FSU rising in ACC

Look out Bama/LSU. There's a new defense in the south.

QUOTE(#4):

Originally posted 08:56 AM ET  05.22 by Moudz

this isn't an ND story

Until FSU beats a good team and doesn't fall apart in the big games it kinda is.

Didn't we have the same exact thread about FSU this time last year, minus the leaving the ACC part?

QUOTE(#6):

Originally posted 09:08 AM ET  05.22 by .5 NotClever <3Lolo

cue that FSU guy who says we have been top 10-15 in wins the last few years.. blah blah blah

Do you want to prove that we have not been? Add up all the wins for all the teams and see for yourself. Let me know if my sources were incorrect.

I love my wife's alma mater but this has been said every preseason for the last 10 years. Show me don't tell me.

QUOTE(#5):

Originally posted 09:03 AM ET  05.22 by Armpit

Until FSU beats a good team and doesn't fall apart in the big games it kinda is.

that's any acc team, when was the last big win any of them had

QUOTE(#12):

Originally posted 10:05 AM ET  05.22 by KingFootball

I love my wife's alma mater but this has been said every preseason for the last 10 years. Show me don't tell me.

From 2004-2009 people said that because of Bowden and highly rated classes. Many of the best recruits never saw the field though: did not qualify academically, got kicked off due to legal problems, etc. They were the high-risk 5* players that everybody else knew not to count on. Offer them? Sure. But get a good 4* at the same position as a contingency. FSU just signed them without a backup plan.

I posted elsewhere recently that of the 20 4-5* players FSU signed in 2006, only 6 played their SR season; the others either never qualified, were kicked off, or transferred. Of the 2007 class, about half were gone by the time the 2009 season started, what should have been their JR year! Our classes looked good on signing day, but the attrition was ridiculous.

Insiders frequently looked at the two-deep roster and thought, "Why are they ranking us so high again?"

Last year people bit on our surprisingly good 2010 year. They said, "Wow, FSU was 10-4 but was only two scores from being 12-2!" What they DIDN'T do was notice that we were also two other scores from being 8-5 (and not playing in the ACC CG). And we were probably pretty "lucky" Lattimore got a concussion on the first drive of the bowl game, too (though to be fair, our QB had one a few drives later).

This year, though, there are reasons to think we will have a good year. Most of the highly-rated recruits from the last couple years are actually still with the team. Heck, one LB even transferred recently because he could not crack the starting line up and LB is our position of least experience on D this year. This is definitely not the same old FSU teams of the past decade. Not saying we will play for the NCG necessarily but we will be better than any FSU team of the last ten years. I feel confident saying that because I have followed the team for a long time and see the differences that most people do not see by just skimming the general media stories (like, "Oh, FSU had another good recruiting year. Well, that hasn't mattered yet.").

QUOTE(#13):

Originally posted 10:11 AM ET  05.22 by .5 NotClever <3Lolo

i could care less... dont need to prove it it.. they havent won JACK in a long asssssssssss time..But maybe its this year FINALLY

Describe "jack" for me. A championship? No, but how many teams have? Only 11 teams in the BCS era have won championships. Not winning (another) one of those does not change the fact that we have won more games the last two years than most other teams.

BTW I'm not trying to say, "FSU is great! We are the best program in the nation!" We're not. Give me Saban as HC any day and I'll say, "Awesome, thanks!" (And I like Jimbo, but Saban's the proven Man in CFB.)

I'm just pointing out that we are better than people think we are, and that we are a very, very different program now than we were just three years ago. It's stupid to continually point to the last ten years when there is a different coaching staff in place; a new, modernized infrastructure and support system; actual play books on defense; actual evaluation of recruits and retention of athletes; etc.

I don't blab about how awful ND (or OU or UF or insert team here) is going to be based on my own superficial observations, so when people do that about FSU I point out WHY the past is not a good indicator in this situation. FSU is a completely different team from the absolute mess Bowden left it in. And most outsiders really have no clue how much of a mess he left! Search some of the old articles on a site like Tomahawk Nation (not just SI or ESPN, the broad view national news sources) and you'll be shocked at how incompetent most of the staff was in BB's final years, during his "friends and family" phase for hiring coaches. It's amazing we didn't have any losing seasons at the end there.

QUOTE(#17):

Originally posted 10:56 AM ET  05.22 by .5 NotClever <3Lolo

And yes I know the history,,15 straight years.. But right now, they have been average..

And I have never used the Dynasty as a reason to say FSU is great now. That is old history. HS grads today were starting kindergarten the last time FSU played for the NC. They don't even remember it, it doesn't matter.

But see my last post, which basically argues against using the failures of the Bowden era to "predict" that FSU will again fail to live up to the hype. It is the same kind of false reasoning because all the variables have changed (new coaching staff, etc.).

I have been a vocal critic of FSU around here on certain topics. Especially before Bowden was let go. I try to keep my analysis pretty balanced and informed (which is why I don't make many comments about teams I don't know very well).

How many posters here knew that FSU's defense allowed the third fewest yards per play in the nation last year? Bama allowed 3.32 ypp, LSU 4.08, FSU 4.16. That is a pretty amazing stat, and we bring back about 20 players on the defensive two-deep. Anyone who doubts this year's D will be extremely good has no clue what they're talking about. Look up the stats, look up the players, and look up the schedule. FSU's offense might disappoint, but the D almost certainly won't.

10-4 and 9-4 aren't mediocre (they're not elite either) and of our 8 losses in the last two years 5 have been by less than a TD. We're winning more games AND coming very close to winning most of the games we lose. For anyone to compare these teams to FSU's past, Bowden led teams - you know, the ones that lost to Wake Forest 30-0 at HOME - well, that's ignorant.

I'm just providing reasons, not hype, not "nun-uh, my team is better than yours" arguments, but actual reasons why FSU has been improving and continues to improve.