Florida State News & Notes 08.20.10

With all the excitement of the James Wilder announcement, it's easy to forget that Fall camp is going on both in Tallahassee and around the ACC.  

The Noles went to see a movie last night.  Coach Fisher rented out the entire theater.  But first, FSU practiced in the heat as they prepare for Saturday's scrimmage, but not in full pads.  That's customary before a scrimmage.  Christian Ponder and E.J. Manuel were held out yesterday as a planned precautionary measure to rest their arms.  Clint Trickett earned and took all the first-team snaps as Will Secord was out sick.  Coach Fisher was pretty pleased in the last two days with both sides of the ball playing well (as opposed to one side making a play because the other side made a mental error).  The scrimmage can't get here fast enough as both sides have been really getting at each other.  It will be interesting to see which players play in the scrimmage, how much the young guys get in the mix, and who will be held out for precautionary measures.  I predict the defense will again do quite well as FSU will hold out two offensive line starters.  I do not, however, expect 3 or 4 turnovers returned for scores.

"We're just trying to get them to understand and get comfortable in those situations," said Fisher, who served up a heavy dose of clock management, end of half and end of game situations. "They're going to make mistakes for a while, but they're not making many. I like their attitude and they're competing well against each other.

"They're getting real chippy with each other now. I had to stop it and tell everybody to quiet it down and play ball again. I'd rather say `Whoa' than `Giddy-up,' I promise you."

"Coach Fisher really wanted to put us in situations that we are going to be in for real," said Smith. "We're trying to get people to think under pressure and know what to do under pressure. It's been a more competitive two-a-days. We've been getting after each other more. We shake the offense and the offense puts something on us every now and then, so it's more competitive."

And it showed.

"Things are real competitive out there," said redshirt junior Terrance Parks. "We are going head-to-head, with good athletes on both sides of the ball. We are all going 100 miles per hour, trying to compete, so of course some tempers can flare up."

Fisher wasn't overly bothered by the occasional flare-up.

"They're getting competitive," Fisher said. "When one guy gets a play on (another), they start chirping, then the other one chirps. ... That's what good teams do. They take pride and they don't want to lose. That's the mentality you have to have. You have to be able to do it and still have discipline and be able to process what's going on mentally. There's nothing wrong with that. Now if it gets you out of your mind, you've got to stop it.

"You've got to do it with discipline and intelligence."

For more, you can turn to Seminoles.com

Here's more evidence that Xavier Rhodes has seized the boundary corner spot and is now playing more safety for Nickel Packages:

With projected starting safety Nick Moody sidelined, Ochuko Jenije has been getting the lion's share of repetitions with the first team defense. "Jenije is in there doing a great job," Fisher said. "Jajuan Harley is finding some roles in there. ... We're getting a lot of chances to look at a lot of guys and you've got to. We've got to have that depth."...Fisher said he expects to have offensive line starters Andrew Datko and David Spurlock back next week...

Moody might miss some time with that injury, so Jenijie, Harley, Demps, or Bright need to be ready to go early on.  As I have said all year, the important thing is to be healthy for the conference season because FSU isn't in contention for anything nationally.  This is a great report by Andrew Carter.

Everett Dawkins revealed that in this year's strength program:

"this year they are on us about working out.  We did lift last year, but they weren't on us about going in there and lifting weights and not just chilling.  Now you have to go in there and actually have to do stuff."

FSU Strength & Conditioning:  now making sure players do stuff and not just chill.  Bowden needed another year?

Inside, notes on the Noles and FSU's opponents!

Bill at Scalpem has his season prediction out.  I pretty much agree here.  Somewhat shocked he used percentages!

This is an excellent look at Wake Forest by TomRob (who I think also comments here) at Chanrtant.com 

The Clemson experts at ShakinTheSouthland have their season prediction out.  I think the conclusion they reach (8-4, 5-3 in conference) is quite solid.  I have some issues with their predictions in individual games (@ BC being only 5% less likely than Wake Forest and equal to a home game against NCST).  8-3 (5-3) seems right for Clemson.  

BCI takes a look at what the MWC moves could mean for the ACC.

Florida has lost two 4* recruits from its last class.  Could either transfer to Maryland?  This likely means UF's haul is no longer in the "best of all time" discussion.

The 12 ACC writers of the network got together to give our pre-season predictions.  FSU is projected to finish second behind BC in the Atlantic.  Va Tech is picked to win the Coastal.  Ponder is projected as the ACC POTY.  The ACC DPOY is a tossup between a few players.  My picks were FSU, Miami, Ponder, and Allen Bailey. 

Arrington Jenkins, a very talented linebacker with all kinds of grades issues named FSU his "by far leader", with Oregon, Alabama, and Auburn following.  He'll commit during the US Army All-American Game.  FSU wants the kid whether he qualifies or not:

"Yeah I was at the FSU camp. I think I did great. I went there last summer too so I have been there before. I loved everything about the visit. From the campus to the school to the coaches. I talked to coach Fisher, the linebacker coach, pretty much the whole staff. Coach Fisher was asking me what I like about the school and stuff like that. I spent a lot of time with him."

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