Unconquered

EJ going 1st or 2nd round is nothing but a win/win for FSU recruiting

yep...I yelled at EJ a lot this year....and a lot more than I yelled at Ponder

Athletes develop at different rates. QB is the one position in football where developing skills is more important than raw athletic ability [not that skill development is unimportant in other positions, but the QB position it takes on a much more important dimension]. You just have to look at the improvement of most pro QBs from day 1 through at least year 5 to understand this. Frankly, Ponder in the last couple games he played was a completely different and better QB than what he was 2 seasons ago and the first of last season. That is what will be interesting to see in those athlete first QBs like RG3 and Wilson. Will their pure athletic ability retard their QB development or will they still develop all their QB skills?

Not trying to bash our current players but who did we have on offense that is in the same league as Leon Washington, Lorenzo Booker, Quan Boldin, Javon Walker, or Greg Jones?

I met EJ yesterday at the Miami airport. I can see clearly why the NFL loves him. He is a fine young man. He also is one heck of an athlete. He was down in south FL preparing for pro day. The NFL draft is all about projecting a players potential. Obviously EJ has eased a lot of the GM's concerns. I just wish we would be happy for the young man. He is a fine representative of FSU and as was stated earlier, it is a positive for all involved if he gets drafted highly.

I disagree. Well, first, the O-Line was considerably worse than it was this year (and last year, I'd argue). Rix played through the end of the Heggins era, I believe. McHale was hired the year after Rix left, I think and the o-line was also poor through McHale's tenure. Heggins wasn't cutting it at that point.

Also, most of the players you listed did not do quite as much as you would've thought...given their talent and/or NFL success.

Anquan Boldin...first...he only played one year with Rix. Rix was 01-04. Boldin was 99-02, but he was did not play in 2001 b/c of a knee injury. Boldin's stats:
99: 12 rec, 115 yards, 2 TD
00: 41 rec, 664 yards, 6 TD
02: 65 rec, 1011 yards, 13 TD

Javon Walker only played one year with Rix...and like Boldin, it was Rix's true freshman year.

Most of the guys he played with (Rix's graduating class):
Craphonso Thorpe (solid)
Dominic Robinson (big time 5* CB recruit who busted and switched to WR...42 catches, 680 yds for his career)
Chauncey Stovall (only one real year of production)

P.K. Sam left for the NFL after his junior year in 2003 for some unknown reason. I'll still remember that catch vs. UF, though. Rix also overlapped with Talman Gardner and Chris Davis. Former...very solid player but limited ceiling. CC Davis...wasn't nearly as good as he was in HS...probably the ACL. Rehabilitation for that injury really wasn't the same ten years ago.

I think it's fair to say that our current group of receivers is better than this crew.

When healthy, I think CT was better than Lorenzo ever was at FSU. We never taught him how to run...but Booker prob had more natural ability.

Won't argue that Greg Jones didn't do more than our current backs, but our overall running game now is better it was in the Chris Rix days, IMO. Our O-line is just flat out better at run blocking. They're really good. Also, Jones wasn't the same after injury in '03 (4.3 YPC...vs. 5.8 in '02).

Looking back at this season, I think we really had a championship team, minus the QB/sometimes inconsistent WR play and late game pass D.

I'm nervous as hell EJ will go first round and suck. Jamarcus, EJ, Christian would be a bad résumé for Fisher at that point.

not really. a college coach's job is to get a guy to the NFL. once there, the pro coach takes over. even though russell is a collosal bust it has nothing to do with jimbo and everything to do with jamarcus. he became lazy and fat and lets be honest, the raiders suck anyway.

the notion that a player failing in the NFL is a reflection of the coach is completely false. if anything it might validate the coach more. apparently Jimbo was providing structure and keeping jamarcus in line and when he left for the NFL he lost the motivation and structure to do what he needed to do. its hard to keep a 22 year old motivated sometimes when they go from having nothing to being millionaires.

And to have your last three hand picked starters all go first round? How would that be a bad résumé? Show that to a HS QB. You'll get him paid. Boom.

I don't see where Ponder is a negative on Jimbos resume. 2nd year in the league and 1st year completely healthy he's a playoff qb. You can say ap was the reason the Vikings went to the playoffs, but producing a Trent dilfer with the ability to run isn't a negative.