Thoughts From the Morning After: FSU 55 Savannah State 0

The rain persisted throughout the day on Saturday and ultimately by the middle of the third quarter lightning had forced a merciful end to the 55-0 thrashing the Seminoles were putting on the Tigers.

Just how impressive were the Seminoles last night? 

It's tough to tell. This was the closest thing to a JV-Varsity scrimmage I've ever seen play out on a college field. There were probably a half dozen plays where Florida State would have scored if not for a collision between its own players or a guy tripping on himself. That in addition to the 8 touchdowns they did score.

Here's what we do know, the starters were excellent, racking up five touchdown and nearly 300 yards in a quarter before relaxing for the rest of the evening.

Here are a few thoughts from the morning after:

-Jacob Coker stayed in the game long enough to throw his first career touchdown but you had to feel for the Seminoles' third string quarterback, he was probably the guy most affected by the early termination of the game. Coker came in to start the second half and likely would have stayed on for the majority of the game. It was probably his last chance to get meaningful reps this year and I'm sure on some level he'd built up to it over the week. I asked him about it after the game.

"I wish I could have played the whole second half," admitted Coker. "I would have loved to have all those reps, that experience."

-Kelvin Benjamin finally showed some of what he's capable of, albeit against a very suspect secondary. The 6-5 240-pound receiver caught three passes for 47 yards and a couple touchdowns. Most notable was his work inside the 20.

"Whenever KB's in the redzone you can't look [past] it," said Coker, who connected with Benjamin on his first career TD in the third quarter last night. "Hes always in the back of your mind."

-Bjoern Werner didn't waste much time notching his fifth sack of the season. He now leads the team with 5 sacks and 6.5 TFL's. 

-Florida State only ran 44 offensive plays on Saturday night. The team averaged nearly 9.4 yards per play, just under a first down, and hung 55 points. All in just over 36 minutes of football (the last 10 of which we played with a winding clock).

-Willie Haulstead caught his first pass since 2010 on Saturday night. It wasn't much, it came after things got out of hand, but the 15-yard reception was a big deal for Haulstead who missed all of last season with the effects of a concussion.

-Dustin Hopkins missed an extra point for the first time 146 attempts on Saturday night. Hopkins was there after the game but I didn't have a chance to ask him about the miss. Frankly, it was the one obvious mistake in an otherwise well-executed night for the Seminoles. If anything, it's probably good Hopkins got the miss out of his system agaisnt SSU instead of in ACC play or when it could really hurt the Seminoles.

-I'm not sure how serious he was, but Savannah State coach Steve Davenport at least insinuated he asked for the tie last night.

"There were four options and that was just one of them," Davenport said about the tie. "Obviously Florida State wasn't going for that. That was my vote. One of the other options was to come back and obviously that wasn't going to work..."

I think Davenport was kidding, otherwise one of the most audacious exchanges in the history of college football must have taken place in the tunnels under Doak Campbell last night as one head football coach looked another coach that was beating his team 55-0 in the third quarter straight in the eye and asked to be let off the hook. No, I'm pretty sure that was a joke...

-Mark Stoops' defense notched its fourth shutout during his tenure on Saturday night. Since 2010 FSU has stonewalled Wake Forest (31-0), NC State (34-0) and Louisiana-Monroe (34-0) in addition to last night's 55-0 win.

The ULM team Florida State shutout last season remained largely in tact this year and upset 8th ranked Arkansas last night. They made 500k for it too. 

-Finally, Savannah State earned just 28 yards on 33 offensive plays.

I'll have more from the game later today. In the meantime enjoy the opening Sunday of the NFL season.