Good Morning and Go Noles!  Here's the news that will probably interest you:

First up is Boston College losing their quarterback.  As you learned yesterday, he was suspended for academics and has decided to transfer.  Domonique Davis christens BC's great quarterback adventure - Dr. Saturday (some background on the situation), and here's some VIDEO on the possible replacements: Eagle in Atlanta -- : Before they were Eagles: Boek and Tuggle addition  Boek apparently leads.  

More football now, as we have Phil Steele's Offensive Line Experience Chart-- FSU ranks 22nd Nationally (close 3rd in ACC to VT), w/ 89 Combined Starts  That represents a huge change from last season, when we had 21, making us one of the three least experienced offensive lines in the country.

In baseball news, Arkansas Razorbacks Names To Watch · ScalpEm.com and then Steve Ellis of the Tallahassee Democrat asks: Who would you pick for am All-Mike Martin Era Team  Steve also chats with Mike about the upcoming Arkansas series.

Back to football, with two non-FSU items.  First, Chantrant catches up with North Alabama, a new football program that might have as many as 6 ex-FSU players on its roster, including Preston Parker and Will Furlong.

Also, remember the piece on scheduling?  I wrote:

Another message here is to avoid 1-AA teams.  Voters seem to be averse to those who play the lower division schools.  The key is to shell out the extra $300K payment that it takes to secure a garbage 1A school over a 1AA school.  There's a good chance that the 1A school is actually worse than the 1AA school, and the name recognition value it totally worth it. 

Well now we find this article UGA to pay nearly $1 million to play lesser Division I-A opponent | ajc.com

General Athletics administration:  Section Six: The Columbus Dispatch: Secrecy 101  The Family Eductational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) Not a FUPA, mind you, which was created to protect the privacy of students' academic records, has come to be interpreted broadly and inconsistently by the NCAA's various member institutions. Here's a scoreboard of how every D1 team did (FSU did quite well).

And once again, remember to listen to the great interview at Garnet and Great with FSU legend James Colzie.

We have some great stuff in the works for the coming weeks, with the ulitmate goal of getting you totally prepped for what should be an awesome season of Seminole Football.

Rivalry stuff:  ScalpEm.com Reader Mailbag (Sorta) Volume 1 · ScalpEm.com  Saclpem answers the question:  Nole CC, off subject but would you agree that Gator Envy is out of control? Warchant is flooded with threads hoping they lose the WCWS and last weekend praying Miami would beat their baseball team. I wish we could focus on our team, on a Seminole site, all those threads just make Seminole Nation as a whole look bad. Just my 2 cents.  Get over there and let him know your thoughts.  He makes sone quality points.  

Allow me to preface this by saying that Heather has a difficult job in covering all 12 ACC teams.  I believe that ESPN's blogger format sets her up for failure, such that much of the content on her blog is already known to the diehard fans who would read a college football blog.  She's simply stretched too thin.  While we've criticized her work in the past, she recently wrote a (mostly) accurate article on the Noles.  Plenty of reasons for FSU to contend in '09 - ACC - ESPN  Let's take a look (Inside).....

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• First up, Bert Reed turned 21 yesterday.  If you see him around campus (and I hope some of you are watching Ponder, Manuel, and the wideouts throw in the afternoon!), wish him a happy Belated. 
  
• Last night via Facebook:  Corey Surrency:  "missing my team y'all boys hold it down for me and I will do the same for y'all its time for me to get to the money....NFL...pray for me..."  I'll keep him in mine.  If you pray, do the same in yours.  
• One guy on our official TomahawkNation.com FACEBOOK Page didn't like us discussing UF's legal troubles.  Since he had been repeatedly rude over the last week, I decided to examine his argument. 
• FSU baseball got the Super Regional!  Go to the games!  
• A tip of the cap to Warchant.com.  I was writing a piece on WR Jarmon Fortson, and Gene Williams wrote a quality piece on the guy.  It's definitely worth a look.  Gene and I have had our differences, but I'll give credit where it's due.  I'm not blowing smoke when I say that Jarmon is the closest thing to Terrell Owens I've seen.  Their on-field mannerisms and movements are exactly the same.  From the way they catch the ball, to their hop into the end zone, to their similar build: 
  
  
• Before BYU's offensive coordinator hit the big time, he was the offensive line coach under Mike Leach, the offensive genius.  He also wrote about his pass protection beliefs:  "I believe the first fundamental of pass protection is to stay between the defender and the quarterback. As you leverage yourself between the defense and the quarterback the next step is to offer enough resistance to form a pocket. Centers and guards keep the pocket tight to the line of scrimmage. Tackles keep the pocket wide to the quarterback. Pad level and a powerful punch are the tools used to offer resistance to the defense. In the course of doing this, there are occasions in which you need to switch guys. It is our approach that all first level guys that twist should be switched-off. When picking up the twist, you use the same fundamentals you would if you were blocking individually up until that point where you bump hips, then simply switch guys and continue to protect. The basic idea of picking up the twist is that you have to set the drive guy first. Once you have set the drive guy, the freedup lineman needs to trap his helmet into the drive guy. This force alerts the lineman next to him that he needs to switch. There are basically three types of twists. Two-man, three-man and four-man twists. Everyday, we work on picking up the twists during individual period. We later go on to pass rush with the defensive line and work on picking up the twist also. We view picking up the twists as fundamental as pass blocking an individual rusher. If you are to be successful in picking up the twists, you must devote practice time."  This is now in our scouting report page!
• Recruiting Note:  I was informed that FSU commit Chad Abrams was offered by Alabama.  Nick Saban is an excellent evaluator of defensive back talent and this makes me very happy.  During the nepotism era, FSU rarely beat the recruiting services to a kid, but rather waited until rivals had finished their rankings before they offered.  They were even "rumored" to use the rivals.com rankings as their guide, and were also rumored to have relied on highlight tapes rather than game film to make their evlaution.  Want to know a major change Jimbo brought?  Our coaches now could legitimately be called movie buffs.  The amount of film they watch is a credit to their improved work ethic.  When Abrams was initially offered by FSU(video in link), he was a complete unknown to all the major services.  Now, ESPN loves this kid (see link in his name), as does Alabama and I assume rivals will soon follow suit.  Chantrant had a solid interview with his coach sometime back.  When Miami made their run to the top under Butch Davis, they didn't land all 5* recruits.  Obviously the 5*'s are the best on average, but they are not guaranteed, and the difference between an elite recruiting class and a good one can be one or two 4* types who the coaches correctly evaluate and know will blossom into a star. 
  
• Steve Ellis of the Democrat updates us on the NCAA process.  Today's the extended deadline for the NCAA Committee on Infractions' response to FSU's appeal of sanctions. Upon receipt, FSU has 15 days to file a rebuttal. The university has already requested a hearing before the NCAA Infraction Appeals Committee. This garbage could stretch into the fall and we allegedly would not be in this mess had T.K. not had a vendetta against Dave Hart.  Meanwhile, Andrew Carter provides some clarification on the matter:  The COI isn't responding to FSU today, but rather to the NCAA's Division I Infractions Appeals Committee, which is the ruling body that has the ultimate say on FSU's appeal.
• Scalpem, the newlywed that he is, has a very in-depth breakdown of the 2010 softball team.  I read it with interest.    

Today on our official TomahawkNation.com FACEBOOK Page, someone had some negative feedback on our coverage of the legal troubles of our rivals, specifically the Florida Gators.  [He] wrote:

Matt, as a new reader, I think you should be able to find plenty of interesting commentary here on the Noles.  Let me help you out.

You could start with our two part series on FSU's defense being woefully undersized (part one) and our analysis showing that they weren't that good last year (part two), despite what the facial numbers would indicate, particularly when you remove sacks from run defense, since they aren't running plays. Maybe you are interested in an article examining whether the 'Noles scheduling tactics produce too difficult a slate.  Did you miss our report that Quarterback E.J. Manuel is back at full strength?  How about our piece on FSU's renewed recruiting emphasis in South Georgia?  Maybe you enjoy learning how FSU has benefited and suffered from fumble luck, or even learning that fumble recovery is luck and not skill.  If you're a basketball fan, you should read TrueCubbie's latest piece on Toney Douglas' draft prospects.  Want to get ready for next year?  Peruse all the information we're collecting on next year's opponents, as we scout the 2009 football schedule!  How about a unique method of predicting FSU's season prospects?  Were you in Orlando for Jimbo Fisher's address to the boosters?  If not, check out a fine recap from some of the valued members of our community.  Just two weeks ago we broke down where 15 national media outlets would rank FSU to start the season.  Don't miss the Wednesday Open Recruiting Threads where we break down the 'Noles honest chances at top recruits without obnoxious teasers or the need to mislead our readers and sell subscriptions.  Want in-depth analysis on baseball?  We partnered with baseball experts who are routinely employed by major league baseball to break down Mike Martin's ill-advised fondness of the sacrifice bunt, and backed it up with situation specific data.  Do you have really high expectations for this year's FSU team?  Might want to consider what elite recruits are still here from the Nepotism Era (That's what we call the period when Bobby almost destroyed our program).  Maybe you could read our followup to the Daniel Hood saga, a story we broke almost a year ago and reported that FSU was backing off the recruitment of the convicted sex offender.  Oh wait, you don't want to read that. 

Why did I select those articles?  Because that's what we pumped out in May, to say nothing of finding only the best links to other quality content and extended daily discussion in our comment section that message board guys could only dream of.  And May might be our slowest month, as our four main writers tackled finals in Law, Medical school.  We were pretty busy and still cranked our more content than any other site covering the Noles.

We're bragging here, but what other outlet comes close to providing the kind of in-depth coverage you find at our site?  I enjoy and respect all the 'Nole sites, and every media outlet has their place, but what kind of content are you looking for?  Maybe some pay-site that has a 500 word game preview listing the keys as "limit turnovers" and "outscore the opponent" is more up your alley.

Additionally, much of the value on our site comes from the quality discussion had in the comment sections, which are well organized and conducive to extended thoughts on the articles.  Our unique, instantly updating software and tiered response interface allows our users to respond to each other in real time, in a clear manner, as opposed to a message board type format where you might need to scroll back three or four pages just to understand what some moron is referring to.  Can you imagine message board thread handling 700 comments like we routinely generate for a basketball game live-thread?  Neither can I.  I know the rivals system would crash if that was attempted.

So, dissatisfied reader, you can peruse our library of over 300 articles, or you could complain about one article you didn't enjoy.

I do appreciate the feedback, but we will not stop covering the transgressions of other teams. Recruiting is the lifeblood of any team and for whatever reason, UF's 24 arrests over four years under Urban Meyer don't get near the coverage that FSU's few have. If the media doesn't report it, recruits don't hear about the dark side of UF, and if they don't hear about the chink's in the Gator's armor , they'll believe whatever Urban Meyer tells them.

UF's first major crime wave happened in the mid 1980's, before the national media cared about college football, and long before the advent of the internet.  FSU's transgressions in the 90's came as the spotlight on college football was increasing, and thus FSU developed more of a bad boy image, ditto Miami. ... .

Largely because of that timing issue, UF lacks that lawless image and most are not reporting the criminal activities of the Gators.  Meyer is very media friendly and holds wide open practices.  The media access is nearly unlimited.  As such, the writers covering the team are very reluctant to criticize UF, for fear of being denied access to one of the top programs in the nation.

FSU on the other hand, like Alabama, stonewalls reporters.  It's part of the Parcells-Belichek-Saban-Fisher coaching tree. There's a tactical advantage in keeping football information in-house, but it also fosters a media bias by writers who are routinely denied access to even the most mundane of team functions.

Remember too that this is a rivalry.  A lot of 'Noles have to work with Gators who run their mouth all day. The next time one of them mentions the arrest of a Seminole wide receiver, that 'Nole will fire back with "24 arrests in 4 years", or "hey, I need an assault rifle, can you call one of your football players?"

And finally, there's not much going on right now with FSU. We're in a relative quiet period. The players are doing voluntary conditioning drills, and the coaches are evaluating recruits.  I guess we could an article discussing the team's offseason activities.  But instead, I'm going to give you an opportunity to do it.  Just fill in the blanks:

Today I spoke with FSU strength coach Todd Stroud.  [Need picture of coach in shorts and T-shirt here, people like pictures, because they have to read less].  The 'Noles began their off season program last week. 

Stroud said the training this year is far better than last year and that their preparation last year is [need  a phrase that means "a lot better"] than last year's.

Stroud was proud of the team, but stressed the need for continued [either improvement or dedication works here]. 

A few players really caught Stroud's eye.  One in particular was [superstar who everyone already knows about or a freshman who has no real shot to play this year].  Stoud said [remember to pick the same guy here to stay consistent] showed great [leadership if it's the superstar, determination if it's the young kid] out there and is really leading by example. 

Another Seminole who is really impressing is [superstar who everyone already knows about or freshman who has no real shot to play this year].  Stoud said [remember to pick the same guy here to stay consistent] showed great [leadership if it's the superstar, determination if it's the young kid] out there and will be counted on this year. 

[Skill position player] ran a [obviously fabricated 40-yard dash time] and looks really fast.

Stroud said a few kids are unable to participate in off-season drills due to lingering injury, including [whoever is still recovering from off-season surgery, so pick McMahon, Spurlock, or Watson], but that his rehab is going well.

But that's not our game.  We'll leave that to some other folks.

Best wishes,

Bud Elliott
Editor in Chief, TomahawkNation.com

Some would call Janoris Jenkins electric.  After a weekend fight with the cops and subsequent tazing, they'd be right.

Over the weekend, University of Florida Gator cornerback Janoris Jenkins became the 24th university of Florida football player to be arrested under Urban Meyer's watch.  It is the 6th Gator arrest in a year.  

Jenkins was apparently fighting with some other citizens in Gainesville at 2AM when the cops showed up.  They told Jenkins to stop, and he then proceeded to punch another man.  Police then proceeded to taze Jenkins, who then fled the scene, despite officers yelling at him to stop running.  He was apprehended a few blocks away from the scene.  

Some might remember another Gator being Tazered (sp?)... 

As David Hyde reports, the national media isn't covering the Gator's lawlessness.  

Florida players have beaten women, stolen credit cards from a dead teammate's girlfriend, and been involved with assault rifles and drugs. Yet nobody on ESPN is so much as reporting this. Nobody at Sports Illustrated is saying the Florida team picture should be taken from the front and the side.

Meyer has drawn some criticism before.  South Carolina fans will remember the 2006 game in the swamp in which Jarvis Moss blocked their game tying extra point.  Moss was suspended for drugs for the game against 1-AA cupcake Western Carolina, but allowed to play against the Gamecocks.  Meyer did the same thing with defensive tackle Marcus Thomas against Tennessee.  UF won the National Championship.  Last year, troubled defensive tackle Torrey Davis played in the national championship game after having questionable qualifications, both legal and academic.  Running back Chris Rainey openly acknowledged taking $100 handshakes from boosters, then later said he was misquoted (despite audio evidence available for all to hear).

But there's still more (with an average of 6 arrests per year under Meyer, there has to be more)

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As regular readers know, TomahawkNation.com is obsessed with scheduling.  We find it fascinating how teams can run materially different races and yet one can be crowned the winner over another at the end of the season.  Often, evaluators turn to conference affiliations when judging a team, and that's why non-conference games are so important.  With less than 100 days left until the start of college football season, Tomahawk Nation decided to take a look at the non-conference games that will shape the college football landscape in 2009. 

As a general rule, the non-conference games that matter most to a conference's reputation are those in the first two weeks before the conference seasons begin, and those played during bowl season.  The reason is simple: there aren't any conference battles going on and the games easily draw the attention of the media.

Last year the ACC took a big early hit after Alabama thumped Clemson, East Carolina upset Virginia Tech, and Maryland lost to Middle Tennessee State.  It was such a bad opening weekend that much of the rest of the country stopped following ACC football, but the ACC was easily the best conference when they played the teams from the big 6 conferences.  Examine:

The ACC played the most games against the other BCS conferences, and their opponents had the best winning percentages (meaning they played the good teams from the big conferences), yet the ACC had the 2nd best winning percentage against those squads.

Just as you wouldn't judge a conference on one bad weekend in november, it's equally stupid to render a final verdict as to a conference's strength based off the opening week.

Last August 28th, in yet another early season loss, South Carolina scored a huge blow for the SEC against the ACC, on national television.  After a first half that saw 5 punts, two fumbles, three interceptions, and one missed field goal, South Carolina led 3-0 in Williams-Bryce Stadium (South Carolina).  This was one of the ugliest football games I have ever seen.    NCST Quarterback Russell Willson got knocked out cold

After that, it was all South Carolina, as the Gamecocks went up 13-0 to start the final quarter and Spurrier ran the score up to appease the alumni.  Final:  38-0, Gamecocks.

But that might be different this year...

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After a hard fought battle with the Georgia Bulldogs, Ohio State had nothing left.  They started Jared Strayer, a seldom used reliever who had only thrown 5 innings in conference play.  He never recorded an out.  The Noles chased him in the first inning, scoring seven runs on 4 hits, two walks, and a HBP.  The subsequent relief pitchers offered nothing of the sort, as FSU pounded Ohio State 37-6.  The Buckeyes used seven pitchers in the contest, and FSU amassed 47 baserunners (37 hits, 7 walks, 3 HBP).  FSU led 32-0 in the 5th inning when the Seminole manager Mike Martin got together with the Ohio State manager and the home plate umpire, to suggest that the game be shortened to 7 innings.  Ohio State agreed, but the request was apparently denied by the NCAA.  FSU called off the dogs after the 5th, sending their bullpen to the plate, but even those guys put 5 additional runs on the board in the final 4 innings, setting an NCAA playoff record for runs at 37, breaking the old record of 35 held by Miami (Fl).  The 'Noles 15 doubles were also an NCAA record. 

Florida State had more than a Mile of baserunning.

FSU finished the Tallahassee Regional averaging more than 17 runs over the three game set.  The 'Noles are now off to the super regional, the destination of which is yet to be determined.

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After playing into the wee hours of the morning on Friday, many wondered whether the 'Noles would have the energy to play with the Georgia Bulldogs, who were off a full night of sleep after beating Ohio State in the early Friday game.  But the Florida State capacity crowd at Dick Howser stadium wouldn't let the Noles sleepwalk through this NCAA Tournament game, as the Noles scolded the Dawgs, 8-2

Freshman Sensation Sean Gilmartin set the tone early, as he was perfect through his first 3 inning on the mound.  The 'Noles staked him to an early 4-0 lead after the 2nd inning.  Gilmartin ran into a bit of trouble in the 4th inning, giving up a towering home run to Georgia 1st baseman Rich Poythress, but Gilmartin settled down and kept cruising.  

The cool lefty with the delivery reminiscent of a young Tom Glavine never beat himself, establishing 1st pitch strikes to 22 of the 33 Georgia batters he faced.  Gilmartin only allowed 5 hits in total, walking none, and striking out 6.  

Gilmartin improved his ERA to an impressive 3.35.

The 'Noles defense, a bugaboo for much of the season reared its ugly head once again, with two errors and a general lack of range.  Gilmartin had amazing poise and swag to fight through the suspect cast behind him as he continued to pepper the strike zone with his high 80's fastball, and pinpoint changeup, mixing in an almost unhittable curveball. 

Georgia's starter, however, was almost the exact opposite.  The Noles forced Trevor Holder to throw over 70 pitches in the first three innings, plating for 4 runs.  The senior would settle down, retiring 7 in a row at one point during the middle innings, but he could only last 7 innings, allowing 12 baserunners and 5 earned runs in total.  Reliever Will Harvil offered anything but, allowing 4 baserunners in two thirds of an inning, as the Noles plated 4 runs in the 8th inning, three on FSU 2nd baseman Jason Stidham's bases clearing triple.

The 'Noles are now 2-0 and will play the winner of the Ohio State- Georgia game (noon), later in the afternoon.

More photos » by Phil Coale - ASSOCIATED PRESS

Chattanooga quarterback Tony Pastore talks on the phone to the coaches during an NCAA college football. (AP Photo/Phil Coale)

Browse more photos »

Yesterday in a discussion about scheduling, TomahawkNation.com member Fsujab and I had a discussion over whether an aggressive non-conference schedule is worth the risk.

My theory is that teams should play the weakest possible non-conference schedule, because it is the pre-season rankings combined with a 0 or 1 loss season that gets a team to the National Championship.  Additionally, playing cupcakes allows teams to rest their starters, leaving them less exposed to injury.  Further, playing bad non-conference teams forces the national championship contender to have a greater focus on the conference games, which could potentially be overlooked when balanced with a difficult non-conference schedule. 

I decided to take a look at the past 14 BCS National Championship Game Participants and examine their non-conference schedules...

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Computer malfunction last night means a short list of links today.

Added to the scouting report http://www.philsteele.com/online/2009Top40/28GEORGIATECH.pdf  (Phil Steele is great)

Georgia Tech will become what is believed to be the first college to outsource its ticket operations for  football and men's basketball, the Sports Business Journal's John Lombardo and Michael Smith report.

and this...

http://www2.tbo.com/content/2009/may/27/270012/sp-show-them-the-money/sports-colleges-gators/

The ACC gets the nod as the highest-paying conference among offensive coordinators, thanks to Florida State's Jimbo Fisher earning a hefty $630,375 salary as FSU's offensive coordinator/head coach-in-waiting.

Although FSU's Bobby Bowden makes about $1 million a year less than Meyer, Bowden is still the ACC's highest-paid head coach. Also, FSU has the distinction of being the nation's only school with four assistants - Fisher, defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews, linebackers coach Chuck Amato and offensive line coach Rick Trickett - making more than $300,000.

Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples with an excellent piece on why making the coaches poll anonymous is a ridiculous idea: 

The AFCA decided to keep the final regular-season coaches' poll ballots secret.  The change, which was unanimously passed by the 16-member board, starts in '10.  If coaches don't want to be held accountable, they shouldn't be part of the process

More to come.