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FSU Football Fans ... Back Off The Ledge, It's Just One Game (And The Noles Won) · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Here we go, third hour, Monday, final day of the
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: month of August. Hopefully cool weather's coming. It's the morning
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: show with Preston Scott. Grant Allen running the radio program
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: for us today, tomorrow, and Wednesday. We'll be off Thursday
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: and Friday and Monday. But now, we're here to help.
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Joining us, the managing editor of Warchant.com, the one, the only,
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Ira Sheffel.
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: Good morning. Good morning, Ira.
• 0:35
  Speaker 3: Good morning, Preston. How are you?
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I'm doing just fine. I was at the game, too.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: But I got to tell you, the reaction that I
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: am seeing on the Warchant.com social media outlets, I mean,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: the Fox News, how a 4-8 team almost blew out
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Florida State.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: I mean, my goodness.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Are you surprised by what you're seeing and hearing?
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: I think it's, to me, it's a lot of it
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: is just leftover angst and frustration over the last two seasons.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: You know, I think if this was in a bubble,
• 1:13
  Speaker 3: I don't think it was like a terrible performance. I
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: think it's just after what we've seen the last two years,
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: people were, you know, hoping at some point FSU's going
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: to break out of that funk. And there were some
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: positive signs in that game. I think we could talk about,
• 1:26
  Speaker 3: but there were enough negatives that I think make people
• 1:29
  Speaker 3: feel like, oh, here we go again. This team is
• 1:31
  Speaker 3: just going to be more of the same.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: So now that you've had a chance to think back
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: through Saturday's game, maybe you watched the game again yesterday,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: formed a few opinions. You're going to have your sit-down,
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: if you haven't already, with George Henshaw. What are your takeaways,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: the big takeaways from your perspective of the game?
• 1:52
  Speaker 3: Well, I think the biggest, you know, I want to
• 1:54
  Speaker 3: say revelation maybe for me was how good the running
• 1:57
  Speaker 3: backs played. I mean, from a positive standpoint– I thought
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: Usman Kroma and Sam Singleton were, and even Trey Weisner
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: when he played, were really, really good. I thought that
• 2:07
  Speaker 3: running back room looked exceptional. I thought they made some
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: plays where there weren't plays to be made. And, you know,
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: they just, they looked excellent at running back. On the
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: flip side of that, Ashton Daniels did not look very
• 2:19
  Speaker 3: good at quarterback. I mean, he didn't look terrible. but
• 2:22
  Speaker 3: he didn't look great. But I also wonder how much
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: of that was by design. A big thing that a
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: key to Ashton Daniels' game is going to be running
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: the football. They really didn't have him run the football
• 2:32
  Speaker 3: in that game. I'm assuming that was by design, and
• 2:36
  Speaker 3: we'll see much more of that against SMU. And if
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: he does, that opens up a lot of things. It
• 2:41
  Speaker 3: helps the offensive line a lot. So that's something that
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: was just a little... surprising to see, but it may
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: have been a gamesmanship thing against a weaker opponent. And
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: then defensively, I thought the biggest concern was I thought
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: the secondary was going to be the strength of this defense,
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: and they didn't play well at all. They played very
• 3:01
  Speaker 3: soft in coverage. They didn't make a lot of plays
• 3:04
  Speaker 3: on the ball. Jabril Rawls had a really rough night,
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: and he's supposed to be your top cornerback, maybe your
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: top player on defense, and you didn't get much of
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: a pass rush. So those things were really concerning. I
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: do wonder, though, again, like on the offense with Daniels,
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: and how little they used him. I do wonder if
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: they called the game a certain way defensively, maybe more vanilla,
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: but that's more really just a hope than anything else.
• 3:27
  Speaker 3: Because if that's not the case, then this does not
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: look like a good football team. I, you know, I
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: walked away having been at the game and then watched
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: the tail end of it at home.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: I walked away shaking my head at the secondary as
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: you did Ira.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: You know, the, Scheme is one thing. Technique is another.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: And I just saw, as you said, they literally picked
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: on Jabril Rawls.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: They went at him.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: And let's also say New Mexico State has a pretty
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: good quarterback.
• 3:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I know. And I thought they had a good
• 4:01
  Speaker 3: game plan. I mean, I thought New Mexico State, their
• 4:03
  Speaker 3: coaching staff did an excellent job. I think they probably
• 4:06
  Speaker 3: out-coached FSU from the standpoint of, making the most out
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: of the talent you have. Like they clearly were not,
• 4:11
  Speaker 3: they knew they couldn't pass protect for very long. So
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: the quarterback got the ball out of his hands quickly.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: The receivers, you know, ran good routes. They showed some
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: pretty good speed, I thought, for New Mexico State. And
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: FSU's defense just didn't respond very well. But at the
• 4:26
  Speaker 3: same time, as you're saying, you know, You had guys
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: playing too high, just not playing sound fundamentally. And so
• 4:36
  Speaker 3: Jabril Rawls, according to Pro Football Focus, they targeted him
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: 10 times in that game. He gave up five passes
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: for 80 yards. For a guy that you think is
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: a potential, at least all ACC player, and some people
• 4:48
  Speaker 3: think could be a first-round NFL draft pick, that's certainly concerning.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: Let's talk a little bit about the offense. I've had
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: a lot of email. I've seen the message boards. And
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: I were a lot of people really critical of Ashton Daniels. Oh,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: he's slow. He's slow release. And I'm like, I thought
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: he had a pretty live arm myself, what I witnessed.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: And if anything, yeah, he missed some receivers. He missed
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: the open guys a little early. But I see elevated
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: quarterback play. If for no other reason inside the red zone,
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: we're going to be far more effective because he can
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: see the line over the line.
• 5:26
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and I mean, really, that one part of the
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: game compared to last season was a huge difference. I mean,
• 5:31
  Speaker 3: they converted all six of their red zone trips, including
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: four touchdowns. Last year, if they were anywhere close to
• 5:36
  Speaker 3: that efficient in the red zone. they would have a
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: much different season. They were terrible in the red zone
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: last year. And so I think that's a positive. I
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: also think when he was running, you know, you know,
• 5:46
  Speaker 3: he didn't, he didn't keep on any of the zone
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: read option type plays. He also seemed reluctant to run
• 5:51
  Speaker 3: when the pass protection wasn't very good. And that's something
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: he's done throughout his college career. I really think that
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: they impressed upon him. Look like, don't, don't, don't use
• 6:02
  Speaker 3: your legs in this game as a key factor because
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: we want to do that later against SMU and other teams.
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: And I think maybe sometimes players take that too far.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: So I thought he was a little tentative at times,
• 6:14
  Speaker 3: but I'm with you. I mean, I didn't have high
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: expectations for him in that game, but I didn't walk
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: away feeling like, okay, Ashton Daniels is going to be
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: the problem for FSU. I thought there were other things
• 6:24
  Speaker 3: that concerned me more.
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: I also felt like generally speaking, with the exception of
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: the fact that they're probably being a little vanilla on
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: both sides of the ball. I really liked having Mike
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Norvell back calling the offense.
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: I do too. And I always thought that that was
• 6:40
  Speaker 3: going to be a positive. And I honestly thought, you know,
• 6:43
  Speaker 3: you look at the way they played offensively, I think
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: it was a better game than people probably felt walking
• 6:48
  Speaker 3: out of the stadium. You know, they averaged about 6.3, 6.4
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: yards per play. There was only one three and out.
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: And the only time they had that one three and
• 6:57
  Speaker 3: out on third down, Ashton didn't make a very good
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: throw and a DB broke on the ball. But other
• 7:02
  Speaker 3: than that, you know, they moved the ball. They had
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: a lot of big plays offensively. I think it felt
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: like a slog a little bit as far as the
• 7:10
  Speaker 3: game went, because the defense gave up so many time
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: consuming drives. Yep. You know, New Mexico state had a
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: 12-play drive, a 13-play drive, a couple of 9-play drives.
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: And so I think that made the offense look worse
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: because they didn't have the ball that much. But overall,
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: I like the way Mike Norvell calls the game in general,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: and I walked away from that game feeling pretty good
• 7:32
  Speaker 3: about the offense, actually.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: I felt listening to Deuce Robinson after the game that,
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: they were intentionally not featuring him this past Saturday. And
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: you mentioned Ashton Daniels and his lack of running for
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: maybe the same reason. I'm curious, what are your thoughts
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: on tight end? Because I feel as though they're going
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: to have to have a more offensive weapon to take
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: some pressure off the running game as well as the
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: wide receivers.
• 7:57
  Speaker 3: Yeah, they really mostly just use them as blockers in
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: this game. They didn't really feature them at all in
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: the passing game. And we know Desirio Riles, who transferred
• 8:05
  Speaker 3: in from East Carolina, that's kind of what he brings
• 8:08
  Speaker 3: to the team. He's more of a receiver than he
• 8:10
  Speaker 3: is a blocker. Lynn and Thomas, I think, maybe have
• 8:13
  Speaker 3: one catch. And so, yeah, same thing. I mean, I
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: think that those guys are going to be a bigger
• 8:19
  Speaker 3: part of the offense, and maybe they just didn't feature
• 8:22
  Speaker 3: them in that game because they didn't want to show
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: too much.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: All right, Ira Sheffel with us for one more segment.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: We're going to switch and talk a little bit about
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the defense and then look ahead to SMU. 19th ranked,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: but what does that mean? I mean, I think Ira's
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: with me on this one. Preseason rankings are largely useless.
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I personally would love to see them play four games,
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: five games before we release a ranking, see how things look,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: but whatever.
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: We're not in charge.
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: Ah, the lamenting out there. Some are recognizing that it's
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: game one.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Okay. It's a win.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Let's just, you know, the old adage, game week one
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: to week two, the biggest improvement of the season. Ira,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: have you found that to be mostly true in your
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: career covering sports?
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: I think it usually is true. And, you know, again,
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: I think when a lot of people say that Mike
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: Norvell's teams haven't gotten better as the year goes on,
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: I think, again, you go back to that– the LSU
• 9:29
  Speaker 3: game after playing Duquesne, they, that was a good opportunity
• 9:33
  Speaker 3: for them to see some things and work on some
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: things and then, and then play against LSU. And then
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: they pulled off an upset in that game and in
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: New Orleans. So yeah, I know. I do think it
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: is a, a thing that happens. But again, I understand
• 9:45
  Speaker 3: why fans right now are so frustrated that they, they, they,
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: they aren't looking for positives. They just, they feel like
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: it's going to be more misery.
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: Other than one punt that was a little bit of
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: a shank, special teams were exceptional. Their new field goal
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: kicker didn't miss a kick. It was a good night
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: for special teams overall.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: Yeah, 100%. I thought both kickers looked good. The field
• 10:07
  Speaker 3: goal kicker and the kickoff specialist, all seven of his
• 10:09
  Speaker 3: kickoffs went into the end zone. And then the return
• 10:13
  Speaker 3: game was impressive. I mean, Sam Singleton had that one
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: really nice return when the game was still kind of
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: in doubt in the second half. And then Jason Lopez
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: only had one return opportunity, and it got called back
• 10:23
  Speaker 3: as a penalty. But you could see how comfortable he
• 10:26
  Speaker 3: was returning punts. And after what we've seen the last
• 10:28
  Speaker 3: few years, that was great to see.
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: Well, can we just rejoice in the fact that there
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: wasn't nervousness catching the ball?
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: He just caught it.
• 10:37
  Speaker 3: 100%.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: And that's a breath of fresh air.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: 100%.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: And that over the course of the season will probably
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: save Florida State a couple hundred yards in bounce punts.
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: Absolutely. Let's look ahead. SMU comes to town.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: In your opinion, are they one of the better teams
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: in college football heading into the season?
• 10:57
  Speaker 3: It's impossible to say, and as you were saying at
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: the end of that last segment, I mean, the polls
• 11:01
  Speaker 3: are ridiculous. They were always ridiculous, and I used to
• 11:04
  Speaker 3: vote in the AP poll. They were ridiculous back then
• 11:07
  Speaker 3: when we had sustained rosters because there's so much that
• 11:10
  Speaker 3: happens in an offseason, but they're ridiculous. They're ridiculous squared
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: now because nobody knows what anybody has. I think they're good.
• 11:19
  Speaker 3: They have a solid quarterback that's played a lot of
• 11:21
  Speaker 3: college football and has made some big plays in some
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: big moments. And Rhett Lashley is a good coach, so
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: that probably warrants them being somewhere in the top 25. But, yeah,
• 11:31
  Speaker 3: whether they're 25 or should be 10, it's impossible to know.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: One of the things that Grant and I spoke about
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: last hour that I think is going to be very
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: interesting is it's Labor Day Monday night. And I worry
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: that this is going to kind of almost be sacrificed.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: It's not going to be a home evening game at
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: Doak Campbell Stadium against a ranked opponent.
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: Crowd gets fired up.
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I feel like the crowd might not be the factor
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: it would otherwise be.
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, it's funny. When they first started doing
• 12:03
  Speaker 3: these Labor Day games, I think a lot of people thought, oh, man,
• 12:06
  Speaker 3: these are going to be great crowds because, you know,
• 12:09
  Speaker 3: it's a holiday and fans are going to– everybody had
• 12:12
  Speaker 3: the day off from work and it's going to be great.
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: The problem is people have to go back to work
• 12:16
  Speaker 3: on Tuesday. And so much of the FSU fan base
• 12:19
  Speaker 3: comes from out of Tallahassee that this is a game
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: a lot of Miami people, Tampa people, Atlanta people, Jacksonville
• 12:25
  Speaker 3: people may not be able to come to make. So, yeah, I,
• 12:29
  Speaker 3: I do think that that hurts a little bit at home.
• 12:31
  Speaker 3: It's a great TV viewing opportunity. It's a chance to
• 12:33
  Speaker 3: be the, the marquee game on Monday night football. But
• 12:36
  Speaker 3: in terms of a home crowd, I agree. I think
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: you'd get a much better crowd in a home field
• 12:40
  Speaker 3: advantage if you plan Saturday night.
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: So let's back out and end where we started. Uh,
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the narrative is Mike Norvell's on the hot seat. I
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: think everybody understood that before the season even started that
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: Norvell was going to be, um, you know, under the
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: microscope all season long is coach. Do you sense that
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: he's well aware of this? And, and if so, do
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: you think that has transmitted to the team?
• 13:08
  Speaker 3: I think he's definitely extremely aware of that. I mean,
• 13:11
  Speaker 3: I think it was obvious late last season. And I
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: think there's some signs of this off season of things,
• 13:15
  Speaker 3: the way he's kind of handled himself in certain things.
• 13:18
  Speaker 3: I think that I've, to talk at length about this,
• 13:22
  Speaker 3: but I do think, yeah, he's keenly aware of it,
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: and I do think it affects him a little bit.
• 13:26
  Speaker 3: I don't think it's something that the team worries too
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: much about, honestly. I just feel like if they're tight,
• 13:33
  Speaker 3: it's not going to be because they're worried about Mike
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: Norvell's job security. It's just, this is a team right now.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: This is a program that has not played at a
• 13:40
  Speaker 3: high level consistently in three years. And so I think
• 13:43
  Speaker 3: that can be a factor at times and maybe lead
• 13:46
  Speaker 3: to some pressure and things like that. But I don't,
• 13:48
  Speaker 3: I honestly don't think, listen, they know not only is
• 13:52
  Speaker 3: Mike Norvell going to be okay from a career standpoint
• 13:54
  Speaker 3: after he ends his time at Florida state, but but
• 13:57
  Speaker 3: they certainly know that he's going to be fine financially,
• 13:59
  Speaker 3: so I don't think it's going to affect them in
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: terms of pressure.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: If we just set aside FSU got the win, they
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: also appeared to come out of the game pretty injury-free.
• 14:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah, no, that's a huge positive. And even just looking
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: at the guys walking around after the game, like Ashton
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: Daniels and Ousmane Cromwell, who carried the ball a lot,
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: the guys we talked to after the game, you know,
• 14:21
  Speaker 3: it would have been nice if they could have gotten
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: more backups in the game. I think that was one
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: negative that we really haven't touched on and haven't written about.
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: You know, you'd like to think they could have gotten
• 14:30
  Speaker 3: some more backups in the game, especially offensively. But other
• 14:33
  Speaker 3: than that, no, I think they came away pretty unscathed.
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: Ira, thanks very much. We'll talk again in a couple weeks.
• 14:39
  Speaker 3: Thanks, Preston. Take care.
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: Ira Sheffel, Warchant.com.
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: I just want to point out, if the defense maybe
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: doesn't go quite so vanilla and hands the ball back
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: to the offense, the offense.
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: Did its job really well when it had the ball.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: Just saying.