Nolecast: Florida State football mailbag following Notre Dame

Bud Elliott and Ingram Smith return with another episode of 2018. The Nolecast is the No. 1 Florida State Seminoles podcast.

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Show notes are as follows, roughly in order

Quick ND review

-How much is the bowl streak weighing on this staff? Would their decision making for the future be different?

• Do you buy that the bowl streak is weighing on them? If so, is it the pressure of the bowl streak or the want to achieve practices?
• Certain guys probably would not play much any more. This is highly concentrated on offense.
• But this is hindsight bias. Could they really pack it in for next year after Syracuse? Even we said probably not. A new staff declaring the year shot in Week 3 would be bad.
• They are definitely trying to win. Installing a lot of new stuff each week.

QB decision

• Is Taggart putting too much emphasis on this year?
• Did he really decide it based on who was better in practice? If so, why did Francois say Taggart had said he was the No. 1 on Monday?
• Would James have made a difference against ND? Probably not but Francois did not finish some throws. But he was victimized by drops.
• Does James want to redshirt? Should he?
• Is this bad for leadership? How bad?
• Kells asks: Assuming this was the reason Francois started against Notre Dame, how likely is it that a Blackman redshirt will affect Howell’s recruitment? Couldn’t three more years of eligibility for Blackman cause Sam to look elsewhere? Thanks for telling it like it is, even in a season like this one.

Questions

• Larry asks: Why can’t we throw the ball to Terry?
• Tom: Woodbey likely to stay at his position if FSU gets some better linebackers, and if he is moved to more of a traditional safety role will this year out of position have stunted his development greatly?
• Tom: If reports sound good this coming off season how cautious will you be with your optimism? Will it be all “believe it when I see it”?
• However we keep hearing WT say that we are poor at execution, assignments and tackling. What is that an indication of? Bad coaching, ineffective coaching, bad players, selfish players? What are ways these things can be corrected and are they doing them? If they are doing the needed things to correct but it isn’t working, what does that mean for the program?
• Multiple people: Would missing a bowl help recruiting due to the time?
• Brett asks: Would like your thoughts on the following scenario. Assuming FSU doesn’t go bowling, would you rather Miami finish out 5-7 losing to Va Tech and Pitt and miss a bowl or would you rather Va Tech lose their remaining two games against Miami and UVA and miss a bowl? I think the Miami scenario would be more beneficial to FSU for recruiting purposes given that Richt is in year 3 and Willie in year 1, but it would be nice to shut up Va Tech claiming “ longest active bowl streak” for good. Love the pod! Keep up the good work.
• … let’s discuss Miami and Oregon here for a second
• Josue asks: Watching UGA, Bama, Even uf, I noticed their players were much bigger than ours. I then went to our website to see who is our new Strength and Conditioning Coach - to my surprise - none is listed on the site. Is this an issue? Vic was a train wreck but who’s leading our weight room? Also, is Alonzo Hampton gone after this season or will he be moved to a recruiting role?
• Calvin: Hey guys, love your show! I know all season long there’s been talk about Taggart inheriting a bad team, toxic culture etc, but in Knoxville, Tennessee has a first time head coach, far less talent than fsu (recruiting and development), played harder schedule than fsu, with a roster that was winless in conference a year ago and yet look respectable (especially in their loss to Georgia) this year with big wins vs Auburn and Ranked Kentucky team. What’s going on? Fsu hasn’t come close to looking that competitive vs easier opponents with experienced staff. Both schools adjusting to new schemes. Tennessee had line problems too. How does anyone explain this?
• Ryan: I’m a proud listener of the pod and Louisiana Hot Sauce user here in Pearl, Ms. That means I got to watch Cam Akers destroy my local high school team in the 6A state championship up close and personal. Anyhow, Bud often sums up FSU’s o-line problems by simply saying they’re not good players, something no one tries to dispute. My question is which players have a chance to be good in the coming years? Scott, Baveon, Arnold - who can FSU count on going forward? What about the freshman who haven’t played?
• I have another question that might be best saved for the offseason. I’m just curious how coaches prepare for weekly and post-game pressers. How much prep do coaches do going into pressers? Are coaches winging it or going in with certain talking points? What’s the role of the SID?
• Andy: How many sponsors would you guys need to do a Facebook live broadcast during a game so I could mute the ESPN/NBC announcers? Also would be helpful because I have to watch the game with too many casual fans and I have to constantly explain what’s going on.