Ksyrup
09-25-2004, 11:16 PM
I attended my first football game in about 7 years today, the FSU/Clemson game. Despite trying hard to give the game away (something like 300 yards on returns and 2TDs for one guy, a botched pooch kick which was fair caught at the 40 plus another 15 yards for hitting the guy, then a blocked punt for a safety), FSU won, pulling away in the 4th for a less-than-comfortable 41-22 win (it was 24-22 midway through the 3rd).
The real news, though, was the fact that Chris Rix came out in the 1st with a legit ankle sprain, but never came back in even though he was cleared to. Wyatt Sexton led the team for the rest of the game and did pretty well. Sure, Clemson's D is not Miami's, but it ain't UAB's either. He led one drive against UAB, then played virtually mistake-free ball for 3+ quarters today. He was accurate, he made good decisions (one in particular, when he purposely overthrew an out pattern on a route the corner jumped and would have intecepted for a TD), and he hit on a beautiful 47 yard TD pass. ANd he ran the offense without looking like a deer caught in headlights.
In other words, he wasn't Chris Rix.
So, I think we might have seen the end of the Chris Rix era at FSU, barring an injury or complete meltdown in the coming weeks. The crowd was merciless toward Rix, and when Sexton came in, the noise was deafening, eventually turning into a Wyatt! Wyatt! chant.
The catcalls for Rix were secondary to the venom directed at Jeff Bowden the offensive coordinator. The guy plain sucks. In a 3 drive span, he called the same run-run-3rd down screen pass 3 or 4 times. We were all joking about it in the stands, then it turned to anger.
Worst part? How about 17-14 FSU leading, Clemson has just scored a TD, there's 1:45 left in the 1st half, and FSU has the ball on its own 25. Instead of trying to at least get into field goal position, they just run the ball 5 or 6 times to kill the clock. On the first run, Clemson immediately called time out. Luckily, we got 2 first downs to make the point moot, but we all came to the realization that on that drive, we were Clemson playing on the road, and Clemson was FSU at home. They had the confidence that we wouldn't score (or attempt to score) with less than 2 minutes to go in the half, that they could stop us, and that they hoped to get the ball back. It didn't happen -luckily - but at that moment, we collectively realized that Jeff Bowden was Tommy's bitch. Not a good feeling, considering we're FSU at home and they're Clemson on the road. Dude needs to be fired by Dad (and/or Dad needs to retire, since he probably agreed with the play calling). End of story.
Oh, and Lorenzo Booker has got IT. Some of his moves were frighteningly good. Leon Washington, the back he splits time with, had a nice 3 broken tackle TD run, but he's not a great RB - can't find the holes most of the time. Booker doesn't need holes, he can turn ordinary running plays into jukefests that look like punt returns.
As for the game experience itself, I'm no fan of in-person football games, but today was pretty cool. Sat in the endzone, but on the alumni (read: non-sun) side, and thanks to the Jeanne system, we had a nice breeze that kep the temps in the mid 80's. Still would rather sit on my couch and flip between 4 games at once, though.
The real news, though, was the fact that Chris Rix came out in the 1st with a legit ankle sprain, but never came back in even though he was cleared to. Wyatt Sexton led the team for the rest of the game and did pretty well. Sure, Clemson's D is not Miami's, but it ain't UAB's either. He led one drive against UAB, then played virtually mistake-free ball for 3+ quarters today. He was accurate, he made good decisions (one in particular, when he purposely overthrew an out pattern on a route the corner jumped and would have intecepted for a TD), and he hit on a beautiful 47 yard TD pass. ANd he ran the offense without looking like a deer caught in headlights.
In other words, he wasn't Chris Rix.
So, I think we might have seen the end of the Chris Rix era at FSU, barring an injury or complete meltdown in the coming weeks. The crowd was merciless toward Rix, and when Sexton came in, the noise was deafening, eventually turning into a Wyatt! Wyatt! chant.
The catcalls for Rix were secondary to the venom directed at Jeff Bowden the offensive coordinator. The guy plain sucks. In a 3 drive span, he called the same run-run-3rd down screen pass 3 or 4 times. We were all joking about it in the stands, then it turned to anger.
Worst part? How about 17-14 FSU leading, Clemson has just scored a TD, there's 1:45 left in the 1st half, and FSU has the ball on its own 25. Instead of trying to at least get into field goal position, they just run the ball 5 or 6 times to kill the clock. On the first run, Clemson immediately called time out. Luckily, we got 2 first downs to make the point moot, but we all came to the realization that on that drive, we were Clemson playing on the road, and Clemson was FSU at home. They had the confidence that we wouldn't score (or attempt to score) with less than 2 minutes to go in the half, that they could stop us, and that they hoped to get the ball back. It didn't happen -luckily - but at that moment, we collectively realized that Jeff Bowden was Tommy's bitch. Not a good feeling, considering we're FSU at home and they're Clemson on the road. Dude needs to be fired by Dad (and/or Dad needs to retire, since he probably agreed with the play calling). End of story.
Oh, and Lorenzo Booker has got IT. Some of his moves were frighteningly good. Leon Washington, the back he splits time with, had a nice 3 broken tackle TD run, but he's not a great RB - can't find the holes most of the time. Booker doesn't need holes, he can turn ordinary running plays into jukefests that look like punt returns.
As for the game experience itself, I'm no fan of in-person football games, but today was pretty cool. Sat in the endzone, but on the alumni (read: non-sun) side, and thanks to the Jeanne system, we had a nice breeze that kep the temps in the mid 80's. Still would rather sit on my couch and flip between 4 games at once, though.