The Goat Pen

12-4 in ACC - will take that every year and twice on sunday.

Here is to a good postseason!

I feel like NCSU celebrating a 4th place finish in ACC football but I'm proud of this year's basketball team for their 3rd place showing.

Throw a parade.

Congrats to Coach Ham for being named ACC COTY. It was actually deserved this time...he made a radical (for him) shift in offensive philosophy after getting asswhooped in Littlejohn, and turned a frustrating season into an exciting one.

the fact that all 6 seniors will graduate (or already have) is an extra added bonus attraction...

Congrats to the Noles for their first ACC championship.

WooHoo Nice Job Noles!

Congratulations, Noles. You deserved it.

Just awesome.

beating duke and unc back to back to win the acc tourney - if anybody took that action they won a bundle

Damn we almost shit the bed!

Thank god you said we instead of I.

FSU did better than Dook tonight

FSU football team's spring opens with opportunity at running back

1:05 AM, Mar. 20, 2012 |

Upperclassmen lead the way during spring ball: Florida State football had their first spring practice Monday.

By Natalie Pierre-Maliqi
NoleSports.com multimedia reporter

It was his first time in practice pads for the Florida State football team, and early enrollee Mario Pender wasted no time grabbing the attention of Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher.

"I was shocked. He did a really nice job … A couple times you went, 'Oh, who's that.' I was very impressed with what he did out there," Fisher said after the team's first spring practice at the Al Dunlap Practice Fields. "I'm going to tell you what now, don't give him green grass down that sideline. He's got some cuts. He caught the ball well out of the backfield today."

In just his first semester on campus, Fisher said the 6-foot, 190-pound freshman running back has already gained 12 pounds and increased his strength. The Cape Coral Island Coast graduate will have numerous opportunities to impress the FSU coaching staff this spring.

"He's going to get a ton of touches," Fisher said in his Monday morning news conference. "For him, it couldn't have scripted out better for him to have the perfect opportunity to make an impact and jump out there."

Fisher announced Monday that tailback Devonta Freeman will miss all of spring ball because of a lower back issue. Freeman led FSU in rushing with 579 yards on 120 carries and eight touchdowns last year. His 579 yards were the fifth-most by an FSU freshman.

Additionally, running back James Wilder Jr. can't rejoin the team until a pending legal issue is resolved.

"When his situation clears, he'll go," Fisher said. "That's up to the court system."

Coming off a season-ending back injury, Chris Thompson participated in Monday's spring practice. The redshirt senior will continue to take reps in a blue no-contact jersey for the first week or two of spring practice.

"We're going to build him back, because he hasn't done anything for a year, basically," Fisher said.

After three seasons at fullback, Lonnie Pryor will transition to tailback — the position he was originally recruited for.

"I get to kind of feel like home again, and play running back again. I'm excited. I can't really put it into words," Pryor said. "I'm just happy to be back there and running the ball."

The 6-foot, 229-pound senior still has some work to do this spring.

"We're going to get him down a little bit of weight, and get him back to where I think he's much more effective when he's 218-220 pounds," Fisher said.

With FSU's leading rusher sidelined, Pender will have an opportunity to prove himself this spring — much like Freeman did last spring.

"I can't wait to see him go against the defense and see how he moves and how he plays and the way he does things," Pryor said.

Happy start

Fisher said he was pleased with Monday's practice.

"Effort was good, still a little rusty, you can tell we haven't played in awhile ... But the mentality was good, knowing what to do was really good," he said. "I was pleased with guys that switched positions and moved around, and you can tell that they've been looking at some things and studying on their own."

Going Greene

• Fisher said receiver Rashad Greene really progressed in the offseason.

"We're going to use him in a lot of different ways ... He's got to get his touches. I think that's something we have to do a better job identifying, too, who touches the ball," he said. "You don't touch it just because you're at that position. You touch it because you deserve it."

Noteworthy

• Among the position changes are former defensive tackle Cameron Erving making the move to offensive tackle, safety Nick Moody to "Sam" outside linebacker and defensive end Dan Hicks to tight end.

• Players listed "out for spring practice" due to injury include: OG Jacob Fahrenkrug (left shoulder), OG Garrett Faircloth (hip), OL Daniel Foose (lower back), DT Jacobbi McDaniel (ankle), DE Bjoern Werner (right shoulder) and RB Devonta Freeman (lower back).

• Defensive tackle Anthony McCloud wore a non-contact jersey and is continuing to rehab from a pair of knee injuries.

• Linebacker Jeff Luc participated in part of Monday's practice, but was limited by an ankle injury. Fisher announced in his news conference he injured his ankle during a motor scooter accident.

• Pender was one of three early enrollees that participated in Monday's practice. Punter Cason Beatty and transfer offensive tackle Daniel Glauser also took part. Fisher confirmed Monday that Glauser will only have one year of eligibility.

Anyone keeping up w/ spring ball? Anyone??

I've heard that if it didn't happen to a team in the SEC it doesn't matter...

Very true. Glad you've figured it out.

Fisher unhappy after 2nd scrimmage
11:40 PM, Apr. 9, 2012

Florida State football coach Jimbo Fisher said he felt his team did better in the first spring scrimmage.

It wasn't until the fifth minute of answering questions that Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher had anything positive to say about Monday's scrimmage inside Doak Campbell Stadium.

And that was about the punting.

Other than that he was as displeased as he's been all spring.

"Every spot on the team is open," Fisher said. "From receiver to tight end to quarterback to O-line to nose tackle to middle linebacker to safety. We're going to find guys to play winning football. There are too many good players on this team."

Then Fisher caught himself.

"There are too many talented players, excuse me," he said. "Talent doesn't make you a good player. I misspoke."

Apparently that talent didn't come close to living up to its potential on Monday afternoon.

No stats were provided from the scrimmage, which was closed to the public and the media, so it was left up to Fisher to give the reporters any highlights of the day.

He mentioned freshman punter Cason Beatty. And he also said redshirt freshman wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin made a couple of nice plays.

Other than that?

Not much.

"I thought the first scrimmage was better than this one," he said. "On offense — no consistency. Had some not-smart turnovers. And on defense gave up a bunch of big plays. Terrible on third down. … It was a very poor scrimmage overall, in my opinion. On both sides."

The head coach even went to the almost unheard-of measure of making his quarterbacks "live" during the scrimmage. Meaning despite the green no-contact jersey the QBs were wearing they could be tackled — and not just lightly touched — by FSU defenders.

"Long time," Fisher said when asked how long it had been since he had done that. "Long time. It wasn't so much for them though. I wanted to see the O-line and the D-line. Find out if they could really sack them and find out if they could really protect them."

As disappointed as Fisher was walking off Bobby Bowden Field on Monday evening he admitted he would need to go watch the film before knowing exactly how his team performed.

All he knew was that the view wasn't very promising from the sidelines.

"(We) should get better, not worse," Fisher said. "We need to take a look at why or make some moves and adjustments. Sit some guys down and play some other guys.

"There were good guys that did some good things. But not enough."

The Seminoles have two more practices this week before the annual Garnet and Gold game on Saturday afternoon.

anybody showing up for the Spring game this Saturday?