Let me start this off by saying, if you haven't been to Tomahawk Nation before, you're really missing out. So go there now. They have more in-depth coverage than just about any other college blog. And we were lucky enough to get the chance to do a Q&A with them for the upcoming Wake Forest-Florida State game on Saturday. You'll find our questions after the jump.
1.) What are your realistic expectations for E.J. Manuel this week?
Well first off, he's not going to do what Christian Ponder did. But E.J. is a 6'6" 228lb Rs.Fr. with a rocket arm and good mobility. And he's smart and Fisher's prized recruit. I expect Manuel to operate the offense well, but not at the level Ponder operated it. My guess is that we will eventually get down and Manuel will force a ball or two that he shouldn't throw and it'll get picked. If he throws 25 balls, I think he'll go 15-25 for 195 with 2 td's and 2 int's.
2.) Put yourself in Manuel's shoes. What do you need to do to put yourself in a position to win the football game?
Unfortunately, because our defense is 94th in the country, I need to emulate Vince Young against USC. I need to find a way, as a redshirt freshman, to score 6 touchdowns. I have to trust in Fisher to set me up, because hey, Ponder did it and the offense was great. I can't let the pressure of the 1st start or the terrible defense get to me.
3.) Bobby Bowden has been hammering home this week just how unlucky both Wake and Florida State have been. I'm down on the "bad luck" excuse myself, but what do you think?
If a team loses a bunch of really close ballgames, they are unlucky. It's pretty much proven that you should win about half of your games decided by a single score. Wake is 2-5 in those ballgames. 3-4 or 4-3 is probably a better gauge on their true ability as a team. FSU is 3-3 in such games, so we have not been unlucky. However, Wake (9) and FSU (6) have both played top 10 schedules, so their record probably doesn't reflect their true talent. What if we had both pulled a PSU and scheduled 4 cupcakes, you'd be 6-4 and we'd be 6-3. Scheduling tough in this day and age doesn't make any sense and with any luck, our AD will be fired for scheduling stupid stuff like next year at Oklahoma. So yeah, schedule strength means we're both underrated.
4.) The defense is giving up 30.9 points per game. What's the explanation? How do you plan on stopping Wake Forest's passing attack?
Bam. http://www.tomahawknation.com/
5.) We've been asking this question around lately, but who are the players we don't know but we should?
The offense uses about 5 quality wideouts, but you probably already know them. How about Taiwan Easterling, a wideout who has done a great job recovering from his Achilles injury he suffered in the off-season.
6.) Does this Florida State team deserve to make a bowl game?
The team definitely deserves it. But because of some of the dumbass stuff the university did with the scheduling and letting a senile and delusional old man run the program into the ground says otherwise. Fisher and the offensive staff deserve to coach this team in a bowl, but I can't ignore the other stuff, so no. And I am rooting for FSU not to make a bowl game.
7.) It's prediction time. How do you see the game playing out and what will be the final score?
I'll go 35-27 [Wake]. Our defense is on that Stanford/ Rice level. And our offense can't overcome that this time.