Florida State Seminoles 2009 Season Preview/Prediction
The College Football season may be 3-4 weeks away but our man James Hayes has been deep in study and will provide his take and 2009 College Football Predictions on as many NCAA teams as he can before the 2009/10 season kicks off.
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Coach: Bobby Bowden
2008 Record: 9-4
The FSU program was dominant throughout the 1990s, but the ‘Noles haven’t been back in the Top 5 since 2000. Head coach Bowden is about as old as the seafloor; offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher is his successor in waiting.
Florida State Gambling Odds from Betus.com to win BCS: +2200
The 2009 edition of Florida State is young but talented, a testament to being a pipeline of in-state athleticism. If the talent and speed can mesh on both sides of the ball, FSU will contend in the ACC Atlantic division.Junior pivot Christian Ponder didn’t blow anyone away last season (about 2,000 yards passing, a 14-13 ratio) but a full season of starting in ’08 gave him invaluable experience. The wideouts have some upper-tier speed in sophomores Taiwan Easterling and Bert Reed and even TE Caz Piurowski is a specimen, going at a nimble-footed 6″7, 271 lbs.
The defense will be FSU’s usual aggressive self. Senior junior college transfer end Markus White is a beast and look out for soph headhunter LB Nigel Bradham.
Team Strengths
Aside from speed up and down the roster, a young offensive line had all 2008 to develop together and should be very strong this year. They are all lean, mean and athletic; center Ryan McMahon in particular is effective.
The ‘Noles feature a nice blend of size and speed and Ponder should be much better with another season under his belt.
Team Weaknesses
The team will really miss Groza Award winner Graham Gano. He handled kicks and punts last year but will be replaced by top-ranked frosh Dustin Hopkins. Bowden is kind of where Penn State’s Joe Paterno was several seasons ago. He is old and some critics think he’s lost the locker room; that it is high time for Fisher. We’ll see if FSU can turn it around and change the court of opinion in Tallahassee.
Schedule-makers did not do the Seminoles any favors. Florida State has a non-conference game at BYU, they play in Death Valley vs. Clemson and finish the season in the Gators’ Swamp.
Another non-con game is versus South Florida, who is no slouch in the Big East. If the squad can navigate around the minefield, even a little, it should be a respectable season in the state capital.
2009 Florida St. Seminoles Record Prediction: 9-4
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One reply on “2009 Florida St. Seminoles Gambling Odds”
One thing that could make this a special year for Florida State is the fact that they return a quarterback. Christian Ponder was certainly not a great signal caller last year. He threw 13 interceptions and 14 touchdowns and only completed 55.7 percent of his passes. Those are not good numbers, but at least the Seminoles have an experienced quarterback who they should be able to rely on during the 2009 campaign. The extremely young offensive line is now a year older and that experience should be a huge plus to Ponder and running back Jermaine Thomas. Thomas rushed for 482 yards a year ago backing up the now departed Antone Smith. Thomas is a big play rusher and averaged seven yards per carry in a reserve role last year. If he can keep that up, the FSU offense could be surprisingly effective.
Over the last few years it has been the defense that has kept Florida State as a respectable football team. However, there are some big losses on the defensive end of the field. Florida State will reload, but the unit will not be the same without defensive ends Everette Brown and Neefy Moffett, linebackers Derek Nicholson and Toddrick Verdell and Tony Carter and Myron Rolle in the secondary. It is not a cause for huge concern since there are a slew of youngsters who are more than capable to step in and fill the void, but it might take a little while for the unit to be as strong as it was last year.
The big question is how long will it take for the defense to turn into the same unit that ranked 15 th in the nation in total defense last year? Linebacker Dekoda Watson will be a star and defensive end Kevin McNeil, while not at the same level of Brown, can cause some havoc in the backfield. Last year Florida State tallied three sacks per game and that really helped out the secondary. The front four will have to get pressure on the opposing quarterback or the new look secondary will have a hard time stopping the pass.