless completely healthy, let him watch UF film all week. Rest anyone you need to. Give it three days work on Maryland, two for UF or something like that and make it happen. I don’t care if we lose to Maryland if we can compete with UF.