Review The Preview: Critiquing PreSnapRead.com's Take On FSU

In the last edition of our "Review The Preview" series, we checked out College Football News' take on the 'Noles.  This series is important because if a writer does a poor job with the 'Noles, we cannot expect him to correctly provide info on other teams.  Today we look at PreSnapRead.com's take.  PreSnapRead is an excellent site run by Paul Myerberg, who is also a New York Times contributor.  Myerberg is an excellent writer and did a nice job with this preview.  

I give Myerberg high marks for noting the progression of the offensive line from 2008, a season in which it was comprised of 3 freshmen and 2 sophomores.  His attention to detail here is really good and I like that he maintains perspective on McMahon and Datko.  He is still high on the receivers even without Fortson because FSU has recruited the position very well and has a lot of talent.  I'll give him slight point deduction for focusing mostly on Jermaine Thomas and not Chris Thompson, but what he says about Thomas' accomplishments to date is correct.  

The real test of anyone previewing this team, however, is the defense.  And Myerberg has done a nice job here.  As a national writer his mention of Xavier Rhodes legit shot to overtake Ochuko Jenije at boundary corner earns him high marks.  He also has spot-on analysis of Korey Mangum.  He questions Mister Alexander's size to play the strong side, but this is excusable because Paul wrote this before the new strength numbers (237 lbs) came out.  He also goes out on a limb calling Nigel Bradham an All-America candidate.  That's a risky move most writers wouldn't make after last year's defensive collapse.

Here's his final take:

This season will be marked by transitions, both along the sidelines and on the field, with this proud program searching for its voice under this new coaching staff - the first new staff since 1976, Bowden's debut season. What should we expect? A better performance, without question. Don't for a moment think it's sacrilegious to call Fisher an upgrade over Bowden, or his new crop of assistants an upgrade over Bowden's old buddies - he is and they are, at least when comparing the 2010 staff to the 2009 version. Will this improvement manifest itself in the win column? Most certainly: anything less than eight regular season wins would be surprising. Nevertheless, despite the potentially dominant offensive attack, don't look for this team to put forth the type of performance I believe we'll begin to see from these Fisher-led Seminoles in the near future - say, beginning in 2011. ...

I think strides will be taken in 2010, but F.S.U. is not quite ready to be viewed as one of the Top 25 teams - teams, not in terms of its talent - in the country. This team is close... but let's give Fisher one year to remove the negatives - lack of effort, for starters - that plagued Bowden's last teams. If the early reports are to be believed, he's already pushed this team forward in that area.

I can't argue with that, provided he means FSU won't have a final record to end up in the top 25.  I do think FSU will be one of the best 25 teams in the country.  

Overall I give this preview an excellent grade.  The errors were very few and were of the type I expect to see from a guy covering all 120 teams in the country.  Check out the preview for another great take on these 2010 Noles.