Danger Zone

Even if you ignore the rest of the content in this post, please enjoy the following video, courtesy of 1986. However, I would recommend clicking play on the video, then listening to the music as you read the post. It will make it more of an "experience."



We've been anticipating this Florida State game for some time, and it's unfortunate that so far this season, the Seminoles haven't looked especially good, losing a heartbreaker to Miami on Labor Day 38-34, then narrowly escaping (we're talking "last-minute-touchdown-to-take-the-lead" narrow) a major embarrassment against Jacksonville State later that week. Both games were at home, by the way. Eesh.

Not to excuse their performance, but it was the classic "we're down because we just lost to our rivals and looking ahead to a big game" let-down week. I'm not trying to make any excuses for Florida State, but they're certainly better than they looked last week.

This week, they meet our very own Cougars in LaVell Edwards Stadium, or as I've dubbed it in this post, the Danger Zone. Even though I expect the Cougs to take care of business, the Seminoles are a threat, and they have the weapons to challenge us, if things happen to go their way.

Their most obvious weapon is their quarterback, junior Christian Ponder. He was more impressive in his first game against Miami, but had some good plays against Jacksonville also. He isn't consistent, but the big play potential is definitely there. The buzz is that Florida State's receivers are fast, and I don't doubt that they will find their way behind our secondary a few times, but it's really a toss-up whether they can make the catch, as far as I can tell (especially #80 who had 2 potential game winners bounce off his facemask in the endzone in the Miami game).

If Scott Johnson is still out, they may get a few more opportunities for the long ball. Pressuring Ponder may help us avoid those big gains, and the Seminole offensive line was short of perfection in their first two games. I'd like to see the defense giving different looks to Ponder, and hopefully creating enough confusion among the Florida State offensive line to make him uncomfortable at least.

What worries me a little more than giving up long passes is if Florida State abuses our defense with the short passing game. Their skill players have speed, and can be elusive. I worry that the 2008 defense will show up and our corners that are already ten yards off the line of scrimmage won't be able to make the one-on-one tackle. I don't think it will happen, I'm just afraid that it might happen.

Defensively, as much as I looked for it, I didn't see a lot to worry about. If they don't show improvement in their secondary, Max Hall should put up Heisman-worthy numbers on them. They looked extremely sketchy. My worry, as always with Max, is that they will be able to bring enough pressure to cause Max to turn the ball over. They have athletes, but so far the Florida State defense has not looked as cohesive as a good defense needs to be.

And they do have the second winningest coach in college football in Bobby Bowden. I was going to take a cheap shot with the academic fraud and forfeited wins, but he's apparently a friend of LaVell (and Kenny Loggins), so I'll take the high road. It's hard not to respect a guy who's won enough games to account for about half of all the games played by FBS teams in a season.

Other random things: FSU has missed three PAT's (out of six) in the first two games, which is almost as impressive as kicking off out of bounds three times.

They also pulled a unique play last week in which the offensive line just stayed completely still, except for snapping the ball. Ponder took the ball from the shotgun formation, and the defense was thrown off enough not to get to him before he could air it out... into double coverage and incomplete.

So there it is. I think Florida State has talented, athletic players that have yet to play well together. They aren't bad, and have been good at times. They have the potential to cause us problems. This Saturday, we're going to take it right into the Danger Zone.

And as the vocal virtuoso tells us, "You'll never know what you can do/ Until you get up as high as you can go."