Dotcom's Blog

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ENTRY: 9/23/08: Stop with the Georgia comparisons

Even after the normal 24 to 48 venting period some fans are continuing to have a knee-jerk reaction to Saturday's loss. It was a devastating setback for the program and the offense laid a big fat whopping egg. Nobody is denying that, but some of the negativism and mean-spiritedness towards the players and coaches on the message boards is a bit maddening. And I'm not talking about most fans, just a very vocal minority that feels they need to blast FSU when something doesn't go right or as they expected.

One thing I've noticed this vocal minority has harped on is that FSU's inexperience on offense, which the coaches and some in the media have cited as the primary reason for Saturday's meltdown, is just another excuse. As support for this argument some have pointed to Georgia's inexperienced offense, specifically the line, last year. Despite the youth up front the Bulldogs turned in a stellar 11-2 season in 2007. While that sounds like a reasonable argument on the surface, it really isn't.

As with FSU, Georgia's offense failed in its first real game of 2007. Against a South Carolina team that finished 6-6 (Wake is a much better) the Bulldogs, behind an OL with three freshmen failed to score a single touchdown and lost to Steve Spurrier's bunch 16-12. They then squeaked by Alabama a couple weeks later (26-23) - the same Alabama team FSU beat 21-14 the following week. UGA then got creamed by Tennessee 35-14 a couple weeks later. It wasn't until a win over Florida on October 27th (more than halfway into the season) that the offense actually did something against a quality opponent.

Young players with a lot of talent and good coaching tend to have a steeper learning curve than older players so they may not play well when they first face quality competition but will improve quickly. If FSU's offense is still stumbling and bumbling eight games into the season then there may be some room to complain and question the coaching and/or talent on offense. But after one game? Come on.

There's another big difference between FSU's OL this year and Georgia's last year - the Bulldogs had two seasoned senior OLs to anchor the line and bring the younger guys along. FSU has no such luxury this year - they have two sophomores and three freshmen (and have had a former wide receiver walk-on at tight end). And as the publisher of UGASports.com told me yesterday, they never had a situation (not in 07 or 08) where two freshmen started at both tackle positions - something FSU had versus Wake last Saturday.

And in cased you missed it UGA has a pretty good tailback in Knowshon Moreno. No offense to Antone Smith and company but Moreno is in a different league. There's nobody currently on FSU's roster that can run like him (at least not yet) and does anybody doubt that FSU's running game would be dramatically improved if he were on the roster? I think FSU has some pretty good young running backs on the roster and hopefully they will blossom this season (it's too bad Pressley blew out his knee in preseason practices).

Finally, quarterback Matthew Stafford has been playing extensively since his freshman season and was a veteran by his sophomore season in 2007. On the other hand, Christian Ponder saw one half of football in 2007 and D'Vontrey Richardson got a total of two snaps.

What should be encouraging to Seminole Nation is that a team that was a similar position as FSU with an inexperienced but talented offense started out slowly in 2007 but showed dramatic improvement as the season went on. FSU's situation youth wise is more extreme than UGA's was, and I'm not going even hint that FSU's 2008 season will follow a pattern that Georgia did last year, but to play the blame game and/or give up on what is primarily a bunch of rookies after their first game against a D1-A opponent is beyond absurd.

No matter what anybody else says, my guess is that most of vocal minority will still pounce on every misstep by the football program and will always be looking for someone to blame. While I disagree with the gloom and doom bunch, I do understand their frustration. It's tough to stay patient following the last few seasons of mediocrity. But most people around the program really believe the problems that haunted FSU football the last few years have been identified and the appropriate changes made. Some programs make a quicker turnaround than others. I'm not sure how long it will take for the true turnaround to kick in for FSU but it will happen.

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ENTRY: 9/21/08: King Kool-Aid

I really believe the saying that you are never as good you think after a win and never as bad as you think after a loss.

We learned last night that Florida State isn't as good as we thought they were after their first two wins, but by the same token they probably aren't as bad as they looked against Wake Forest. I don't think there's a big X's and O's analysis to make, last night was simply a case of a young offense soiling its diapers on the big stage. There has been a nice upgrade in playmakers, the offensive line has an outstanding young group that is headed in the right direction, the quarterbacks are more talented and the staff has the players working harder and doing the right things.

We all tend to evaluate a team based on recruiting rankings, strength numbers and 40-times but, and coaches always say it, you can't do anything without executing on offense. Wake has very average talent on offense but their execution is near perfect. FSU has superior talent on offense but their execution last night was horrible, which is most likely a result of having so many young players with very little experience on that side of the ball - especially when they are going up against a defense made up of mostly fifth year seniors.

I know after such a build up for what was supposed to be FSU's breakout game, everybody in Seminole nation is extremely disappointed and some are downright angry. But this is an extremely young offense that will only get better and you have to expect that they will learn from their mistakes and continue to improve at the season goes on. And as much as it's easy knock Wake Forest and say they aren't a legitimate team because they don't have big time recruits on the team, nearly half of that defense could taken in next April's NFL draft (that may be the best defense FSU goes against all season).

Call me King Kool-Aid if you want, but I really think by the end of the season FSU fans will be pretty happy with the product that is on the field.