[FONT=arial, helvetica][SIZE=-1]here u go...
[h=2]Larry Ness' 10* 'signature' 31-Club Play-CFB (6 in a row?)[/h]My 10* 31-Club Play is on Florida St at 8:00 ET.
There is not a single metric in which this year’s FSU team can come close to comparing to last year’s national champs. The 2013 Seminoles finished 14-0 (11-3 ATS), outscoring opponents on average, 51.6-to-12.1 PPG. The FSU offense averaged just under 520 YPG and the defense allowed right at 280.0 YPG. The 2014 Seminoles are 12-0 but a woeful 3-9 ATS, scoring 17 points less per game (34.6), while allowing 10 PPG more (22.0). The offense is nearly 100 YPG shy of last year’s unit (430.3 per game) and the defense allows almost 100 YPG more, as well (371.1 per game).
As for last year’s Heisman-winner (Jameis Winston), he’s dealt with off-the-field issues all season and has followed up a season in which he threw for 40 TDs with just 10 INTs (184.8 QB rating) with one in which he barely has more TD passes (21) than INTs (17), with a QB rating of 143.7. The one KEY similarity between the two teams is the number in the loss-column, which still reads ZERO! The Seminoles are 12-0, giving them a 28-game winning streak (no other school has a double-digit win streak) but for all of that (as well as being defending champs), FSU came in just No. 4 in the second-to-last CFB playoff rankings.
The Seminoles are ranked behind Alabama, Oregon and TCU (all one-loss teams), with Ohio St and Baylor “breathing down their necks.” Now Kirk Herbstreit assured all FSU fans that all the Seminoles need to do is win here in the ACC championship game and FSU is in no danger of NOT making the four-team playoff field. However, Herbstreit (who I’ve always admired) is also the moron (so much for liking him!) who stated on that same show that Baylor’s win over TCU was insignificant, as he believes TCU is the better team, agreeing with the committee ranking TCU at No. 3, THREE spots better than Baylor’s ranking of No. 6.
Now head-to-head matchups have always been the accepted tie-breaker (Baylor beat TCU on Oct 11) but as this year’s first-ever four-team playoff is breaking new ground, so is the moronic committee tasked with choosing those four teams. It’s been some 45 years since the Jets beat my beloved Colts in Super Bowl III and I still haven’t accepted that loss. Nearly a half-century later, Mr Herbstreit has given me back my ‘lost’ Super Bowl, for as surely as Jeff Foxworthy’s show “Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?” has taught us, the Colts were in EVERY WAY a superior team than the Jets in the 1968 season. However, according to Dr Herbstreit (and the cretins on the current CFB playoff committee), I’ve been assured that the Colts losing that Super Bowl really didn’t mean much, as I can comfort myself with the knowledge that the Colts were and remain the better team.
I’ve gone off on this rant (my psychiatrist prefers to call it thoughtful commentary), because I believe that the FSU football team is well aware that it can in NO WAY count on the committee keeping them in the top-four WITHOUT a convincing win over Ga Tech. Now I really like Paul Johnson (Ga Tech head coach), as he gave the entire nation a Navy program it can now count on year-in and year-out and since coming to Atlanta prior to the 2008 season, has done NOTHING but win with the Yellow Jackets. Win or lose here, Ga Tech will be making ist SEVENTH straight bowl appearance under Johnson.
This year’s team averages 333.8 YPG on the ground (4th in the nation) on 6.0 YPC and in QB Justin Thomas, has the most prolific passer-ever on one of Johnson's option-heavy teams. Thomas has 16 TD passes in a modest 161 attempts, the most TD passes any QB has ever had playing for a Paul Johnson-coached team. In comparison, Winston has 21 TD passes in 392 pass attempts! Ga Tech owns impressive wins over Clemson at home (28-6) and at Georgia (30-24 in OT as 10 1/2-point underdogs) and to many are the ‘sexy’ pick to win here.
However, FSU has found a way to win all season and I believe the team's current ranking is all the motivation it needs to have a HUGE game here vs Ga Tech. As much as I admire and like Johnson, let me note that in taking Ga Tech to a bowl game in each of his first six seasons (as mentioned, he’ll make it SEVEN in a row this year), he’s failed miserably in those games, going 1-5. The lone win came in the 2012 Sun Bowl, when Ga Tech beat a disinterested USC team 21-7, one which had opened that season as the nation’s preseason No. 1 team, only to end up in beautiful downtown El Paso on New Year’s Eve and barely put up a fight, ending the season at 7-6.
Florida St wins here, “with room to spare.”
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