Daily fishing report

When offense started struggling, so did FSU

By BRIAN LANDMAN
Published December 1, 2005

TALLAHASSEE - For Florida State coach Bobby Bowden, it is the problem to solve.

Through the first eight games, the Seminoles averaged about 446 yards of offense and 36 points. They were 7-1 and ranked No.9.

Through their past three games, the Seminoles have averaged 262 yards and 12 points. They lost all three, the longest skid in a generation under Bowden, and have fallen out of the AP poll for the first time since November 2001. Few give them much of a shot against No.5 Virginia Tech (10-1) in Saturday's inaugural ACC Championship Game.

So what has happened?

Injuries have decimated the offensive line of its top blocker (senior guard Matt Meinrod), its most experienced tackle (Cory Niblock) and its most versatile lineman (guard/center John Frady). The combination of using less experienced players and the constant reshuffling (more will occur this week with the first-half suspension of guard Cornelius Lewis for fighting and the expected demotion of right tackle David Overmyer) has hampered the all-important continuity the linemen need.

"You feed off of each other and you get to know people's strengths and weaknesses. When you have new people coming in every week and playing, it's really hard to play together," said redshirt freshman quarterback Drew Weatherford, who praised the effort of his linemen. "Four guys can be doing the job and one guy thinks this guy is going to do that and he doesn't and it completely ruins the protection."

Weatherford has had little time to throw the past few weeks, even with teams rushing four or just three. He has been sacked 11 times, half his season total, and has a sore left shoulder and sore left knee as a result of all those hits.

Against defenses dropping seven or eight into coverage, Weatherford has thrown seven interceptions in the past three games - though not all happened while under pressure.

"A lot of it was he was new and nobody knew what he could do and how to defense him," Bowden said. "They didn't know where to put their emphasis. As he got better and better and more dangerous, they realized they needed to do this to him and this to him, and they have. ... Then, of course, we have not been able to protect him as good as you would like."

That brings us back to the problem with the Hokies' top-ranked defense next in line.

What to do?

FSU could try rolling Weatherford out more; he likes to throw on the run. But that could limit his options.

FSU also could go back to its earlier plan to put Weatherford in the shotgun, spreading the field with three and four receivers and looking for shorter, safer passing plays.

The latter was effective in the fourth quarter against the Gators as Weatherford threw for 192 yards and a touchdown. He had 93 yards to that point.

"I don't know how much of it (the success) was because they thought they had the game won or they were tired," center David Castillo said. "But they sure weren't playing like they had the game won on offense, throwing the ball when they were up by 20-something points."

The Seminoles getting away from the spread in recent weeks is one reason why offensive coordinator Jeff Bowden has drawn increasing criticism, for his game-plan preparation and play calling.

If it had been working, why not stick with it?

"N.C. State did a really good job when we spread it out four-wide and I feel that kind of scared us away from it," Weatherford said. "It seemed like they were man to man and just giving us havoc, with the receivers having had a hard time getting off the line, and then having (little) time to throw."

You can't throw short or intermediate routes if the receivers can't get away from a defender at the line or quickly escape double coverage.

"Against Boston College, they were stuffing everything, so we spread them out and they couldn't stop the passing game," Bobby Bowden said. "Then we started doing more and more of it and you were getting successful, but then the other people figured out what's going on and were able to give us problems that we had a hard time handling. We'll get better at it."

But will that come this week, or only after some players have regained their health, others have gained more experience or recruiting brings in new talent?

That's the problem of the day.

--Brian Landman covers Florida State athletics. Reach him at 813 226-3347 or at landman@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 1, 2005, 01:08:09]