Football, glorious football. Like a beautiful Autumn butterfly emerging from the Summer cacoon of sport death, we finally got to see our ‘Noles in action. And holy majoley did we see some action. LilburnNole asked me if I’d keep writing GBUs for this season and I agreed. They have always seemed to gather some discussion and, well, let’s face it, gives me an outlet for my need for attention.
At this point in the week, what’s there to say? Things went pretty well on Monday night, the reward of our labor being a successful, if rude, introduction into the Atlantic Coast Conference for the Pittsburgh Panthers (see what I did there? Labor? Get it? I’m sorry). Outside of a brief downpour, the night was perfect for football, the crowd was into it, the students were pumped and FSU fans once again took control of a new destination in the Steel City. And what we all saw was the shattering of expectations and a new standardbearer of excellence for a Freshman debut at the QB position of major DI College Football. What we all saw was a star born on a national stage. With that, let’s get into it:
Good
Jameis Winston: Look, I’m not going to go into great depth here as I don’t know that Mr. Webster has any more adjectives to describe this. 26*/27, 356, 4, 1. The stat line is only the start of what we saw physically. And I can tell you that what is seen on TV was not, IMO, as clear as what I saw in person. He was calm and in absolute control from drive #1 until his last TD. The players obviously paid him the respect of a 5th year senior (he absolutely chewed Freeman out one time after a near delay penalty). He was calm and his poise was just insane for a guy getting his first action, much less on the road at night on national television. Eventual Heisman winners have crapped themselves in such positions. Winston not only took it in, he laughed at it and stole its girlfriend. Pressure? Fine, how about a 30 yard dart? 5 wide? No problem. Run up the middle? Sure. Guy hanging on my leg? There’s my fullback over there, let me just dump it over to him. Seriously, the guy was stupid, his performance even more stupid. He puts the ball where the receivers are “going” to be. He was rarely behind the play. His progression reading was amazing. He was unafraid throwing the ball, even if it seemed dangerous.
Receivers: 7 different pass receivers in this game. Pitt had to pick its poison here. Bump and see guys running downfield all night or give them cushion and try your hardest to keep them under. They chose the latter and it didn’t even make much of a difference. Their DBs were lost and had absolutely no way of stopping our guys.
Benjamin: ran nice routes, was engaged and energetic and was just way more than anyone on Pitt could handle. Nick O’Leary: As someone said elsewhere, he probably still has a stiffy. He had to have been amazed his QB not only saw him but was throwing to him as if he were his only target. Kenny Shaw looked very quick and as fast as I’ve seen him look. Even Abrham got in on it. Kudos to Dawsey’s group.
Tim Jernigan: Good Lord. That poor Center. Tim just controlled those guys. He was a man playing against teenagers. Amazing.
Joyner: LOVED seeing him come on blitzes. He and Jones were just disrupting all night. Joyner is a lightning bolt coming with pressure. On one play, I remember Savage looking right at him and he still got nailed. He literally got frozen. Speed kills. Jones, while I’m not sure he got to the QB, was still bringing heat. And the heat was coming from all directions. Loved it.
Turnovers! 2 should have been 4, but still. Seeing picks, especially those where a drive is killed, might be one of my favorite things.
Kicking: I thought Aguayo looked really good on kickoffs. He was putting them right in the corner, inside the 5. Coverage? Well, stay tuned. Beatty didn’t get much of a chance to kick much, but he took advantage of at least one of the chances buy putting a kick inside the 20 (might have even been the 10). He still doesn’t have “Powell Leg” but he did a nice job when asked. BTW, shout out to Pitt’s punter. That guy was GOOD. He was booming punts and really did a nice job.
Bad
Defensive backfield: Honestly, I don’t know if it’s totally fair, but there were certainly players that weren’t doing well. I don’t think Karlos Williams had a good game, for example. Just seemed we weren’t really taking advantage of an advantage, if that sounds right. Pitt, even with Street and Boyd, shouldn’t have gotten alot of what they did. Possible system growing pains, so I’ll reserve too much judgement.
Defensive front: Again, thought they underwhelmed. Just seemed slower than I would expect. Chryst had a good gameplan (btw, he will be a good coach for them and I think will put them in the Coastal picture for the future). I think the most obvious and glaring issue was the allowance of the edges. I haven’t seen much that shows anything outside of bad fundamentals in that area, but one point I did see from someone seemed pretty reasonable in that they thought it was a “thinking” vs. “doing” issue. We have time to get that worked out. They say the most improvement comes from Week 1 to Week 2. If so, I expect to see a much better effort vs. Nevada (who will shred us offensively if we don’t)
Kickoff coverage: I thought we were disappointing in this area. With great kicks, we just had no lane discipline at all. Our tackling wasn’t good and we allowed them way more kick yardage than we should have. Guys were just not disciplined. I expect this to change quickly.
Ugly
The townie Pitt fans in front of us: Original as ever, four guys showed up with one of them giving the obligatory “F Florida State!” over and over. They went crazy on one first down. Doubly crazy on a couple more. The Touchdown put them in a frenzy. But here’s how much attention got paid: One of the guys actually turned around and said “FSU, your seats are terrible!” Yes, he said it seriously…as smack talk. These guys were morons and not at all representative of the folks we met. Very welcoming folks who, for the most part, were way more interested in saying hello, helping you find something, or engaging in conversation.
The availability of cabs after the game: WTH Pittsburgh? It took us over an hour, a walk to the casino, a walk back and dumb luck to find a cab. And it was an independent operator at that. Cabbies PURPOSEFULLY don’t come to the games for fares because, get this, they DON’T WANT TO SIT IN TRAFFIC. Just a freaking ridiculous scene.
All in all, it was a great trip. Pittsburgh is an utterly blue collar place, but it’s a nice place. Pitt has a really nice campus. They have WONDERFUL facilities. The Peterson Events Center is top notch. Their new baseball/softball/soccer complex is really nice. You’d definitely get your workout there with all the hills.
We found the people to be very nice and polite. They love letting each other go in traffic. They do love their fries…my stomach hates me so bad right now. PNC park is a must-go-to. I can’t imagine a better view from a stadium. I liked Heinz Field, myself. The “Great Hall” was really neat and they had big areas to sit before the game. TVs everywhere so you didn’t miss the action, etc. Oh, and backs on the benches. So nice for those with bad backs. I didn’t get to see everyone, which stinks, but with an infant, a toddler and 80 people to see, we just didn’t get to it. We “saw” Kenny as we drove by McFaddens. We did get to visit shortly with LTowns and Nole-In-Texas. But that was about it for board folks. And most of all, we absolutely mauled the Panthers (Puns!). And may have witnessed the beginning of greatness. That’s always the biggest plus of a trip like this. Next up, the Wolfpack of Nevada. Let’s go huntin’!