Florida State got its first big win in a long time. Actually, it was the first time since 1999 that they had beaten a top 5 team on the road. The victim was Boston College, and if you watched the game, you could some glimmer of hope for the FSU offense, which has been abysmal this year. They were able to move the ball, control the clock, and protect the passer. At one point they had a 13 play drive going and were only at the 50 yard line. Of course, they started at the one, but that is shear clock dominance. Anyways, I’ve been a completely happy camper this year and looking forward to their next game against the formidable opponent…Virginia Tech.

As for my other teams, and basically the entire city of Miami, the outlook hasn’t been so bright. The Dolphins are 0-8, having lost something like 12 straight regular season games. The Miami Heat are still winless this year (0-4) in the regular season, and also lost their 7 preseason games, and if you count last year’s end of the regular season and playoffs, they have lost a combined 17 straight games. So, what do you do as a fan of Miami teams? You basically have to soak in the fact that the Heat won the championship two years ago and continue to say “Wait til Wade gets back.”

The Miami Dolphins are on the verge of being the worst team in the NFL. If I gave you a sheet of paper and asked you to rank them, then you might consider them a pretty good team. However, they are proving to be too old, too slow, and just plain bad. You could argue that they played two pretty good teams to start off the season (Washington and Dallas), but this week they played the Jets, who hadn’t even had a rushing touchdown in their first two games. Well, the Fins decided to give up 31 points to them this week, including a rushing touchdown to their quarterback, who is literally hobbling around due to a bad ankle. As the announcers said, it is hard to think they even have a playoff shot at all right now, and it’s only September.

As for FSU, well, they are supposed to be going through a full re-haul of their offense since the new offensive coordinator is sickened by the first 3 games’ output. He basically said we are going to find players who care about creating results. They had the week off, and play Alabama next week in Jacksonville, so it will be interesting to see if they still have Weatherford as their QB, or if they go with the more athletic QB in Xavier Lee.

Basically, this is starting off as a repeat of last year, although I still have hope for the Noles…call me an optimist.

If FSU hasn’t been tough enough for you over the past few years, then check out what they are doing now:

New FSU strength coach Todd Stroud has brought an NC State tradition to Tallahassee: Friday is fight day.

Each Friday, members of the football team are handed a pair of boxing gloves, protective headgear and a mouthpiece – and then they entertain their teammates by pairing up for two, one-minute rounds of boxing.

“We started doing that probably eight or nine years ago,” Stroud said. “It started out kind of as a joke, and then we saw the benefits and the team-building stuff that was taking place. We use 16-ounce gloves and use headgear and mouth guards, so it’s virtually impossible to get whacked around and get hurt.”

Both the men and women’s basketball teams are officially done for the season. The men lost an Overtime thriller to South Carolina the other night, and the women lost to Stanford. Of course, the women at least made it to the NCAA tournament, whereas the men only made it to the NIT tournament, but that is another issue. Either way, it is now time to focus all that Seminole pride into our baseball team, which is currently ranked #1 in 3 out of 4 baseball polls. Maybe this is the year they can finally win the big one. For more information about the FSU baseball team, head on over to SectionB.com.

Well, I didn’t think FSU was going to make the tourny after their loss to Wake, but I agree that some teams that did make it shouldn’t have. Anyways, if you want to read what the Athletic Director of FSU had to say about it, read the link below.

Dave Hart on the Selection Process, Part 1

Every year, FSU seems to play very well against Duke in basketball. I think they have won at least one of their two games like 4 of the last 5 years or something, but don’t quote me on that. Well, this past weekend they almost did it again, but this time we can blame the refs. FSU lost 97-96 in Overtime. However, it probably wouldn’t have gone to overtime if FSU didn’t lose one of its players due to a horrible technical foul called on our player. The call was so misplaced that the referees of the game have been suspended by the ACC. Either way congrats to the FSU team for a good game.
ACC officials Suspended

Apparantely the stars were aligned this week b/c the number of close games this weekend featuring undefeated teams was phenomenal. Unfortunately, as most of my friends are none too shy to point out, FSU ended up on the losing side of one of these games. Here’s a quick look at the games:

#6 Alabama 13 – Mississippi 10: Alabama kicks the game winning FG with no time left to remain undefeated.

#8 Penn State 25 – Michigan 27: Michigan throws the game winning TD on the last play of the game to give Penn State its first loss.

#1 USC 34 – #9 Notre Dame 31: USC dramatically scores with 1 second left to play to remain undefeated.

#12 UCLA 44 – Wash. St. 41: UCLA scores 17 points in the 4th quarter to send the game into Overtime, where they eventually won to remain undefeated.

#4 FSU 21 – UVA 26: I don’t want to talk about it!

To top everything off, the Fins lost again on Sunday. Not a good weekend in the world of football.

This was by no means a game for the ages, despite the fact that FSU managed to get the Win. The offense was completely inept, and thanks to Miami’s special teams being even more inept, FSU escaped with a much needed victory, despite the fact it is only the first game of the season. A loss here, and who knows what the rest of the season will bring with two red-shirt freshmen battling for the top QB spot. We didn’t get to see much of Xavier Lee, but the one pass he did throw was about 15 yards in the opposite direction of the receiver, so that can’t be a good sign. But in the end, the Defense was our saviour. Sure, they gave up a long 4th quarter drive when they originally had them pinned down at the 3 yard line, but results speak volumes, and the fact that Miami only scored 7 points shows how good this ‘D’ could be and/or already is. Either way, I’m ecstatic about the results, and no more having to listen to Hurricane fans talk trash, now all I will hear is “we should have won”…which may be true, but they’ve gotten enough breaks in the past to warrant this one not going there way. Miami’s head coach Larry Coker summed it best with the following quote:

NCAA removes Seminoles from hostile list

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The NCAA will allow Florida State to use its Seminoles nickname in postseason play, removing the school from a list of colleges with Native American nicknames that were restricted by an NCAA decision earlier this month.

The NCAA said it was recognizing the relationship Florida State has long enjoyed with the Seminole Tribe of Florida, which assists the university with its pageantry and celebration of its culture and supports the school’s use of its name.

“The staff review committee noted the unique relationship between the university and the Seminole Tribe of Florida as a significant factor,” the NCAA said Tuesday. “The decision of a namesake sovereign tribe, regarding when and how its name and imagery can be used, must be respected even when others may not agree.”

Florida State President T.K. Wetherell had threatened to sue the NCAA immediately after its Aug. 5 announcement that the school’s highly visible nickname, “Seminoles,” was defined as “hostile and abusive” by a committee.

The NCAA said it would handle reviews from other schools on a case-by-case basis. The Illinois Fighting Illini, Utah Utes and North Dakota Fighting Sioux are among other prominent school nicknames that remain affected by the edict.

Under the NCAA restrictions, teams with American Indian nicknames would not be able to use them in postseason tournaments.

Not since ‘78 has such a travesty happened to the great state of Florida in regards to college football. Here are some of the headlines:

• “It’s a landslide: Florida teams in the loss column”…Yahoo
• “Saturday was a dark day for football in the Sunshine State.” …ESPN
• “Florida, FSU, Miami share rare losing day.”…TSN
• “0-for-Florida”…CNNSI

As much as I despise some of the other programs in Florida, it is strictly a competitive thing. Actually I just hate UF, but that is another story. If I had it my way, Florida schools would only lose to other Florida schools…thus giving me bragging rights in California. I hate having USC, or any other Pac-10 team for that matter, ranked #1.

p.s. Florida International University also lost, it truly was an 0fer day.