1. I’m still sick of it – I was sick of hearing about FSU vs. the NCAA months ago. I’m still sick of hearing about it. Florida State has egg on their face. Can we move on now?
2. Money well spent? – We couldn’t have put the legal fees defending this stupidity to a better use?
3. Track National Championship – It’s a shame that it had to be vacated, but in the long run the 12 football wins that were vacated are more meaningful to the general public.
4. FSU Baseball – They only vacated four wins? Who is calculating the totals for Florida State? Do they have a clue?
5. Timing of the announcement – On Super Bowl Sunday. That’s spineless. Smart, but spineless.
6. Who cares? – The future is bright for the Noles. The history books will reflect vacated wins, and in 100 years people won’t really care that much. They might wonder what happened, but they won’t care long enough if college football is still relevant.

Does anyone else have anything to add? I’m so tired of talking about this garbage. Leave a comment if you have something!

ZOC Entry #39 – ColeyBot looked at me at 12:01 AM on National Signing Day and said, “ALL YOUR RECRUITS ARE BELONG TO US!” No more Zero Wing for ColeyBot.

ZOC Entry #40 – I liked the WAR ROOM on NSD. The only thing that would have made it more awesome would have been ACTUAL WAR IN THE ROOM. I’m thinking GLADIATOR STYLE, where WARRIORS wrestled LIVE GATORS to the floor, while impaling an IBIS and slapping around a Tiger or two.

ZOC Entry #48 – NOLES finish with #6 Class in the country. OTHERS WOULD BE PLEASED. Me? I HAVE MORE WORK TO DO. FEAR THE SPEAR, I’m decreasing my alloted sleep time for 2010 / 2011.

ZOC Entry #51 – We have a kid named Bjoern on the team. ‘NUFF SAID SON.

ZOC Entry #58 – I feel sorry for GA that is leaking info to the media. Not because a leak is remotely ok, but because Jimbo said something about sending the “TrickettBot” after the offender. Something about that being worse than firing. This’ll be interesting.

ZOC Entry #68 – I just got a personal phone call from people claiming to be associated with the International Coffee Growers Of The Americas. They said, “We’re not happy with this National Signing Day thing being over Coach Coley. Cuban Coffee consumption is down.” I told them to not worry, after I get my sleep for the year (about 28 minutes and 33 seconds) I’ll be back out there POWERED BY CUBAN COFFEE AND OWNING THE 305 ASAP.

ZOC Entry #72 – I just got a photo of the prototype TrickettBot, if I wasn’t James Coley I’d be scared.

ZOC Entry #73 – Really, I’m not kidding about the TrickettBot.

ZOC Entry #74 – Starting work on new Tweet ideas with the ColeyBot. All it gave was bad ideas… “WE’VE got SPEAR-IT! YES WE DO” “GOLD AND GARNET – DARN IT” “DOAK AIN’T NO JOKE” Upon further research someone implanted an MP3 player looping Meatloaf’s “Paradise By The Dashboard Light.” Removal of offending song and the ColeyBot was back to spec.

—–

You can follow the real Coach Coley on Twitter by clicking here.

Remember this only a silly work of fiction. Think this isn’t funny? Comment. Think it is funny? Comment. And if you’re Offensive Coordinator James Coley, please don’t kill me… I kid because I’m a fan!

Unselfish is not always a good thing and the usually unselfish guards responded.

Two days after Derwin Kitchen obliterated his previous career mark, Luke Loucks followed Kitchen’s lead in scoring 19 points, five better than his prior career high, in leading Florida State to a 71-65 victory over the Miami Hurricanes.

Loucks blistered the nets connecting on 5 of 7 from the floor including 3 of 5 three pointers and added 6 of 8 from the free throw line. In addition the sophomore pulled down five boards and had only one turnover against three assists in 25 minutes of court time.

It was Loucks’ best all around game in his nearly two seasons at FSU.

He did have help however with a lot of guys stepping up as Hamilton said afterwards.

“Chris Singleton, Solomon Alabi, and even Xavier Gibson who gave us tremendous contributions tonight.”

Among those contributions was a dazzling drop step against Randy Johnson along the right baseline ending with a reverse slam dunk for the Dothan, Alabama native in scoring 8 points along with 4 rebounds.

Singleton was the only other Seminole in double digits with 10 points and Alabi added 9 but was very efficient with his shooting connecting on 3 of 4 shots.

Overall it was a very efficient FSU offense that often struggles against Miami’s zone defense. For the game the ‘Noles shot 48% from the floor, 40% (6-15) from the arc, and  despite a handful of misses in the last minutes of the game had good night from the stripe (17-27).

“We missed a few free throws down the stretch making it closer than it needed to be”, Hamilton said. “I thought we were a little tight at the start. But we had periods where we executed very well especially in the second half.”

That was reflected in the lack of turnovers the Seminoles had in the second period with just 2 and finishing with only 11, a big improvement from the 17 per game.

Hamilton avoided the topic as long as he could before Michael Snaer was mentioned. Informed after yesterday’s practice, Snaer got the starting nod over Devidas Dulkys. Hamilton felt the freshman was a little tight to start the game but played with a great deal of energy in scoring 9 points.

Just 3 of 11, Snaer hit a big three pointer out of an FSU timeout to give the ‘Noles a 56-47 lead with 4:50 to play. In the first half though was a highlight reel driving reverse layup that gave the Seminoles a 25-24 lead during an 11-2 FSU run.

“It’s obvious David is pressing and we’re just trying to take the pressure off of him”, added Hamilton.

The Seminoles took a 32-31 lead into the locker room off of nice ball movement got the ball to Loucks’ head fake allowed him to drive into the lane for a floater with three seconds left. It proved to be an important basket as FSU is now 15-1 when leading at the half.

The two teams traded the lead for the first five plus minutes of the second half.

Tied at forty, Ryan Reid dribbled hard down to the left of the lane drawing two defenders to him. A wrap around pass to Alabi resulted in an easy basket giving FSU a 42-40 lead with 12:52 to play.

The Seminoles never trailed again and ran the lead up to 53-43 after Gibson’s spin move on the baseline.

Miami did make it interesting in the last half minute of the game when James Dews (15 points) canned a wide open three from the left wing to pull with four, 67-63. But Loucks swished two from the line and Reid added a layup to put the game out of reach.

Dews added a meaningless basket for the final margin.

Dwayne Collins added 11 points for the ‘Canes (16-7, 2-7).

With the win, Florida State improves to 17-6, 5-4 to stay in contention in a very tightly packed ACC race moving back into fifth place all alone.

The Seminoles will play their next three of four games on the road starting with a trip to Clemson, 70-59 losers to Virginia Tech in Blacksburg. Tipoff is Wednesday at 7 PM and will be televised on ESPN2.

I have Clemson friends that compare the situation to Dabo Swinney. Dabo hadn’t proved anything and neither has Jimbo according to them. There’s no reason to be so optimistic about a guy that hasn’t done anything yet. My brother-in-law, a knowledgeable Georgia fan, didn’t express any excitement over Fisher. Florida fans can’t see past Urban Meyer, and Miami fans will always believe their better off than FSU (and in general they have been). The national media seems to like him so far, and ESPN even went as far as featuring a recruiting day article about him, but there still seems to be a perception that Fisher might not be the guy to lead FSU back to relevancy and eventually prominence. The questions remain about a first year head coach that takes over for the legendary Bobby Bowden, no matter how good he’s been as an offensive coordinator.

I know, I know. Jimbo Fisher hasn’t proven a thing. He hasn’t proven that he can win as a head coach. He hasn’t had the responsibility of a head coach. He hasn’t this, he hasn’t that. It doesn’t matter, because he is doing good things for FSU, NOW. Already, Seminole fans can see the changes. Check your email this morning, you probably have an email from Seminole Boosters complete with a mock up of an FSU jersey featuring your last name. Welcome to the 21st century FSU Football, it’s nice to see you finally. Seminoles.com is buzzing more and more with live video from War Parties and press conference. Players are going to get the tools they need to not only deal with the classroom, but deal with the pressures of the world that has Facebook, Twitter and a blog every three feet. For the first time in years Seminole fans have some hope for a new season. They have a coaching staff that is willing to put in the hours to make a successful program, and they have a modern program that will compete with the best of the best.

When will the underestimating end? After the 2010 season, if the Noles are successful. What defines successful? As a coach, that will change depending on how the season pans out. For a fan like me, I think 8 or 9 wins with the schedule FSU faces and a massive defensive rebuilding project ahead of it is a big success. Playing for the ACC Championship would shoot the moon. Anything more is the wishes of unrealistic fans, not that there is anything wrong with that. I do believe at the end of 2010, the nation won’t be doubting Jimbo Fisher any more. The media will have to write about the new Noles, the SEC-like Noles, the Jimbo Fisher FSU Seminoles. Be ready, nation, the Seminoles of Florida State will be relevant, exciting and fun again in 2010…

… either that or I’m going to have a lot of egg on my face.

My NSD ritual started Tuesday night around 10pm PST. I sat down to my computer and began watching highlight film of our prospects. Not that I hadn’t already seen the film many times before, but I wanted to have that fresh image and impression of the guy’s talents in my mind once he signed (or didn’t sign) with FSU. Watching film and studying a host of commentary from people who know across the internet took me well into the night.

Being an FSU fan on the west coast has its drawbacks. NSD was one of them. Signings started around 5am my time, so needless to say, I pulled my first all-nighter since flying all night to the NC State game in Tally this fall. But come 5am, I was pumped and ready to go. The War Chant was streaming through my headphones, websites following recruiting were open on my laptop, and I was typing away on Twitter.

Then NSD proved to me why only the strong survive. Mack Brown chose Florida. Not a big deal since I doubted he’d sign with us. Then rumors start circling that Corey Lemonier (DE) was leaning toward Auburn. My excitement level was dropping. Then reports that Calvin Smith was going to sign with New Mexico were put out. (NEW MEXICO?!) Excitement level dropped another notch. And to top it all off, Telvin Smith hopped on a Valdosta, GA, radio station and said he was leaning toward signing with the Bulldogs after committing to FSU a few days earlier. What was going on? NSD 2010 was supposed to be bigger and better than Christmas for us Nole fans.

Around 5am PST, the LOIs (Letter of Intent) started rolling in for FSU—Chad Abrams and Jarred Haggins were first. While they were guys we had committed for a while, it was still good to see some action out of FSU. About 20 minutes later, Lamarcus Joyner signed his LOI. Yes, a big fish was in the pond.

At 5:39am PST FSU got its first reason to really celebrate—Dan Foose, the FSU-targeted yet Illinois-committed OL, signed with FSU. Foose was a big grab that went unnoticed by a lot of Noles since 2010’s class was a defense-heavy class. Make no mistake, we’re very excited to have Foose on board.

Over the next few hours, Seminole fans hit highs and lows. Highs as LOIs came in from good guys (Bjoern Werner) and lows as top prospects went elsewhere (Demar Dorsey). But in the end, Florida State pulled in the #6 recruiting class (per ESPN). Quite a feat considering FSU is coming off a 7–6 season, a complete coaching overhaul, and an offseason with as few as 2-3 coaches recruiting at certain times.

Overall I took away a few thoughts about this year’s class:

1. Jimbo Fisher likes to finish fast. The last few months have been a whirlwind of recruiting trips and commitments. Part of that is attributed to his recent ascension to the top of the program; part of it is attributed to his assistant James Coley.

2. Coach Coley is not human. At least, the James Coley that flies through area codes, snags commitments from top guys, and downs more Cuban Coffee than Fidel Castro. (NoleCC has a great theory about Coach Coley’s superhuman-ness.)

3. Our defense is on the path to recovery. Notice I didn’t state that our defense was fixed yet. Just as healing a broken bone takes time, healing a broken team will take time. Many Seminole fans don’t realize how bad our defense really was. This was more than a one-year issue. It’s a problem that has been getting worse year after year.

4. That being said, we did very well at the LB position on NSD. Grabbing Luc, Jones, Terrell, TSmith, and Onwukaife was key. Our LB squad has been very thin lately and we needed to add some top guys to the spots, which we did. I expect a lot of hard hits in 2010 from our LBs. Get the highlight reels ready.

5. One piece of our defensive rebuild that still needs help is our defensive line. We did pick up 5 DL guys (who will definitely help) but missed out on some top defensive ends whom we had wanted. Overall, the improvement of the DL is going to come down to coaches Eliot and Haggins. Spring game will give us a taste of how well they are doing at rebuilding our DL.

NSD had its ups and downs, but overall FSU came out looking good. We’ve got some good guys in the system; now let’s see how our new coaches build the team.

Time was short and Maryland made five of six free throws in those remaining seconds to defeat Florida State 71-67 dropping the Seminoles to 4-4 in conference play.

A Florida State turnover led to a two on none breakaway and what looked like a sure two points that would have put Maryland up 68-64. But Singleton came from nowhere racing at least 75 feet to block Bowie’s shot from behind keeping the ‘Noles within two and with just over a minute to play.

Forced to foul after Snaer’s charge, his fifth foul of the game, Greivis Vasquez sank tow freebies.

Kitchen was allowed an uncontested lay up and Sean Mosley was fouled immediately on the inbound pass. Mosley however made only one of two to make it a 69-66 game with eight seconds left.

Gary Williams had his team foul Singleton with two seconds left, a wise strategy considering Singleton’s free throw percentage. Singleton made the first of his two free throws while intentionally missing his second in an attempt to get the rebound, score, and tie the game. But Singleton missed the rim altogether turning the ball over to Maryland.

Vasquez made sure there would be no game tying basket by getting the final two points at the stripe.

It was a career night for Derwin Kitchen who scored 29 points on 12 of 16 from the floor. That however was little consolation to the junior guard.

It didn’t help that Kitchen got little offensive support with Solomon the only other Seminole in double figures with 12 points.

Overall the team shot poorly against the third best defense in the ACC in field goal defense percentage. As a team the ‘Noles were just 38% with three of the nine Seminoles who played not scoring at all.

Singleton was just 1 of 7 for only 5 points.

“It was just one of those games where we did not shoot well”, Leonard Hamilton said afterwards. “We got good looks but could not find the basket.”

“You could see the frustration set it and that affected our shots.”

Noticeable in his absence in the scoring ledger was Devidas Dulkys who was 0-7 and now scoreless in his last two games.

“Give Maryland credit, we got beat by a team that executed better than us”. Hamilton commented. “They were a little more mature.”

“We didn’t play poorly overall. We just had stretches where we didn’t make good decisions. We would shoot the ball on the first pass. Not necessarily a bad shot. But we didn’t give Maryland a chance to make a mistake on defense. “

The Seminoles took a 29-25 lead into the locker room.

The Terrapins however came out determined to take control of the game. The four point margin quickly disappeared as the Terps went on a 7-0 run to take a 32-29 lead causing Hamilton to call a timeout.

While Kitchen came out of the timeout to nail a three and tie the score, FSU could never gain a lead on Maryland.

The Terrapins stretched out a 60-52 lead with 5:52 left after Eric Hayes’ backdoor lay up. But the Seminoles went on a 7-0 run that included highlight reel slam dunks by Snaer and Singleton both off steals at the other end.

FSU could not get the defensive stops when needed however. Landon Milborne crashed in between two Seminoles to grab an offensive rebound. Fouled on the play Milborne, made both free throws.

Even after Kitchen tied it at 62 with his third three pointer of the game the Seminoles could not stop the Terps setting up the costly turnover by Snaer.

Commenting on the foul, Hamilton would only say “We put ourselves in a position where the calls at the end hurt us.”

Florida State has little time to dwell on one that got away as the ‘Noles will host the16-6, 2-6 Miami Hurricanes on Saturday at 8:00 PM.

9/4 – FSU vs. Samford

9/11 – FSU @ Oklahoma

9/18 – FSU vs. BYU

9/25 – FSU vs. Wake Forest

10/2 – FSU @ Virginia

10/9 – FSU @ Miami

10/16 – FSU vs. Boston College

10/23 – BYE

10/28 – FSU @ N.C. State

11/6 – FSU vs. UNC

11/13 – FSU vs. Clemson

11/20 – FSU @ Maryland

11/27 – FSU vs. Florida

Download the .pdf Helmet Schedule at TheACC.com.

Interesting NSD facts I learned yesterday:

• The peak of the day was at 8am, mostly because Seminole fans were slightly overconfident. It was unrealistic to think the Noles would get EVERYONE.
• The drop off at 9am was either due to everyone getting coffee, or because the start of the day confidence tanked a little bit when some “maybe” recruits didn’t go to the Noles. I’m going to blame most of it on the coffee.
• This very unscientific study never broke the 80% threshold again, however in this grading system I still think that’s an A for the recruiting class. In reality it could be a D too, since we don’t know the actual results of today’s test until 4-5 years from now.
• The peak at 1 o’clock was the residual effect of Telvin Smith committing to the Seminoles for the 143rd time. (Just kidding Telvin, thanks for coming to FSU).
• Best Twitter quote of the day from @InTheBleachers “if Coley got any laser vision he would be absolutely killing all things in his path.”
• Tomahawk Nation was all over the recruiting. Sure others tried (not me, I concede it every year), and I think the Orlando Sentinel blogging system was in overdrive thanks to Andrew Carter posting stuff every 5 minutes, but TN had up front info early in the day and laid things out nicely.
• Although the Noles did not pick up a polish kicker on NSD, they did manage to get a German Offensive / Defensive Lineman. Named Bjoern. That makes me happy on so many levels.
• The Bird Is The Word.

As we head towards the season opener for FSU Softball on February 11th I wanted to make a few of points:

• Women’s softball is slowly gaining some popularity. ESPN (linked above) actually has a preview of the Top 20 teams this year (FSU comes in at #15). I’m not THAT crazy for being a fan. If you’re a baseball purist, watch some softball it’s like a throwback to the days before roids and gorillaball.
• Get out to a game if you can spare a couple of hours. It’s a lot of fun and it’s free and don’t forget to take the kids.
• Click that link at the top of sidebar and join one of the independent sport clubs at FSU. $50 helps those teams a lot.

1. Check Tomahawk Nation (best recruiting coverage) and Seminoles.com (official site).
2. If it’s too “loud” at TN for you, come back here and comment with our writers.

Seriously, I’ll update as the day progresses and I’m sure there will be some chatter in here for the ScalpEm.com writers, but I’m not going to claim we’re going to hold a candle to the rest of the coverage out there for National Signing Day. And by “loud” at TN, I just mean they’re going to have a lot of comments and quickly, so it might be hard to get a point across. Think of ScalpEm.com as a spillover spot today for one of the most chaotic days in college football!

Officially listed by Florida State University:

• Jeff Luc (Treasure Coast HS)
• Anthony McCloud (Thomas County HS)
• Debrale Smiley (Thomas County HS)
• Clint Trickett (North Florida Christian HS)
• Jarred Haggins (Lakeland HS)
• Chad Abram (Kathleen HS)
• Dan Foose (Paramus Catholic HS)
• Greg Dent  (Glades Central HS)
• Will Tye (Salisbury School)
• De’Joshua Johnson (Pahokee HS)
• Holmes Onwukaife (Cedar Park HS)
• Terrence Brooks (Dunnellon HS)
• Cameron Erving (Colquitt County HS)
• Darious Cummings (Astronaut HS)
• Lamarcus Joyner (St. Thomas Aquinas HS)
• Damien Jacobs (H.L Bourgeois HS)
• Mike Harris (El Camino CC)
• Kenny Shaw (DR Philips HS)
• Bjoern Werner (Salisbury School)
• Tank Sessions (Columbia HS)
• Telvin Smith (Lowndes County HS)
• Christian Jones (Lake Howell HS)
• Christian Green
• Nigel Terrell