Team Gold Wins First Tomahawk Nation Florida State Spring Football Fantasy Draft

Recently, our members participated in the Tomahawk Nation Florida State Spring Football Fantasy Draft.  Some of our authors got together to help judge the teams and declare a winner.  FSU44 wrote the most compelling argument, which appears below.

Shaded comments come from Tomahawk Nation author "FSU44".

When I first sat down to write a recap of the Spring Fantasy Draft and declare my "winner", I realized this may be the single least objective, semi-serious article ever posted on TomahawkNation. Commensurate with the occasion, I had every intention of writing a humorous, detailed recap. However, I had work and three different WNBA fantasy drafts to blog about, which has altered that plan. Undeterred, I pressed on.

First of all, conventional wisdom dictates that the way to draft players in this draft, and thus the way to win, is to pick the players whose reciprocal shows the biggest drop off. Or conversely, to end up with players whose drop off is slight or nonexistent from the other team's reciprocal player.

With that said, Christian Ponder obviously had to be the first pick, and due to an editor error Toshmon Stevens would likely be the last player chosen, on the thought that the drop off from Ponder was the greatest, and the drop off from Stevens was the least. Conventional wisdom held true. As it turns out, Jenkins should have been in the "Get" category all along, and Gold picks up a steal by virtue of their draft position (and what was surely their plan all along).

Not to mention that some believe Ponder's arm is stronger this year than last year.  That is the big advantage for team Garnet.

Team Gold never had a chance at Ponder, and thus, is free to complain that if Ponder has a typically efficient scrimmage, it is only because they had the advantage of picking first. The thing is, Team Gold doesn't need to complain, because in my view, they have the superior team overall, for the following reasons:

I was torn, but I agree with FSU44 here.  Gold is the slightly better team.

1) Running Backs. As it stands right now: Thomas>Jones. Thompson>Pressley (the comments that he may be the fastest back on the team not withstanding). While Pryor is more versatile than Smiley, Team Gold has a big back to use in short yardage. Didn't FSU's defenses give up 8 yds/carry in the last scrimmages? I like the Triple Threat posed by Team Gold on the Ground.

I'll add that Thomas and Thompson are much more consistent than the streaky Jones and Pressley.

2) Stopping the Run. Point 1 feeds into Point 2, which is stopping the Run. Jacobbi McDaniel v. the walk-on center Jacob Stanley is a huge advantage, and I like McCallister over McCloud, given the fact that Amp hadn't played football for over a year prior to a few weeks ago. Can I just point out that only in a Spring Fantasy Football Draft would anyone think of taking McMahon over Hudson or Datko? That is the beauty of fake fantasy football.

While I am not so sure about McAllister over McCloud, the McDaniel point is huge.  With McCray injured, McDaniel is the one potentially dominant interior lineman in this game.  Team Garnet has two 3-technique type tackles.  Team Gold has one nose guard and in McDaniel has a player who would be the best at nose guard and 3-technique.  Team Garnet is likely to have trouble all game and immediately must double McDaniel on every play.

3) Nigel Bradham. Beastmode versus situational passer rusher in Mister Alexander. I like Bradham to have a huge game, and a huge season, which is he stays healthy and productive, will probably be his last.

I don't particularly think team Garnet's linebackers are much worse than team Gold's (1 starter v. 2 starters), but I absolutely think team Garnet's linebackers are ill-suited for its defensive line personnel.  Examine:

Team Garnet's DL + LB = 1712 lbs.  Team Gold's: 1807 lbs.  (All weights per Spring guide and both are probably heavier now by an equal amount).  That's almost a 100 lb difference and that is really, really big.  Team Gold is set up to run the ball.  Team Garnet is ill-suited to stop the run.  Uh-oh.

4) Defense as a whole. Considering last season, having the better defense when you split up FSU's best defensive players isn't necessarily a recipe for success. But with a lot of the other units as a whole being a push, Team Gold gets the nod.

Team Gold has 8 of the 11 defensive starters and has the aforementioned 100 lb advantage.

5) Quarterback. My understanding of the rules is that Ponder only gets 50% of the snaps. Say Team Garnet Runs 66 offensive plays total. That is 33 snaps for Ponder. I don't see him throwing the ball more than 15 times. This game will be won on the ground.

This is where team Gold was smart in drafting Trickett and giving team Garnet the walk-on.

Conclusion:

Ponder throws for a couple of touchdowns early, and Team Garnet decides it will work on running the ball.  Team Gold surges back, running the ball right at the second team front 7 for Garnet.  With 18 of 23 starters (per the last scrimmage), Team Gold takes the draft and the very close game, 35-31

Congrats to Team Gold!