stuy119

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Yeah this would suck, though I know its going to happen sooner rather than later. Rumors were talking about Hicks and Jeffcoat committing very soon (some about Hicks committing to Texas and other about his committing to Ohio State). And Brown is not going to retire for probably another 5 years. Why can't they want Greg Davis instead. I do like Tennessee though, and if he goes there hope he has a ton of success. I'm curious as to the staff he would assemble too. Wonder if he would try to take Major Applewhite as the OC or go with someone who has more experience. The latest I've heard is that Muschamp will release a statement today that he's not interested in the job. The source also said he'll be replacing Mack sooner than some thought. Apparently Mack has given Boom more responsibility in recruiting this year and will give him more responsibility in practice for the upcoming season. And yeah, there's a lot of buzz that Hicks will commit to Texas in the next day or so. I'm optimistic about Jeffcoat now that Florida has told him they don't have a scholarship for him. Unless something happens, it looks like it's down to Texas and OU with him visiting OU next week. edited for clarity Some rumors that Hicks and Jeffcoat have been talking about committing to play together, and Jeffcoat did cancel his trip to UF too. That would be phenomenal to get them both. I'm just hoping for one. I thought Jeffcoat committed to UF this past week?

Apparently USF coach Jim Leavitt hit a player (while choking him) during halftime of a game this season. http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2009/12/14/sources-south-floridas-leavitt-struck-player/ Looks like there might be another opening.

There's one big difference between Al Golden and Turner Gill.

Would Louisville be considered? They have had success with the right coaches in football, have the facilities, and have some money. Basketball would be welcome with Pitino at the helm, and it would give a big stage out of conference game with UK every year. Geographically, it works fairly well (almost as well as ND, but further south) and gives the conference a slightly warmer place to have games in November, with the Conference Championship to be played at Soldier Field (I would assume).

I know - I'm pumped. Two major things happened that led us away from Smart (or so a couple of people have told me). First, he wasn't going to be available until mid-January due to UA responsibilities, which wasn't a major issue as long as a deal was in place. Second, the Stoops interview happened. Jimbo was using it as a comparison interview to gauge Kirby against another up-and-coming DC with ties to Florida, and he was blown away. Even better, Stoops was available earlier than Kirby and would be able to recruit harder and get things in place due to less burdens. So we went with Stoops. And it's a great hire.

I like Miami -2.5 against Wisconsin (like the FSU/UW game last year IMO). And WVU will cover 3 against FSU. We won't be able to stop Devine. If there is a prop bet on his yardage, take the over.

From the insiders I know, it's only a handful of people who are being told about it being Smart. FSU is publicly working to show that we have options (releasing the interview schedule for Mike Stoops and Sal Sunseri), and releasing this info to the media as a favor to Saban for his help in getting this deal done behind the scenes. (As a thank you, apparently Fisher was working with the UA staff to help gameplan for the UF game - TIFWIW) Supposedly Saban wants things quiet until the BCS game, and Smart won't be named publicly until that time. I don't know what to believe, but I really think it's Smart, just from the people and the info they've given me in the past. In spite of all the info that is out there, smokescreens or not, they've not once wavered about who the hire would be. The only other thing that raised a few eyebrows is that Sunseri is headed to NC to talk with Christian Lemay in the near future. I'm not sure why UA would send Sunseri if he is to be headed to FSU, who is in a fight to land the services of Lemay in 2011. That pushes me a bit further to the camp of the choice being Smart. And recruiting is heating up. It's almost as if we were waiting to have all the defensive studs start to commit until after the details had been worked out, all leading up to a big announcement. Another fun fact is that Saban and Jimbo are colluding to help tear down UF as much as possible. There will still be head-to-head battles, but each will be working with the other to strengthen the others program as much as they can without harming their own. It certainly can't hurt either team, as long as they don't meet. All of this is just too coincidental.

Red, I've heard that recruits are being told that Smart is all but signed at this point and that was what brought forth the recent handful of commitments, including that of Jeff Luc today.

Kirby Smart is an Alabama boy who played college ball at GA and has degrees at both GA and FSU, so their are strong ties to all parties involved. The only difference between the parties is Nick Saban. Smart has coached under Saban at LSU, with the Miami Dolphins, and now at Bama. At this point the only way I see Smart leaving (and he will at some point) Bama is for his own head coaching job. After the 2010, Smart will be "THE" hot coaching name in college football and will be ready to for his own program. But in the event he does decide to jump to FSU then you guys would be getting a heckuva of DC, but it would be a very short stint, as I think Smart will be a HC by 2011. At this point if FSU is looking more at a long-term option for DC then Sal Sunseri is prolly the guy you should focus on. That's the understanding as well, but Jimbo and Saban are pretty tight and Saban is "helping out" Jimbo on this one (at least that's the inside story). Since Bowden retired and Chuck will be gone, we'll have an extra $1.5MM or so to throw around after Jimbo's raise. The scoop is that we're offering more than Bama (not sure how we managed that one) and Saban won't match. Someone who has ties to Kirby thinks he wants to prove that it's really his defense and not Saban's, and get all the credit for it. We need Kirby, as he's one of the most energetic recruiters out there. Sunseri would be a good fit, but he doesn't recruit as well as Jimbo wants at this point. Chances are we'll be bringing in someone (most rumored is Chris Demarest) to be groomed for the next couple of years under Kirby and then get the DC position.

LOL Jimbo Fisher is one of the most aggressive recruiters/coaches out there, and he's not one to settle for mediocrity. Under his guidance, our offense has steadily risen (86-ish, 54-ish, 27-ish) and is only looking better. He expects the defense to improve as quickly as the offense did. I would expect a good year next year, and us to be a MNC contender in 2011 again. I've heard this story before. Sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't. All I'm saying is it will be interesting to see. Normally I would worry, but I have confidence in Jimbo. This is based upon what I've seen and the info I get from people who are still close with the program. From all reports Jimbo has been running the offensive side of the ball the past couple of years and gets along with Mickey quite well (who wants to work with him). The problem has been Chuck Amato, a long-time Bowden friend and confidant. To appease Chuck, he was given a title higher than Jimbo, thought he was going to be considered for the HC spot, and who is causing massive problems internally trying to subvert Jimbo. While it wasn't widely reported, there were a few times that fights among the coaches broke out this season. And Bobby being Bobby, he wasn't quick to take sides. Needless to say, Chuck will be one of the first guys out the door when Jimbo is officially announced. From what I understand, we're in a good (if not great) position to land a strong candidate as our DC. Right now it looks as though we're pulling the DC from Alabama into the fold (Kirby Smart). If not, there's a chance our fallback would be Sal Sunseri (LB coach at Bama) or Greg Hudson (DC of ECU).

Mythical National Championship. That's all that exists until there is a playoff.

LOL Jimbo Fisher is one of the most aggressive recruiters/coaches out there, and he's not one to settle for mediocrity. Under his guidance, our offense has steadily risen (86-ish, 54-ish, 27-ish) and is only looking better. He expects the defense to improve as quickly as the offense did. I would expect a good year next year, and us to be a MNC contender in 2011 again.

The guy is 80 freaking years old. What if his own accord means coaching until he's 97 years old, blind and in a wheelchair? Should they let him do that because they owe it to him? Eventually, a program needs to do what is best for itself. The program wouldn't be anything with out him. Wait him out. He's been loyal to them for 30 odd years, would it kill them now to be loyal to him for another 5? Actually, waiting that long while the program continues to regress could hurt in a number of ways, not the least of which is financially. Imagine that the losing continues and only 2,000 fewer people attend games because of it. Average ticket price is what, $40? So, $80,000 per game in lost ticket revenue= nearly 500k a year. Over 5 years, that is a loss of 2.5 million dollars in ticket revenue alone, and I'd wager that is a very conservative estimate. What, really does FSU owe Bowden? He made them a National Power. They made him a multi-millionaire. I'd say the sides are even. what your post ignores is that when bowden arrived, the stadium capacity was 40,000 and now it's more than double that; if fsu hadn't had a great coach and instead followed the path of, say, duke or maryland, then they'd still be drawing 40,000 every game and their revenue would be lower by something like $10M per year, or $50M in 5 years. Which is how the situation was playing out. We had a crowd of around 50K for the Maryland game, in spite of many knowing it was Mickey's last home game and potentially Bobby's last home game. Average ticket is $50. Stadium capacity is roughly 85K. Imagine a couple seasons more of this, and you'll see where finances come into play. And that's before looking at some of the Boosters sitting on the sidelines who weren't happy about the direction of the program. We already have a few "new" boosters who are ready to pony up for an indoor facility and a state-of-the-art dorm project shortly after the announcement of Jimbo as HC.

The guy is 80 freaking years old. What if his own accord means coaching until he's 97 years old, blind and in a wheelchair? Should they let him do that because they owe it to him? Eventually, a program needs to do what is best for itself. The program wouldn't be anything with out him. Wait him out. He's been loyal to them for 30 odd years, would it kill them now to be loyal to him for another 5? There's an argument to be made that FSU would have been a national power with or without Bowden. He just happened to be the coach who was there during the period of time when Florida (the entire state) went through a population boom. Let's not forget that if Bama decides not to hold interviews after Ray Perkins left, he's at Bama and they are having these problems. I'm pretty sure that a program like Bama wouldn't put up with this mediocrity either (and, judging by their coaching history after Stallings, they haven't). I'm glad he's gone before he died on the sidelines. I wish he would have left after 1999 or 2000, when he was on top of the world.

There's a lot more behind-the-scenes to this than is being reported. My personal opinion: he needed to go for the good of the program.

It's getting even uglier. Bobby was offered a nice "going-away" package in the $5MM range and including staying for 1 more year (so his last game would be a home game), but Jimbo gets final say over everything including coaches (where he would remove the entire staff on the D side of the ball). The major sticking point is that Andrews wants to retire, and Bowden wants Amato as the DC - when Fisher can't stand Amato, going as far as talking Andrews into coming back this year so that Amato wouldn't be the DC. Bobby said "Nope." Now both sides are hunkering down for battle, knowing that Bobby gets a $1MM check when he leaves, and his contract runs out at the end of this year. FSU and the BoT are leaning towards letting him walk away without any second thought. The question is why are they restricting themselves to Jimbo Fisher? Maybe he could thrive without Bowden (I sort of doubt it) but if Weis survives this year, FSU is easily the best job on the market. With Meyer at Florida and Miami plus USF looking strong getting the right coach is critical. One bad hire and you're looking at potentially a decade or longer of mediocrity. I question the Fisher move, too. If FSU weren't married to Fisher, who do you think they should pursue? I'm not worried about Fisher. While they are proven commodities out there (Brian Kelly, Gary Patterson, etc.), I feel as though we're in good hands. Fisher is an excellent recruiter, a great evaluator of talent, and willing to compile a staff of people who are smarter and more talented than he is (a key). In short, he reminds me of Bobby Bowden in the 80's. And I feel that he's willing to stick around for the long haul at a low price tag (relatively). Some of the names that have been floated for his staff are intruiging, to say the least. From the looks of things, there will be a young, high-energy, aggressive staff on board that has great experience and solid connections within the southeast high schools.

It's getting even uglier. Bobby was offered a nice "going-away" package in the $5MM range and including staying for 1 more year (so his last game would be a home game), but Jimbo gets final say over everything including coaches (where he would remove the entire staff on the D side of the ball). The major sticking point is that Andrews wants to retire, and Bowden wants Amato as the DC - when Fisher can't stand Amato, going as far as talking Andrews into coming back this year so that Amato wouldn't be the DC. Bobby said "Nope." Now both sides are hunkering down for battle, knowing that Bobby gets a $1MM check when he leaves, and his contract runs out at the end of this year. FSU and the BoT are leaning towards letting him walk away without any second thought.

Wow, I can't even begin to tell you guys how messed up the situation at FSU is right now. Changes will be announced later this week (mid-season changes), with others to follow at the end of the year. Including Bowden stepping down, or getting fired/not renewed if he doesn't want to go gracefully. Boosters are slinging mud, Bobby's family is slinging mud, the Board of Trustees is overstepping the President of FSU, etc. Crazy.

After today, I'm thinking the guy they interviewed on GameDay has it right. Don't use the previous weekly rankings, just rate the teams based upon where they are after THIS week and their most recent performances.

Knowing that PSU got pimp-slapped by Iowa again this year probably tempers your enthusiasm, however.

Just shoot me. We were in a bad situation from the get-go today. Playing against an inferior team who has nothing to lose, when the only way we "win" is to blow them out. Now, we're the dog-crap team in Florida. Good decision by the AD to play USF. I'm coming around to the side of "Get rid of Bowden now before he can do more damage to the program. Oh, and while you're at it, just clean house and start over." (Insert giant face palm here)

3/12 is ok, but 3/11 is not. What about Matt Groethe? This one really makes my stomach sick. He's meant so much to the program, to go out before the programs biggest instate game sucks. Don't worry about that. From a few insiders, I've heard that Ponder hasn't been practicing much this week due to a knee injury, and he would be listed as doubtful on an NFL-style injury report. I'm pretty sure he'll play, but don't be surprised to see some EJ. That said, Groethe or not, FSU is going to win.

Edu would have helped out today also.

Leave him off. This is a perfect chance for Feilhaber to play (and shine). I just hope he's in shape enough for the task. In my mind, it's that Bradley only plays over Feilhaber since he's the coaches son.