Posts tagged Brandon Warren at FanHouse

If you're just tuning into the Brandon Warren-transfer soap opera, here's the cheat sheet: citing his ailing mother in Tennessee as a need to move back home, Florida State's Freshman All-American tight end Brandon Warren asked for a release from his scholarship earlier this spring with an eye toward playing football for the University of Tennessee. Bobby Bowden denied the request, possibly resenting the fact that a recruit Warren hosted earlier in the semester ended up signing with the Vols. Bowden's decision, while petty, is not surprising, and Warren went ahead with an appeal that would allow him to play for UT this fall.

But barring a last-ditch appeal to the NCAA, Warren won't be a Tennessee Vol -- or anything else -- this fall. Warren's appeal to a Florida State faculty panel was denied on Monday:

"It is the determination of the faculty panel that the information presented by Brandon Warren does not rise to the level of 'objective evidence that proves the student-athlete's extraordinary personal hardship' and is insufficient to support his appeal of the NCAA and FSU transfer policy. Panel members were unanimous in their conclusions that the appeal should be denied and the transfer rule should be enforced."

This latest setback for Warren leaves him with two options for the upcoming season. First, he can hope for a favorable ruling from the NCAA in a hardship case, however, I doubt the evidence would be any different than what was presented to the FSU faculty panel and therefore should be a pretty hard case to win. If Warren were to win such an appeal, he would be eligible to play for Tennessee (or any other school) immediately. If he loses, Warren would have to sit out for two full years before regaining eligibility.

The safer option is for Warren to attend a junior college for one year (without playing football), at the end of which, he'd be eligible to attend any college right away. It would be difficult for Warren to voluntarily give up a year of football, but that's essentially what he did when he left FSU in mid-semester anyway.

For the second consecutive year, NC State has beaten the once-dominant FSU Seminoles. This 24-20 home win marks the 4th time Chuck Amato has beat his old team since he left Tallahassee in 2000. This one is pretty easy to sum up. We got out-coached. We got out-played. NC State made plays when they had to make plays. We did not. They were more disciplined than us. They wanted it more.

Wolfpack quarterback Daniel Evans played a hell of a game. He was cool in the clutch. His receivers made plays. Evans finished the game with 3 TD passes and 0 interceptions. He brought his team back from a 20-10 2nd half deficit. I was really impressed with how he performed in such a spotlight.

The Seminoles were not horrible in any one area, but were not particularly good in any area either. Drew Weatherford had an up and down game. He looked very good at times, then had some plays that I'm sure he wishes he had back. His lone turnover came on FSU's final drive when a pass intended for freshman TE Brandon Warren was deflected and intercepted. The running game got off to a good start on the opening drive, then didn't do much after that.

The defense gave up 340 yards to an offense that has struggled this year. They also let the Wolfpack do whatever they wanted to with the ball over the final quarter and a half. The NC State running back tandem of Andre Brown and Toney Baker was able to gain first down after first down in the 2nd half. Brown finished with 113 yards on only 18 carries, his second straight game against FSU with over 100 yards. I've already mentioned what Evans was able to do through the air. Our defense was not able to create one single turnover the entire game. I hear those usually help.

NC State easily won in the intangibles department. They played with more passion. There was a different look in their eyes than in our players. I actually believed they were the team with something to prove and not FSU. The Seminoles were once again undisciplined, collecting 10 penalties (that were accepted). Oh yeah, we also again used up all of our timeouts with plenty of time left in the game. That predictably came back to bite us, as we could not stop the clock once NC State took the ball with just over 2:00 to play.

This may sound strange, but I don't want to complain about coaching. About how we continuously lose to supposedly less talented teams. I'm over it. I have accepted the fact that we are a mediocre team playing in a mediocre conference. And that is how I will (try to) look at things from now on. NC State deserved to win this game. The better team prevailed.