20th-ranked FSU routs Samford
NCAA Football Betting Lines
09/04/2010 - Tallahassee, FL (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Christian Ponder threw for 167 yards and four touchdowns in just one half of action, as 20th-ranked Florida State began the post-Bobby Bowden era with a 59-6 rout of Samford at Doak Campbell Stadium.
Bowden, who was also the head coach at Samford from 1959-62, spent 34 years with the Seminoles. He reluctantly called it quits after a 7-6 mark in 2009 and Jimbo Fisher, a former Samford quarterback who had been anointed the FSU head coach in waiting after three years as a Bowden assistant, finally took over on the Seminole sideline.
Ty Jones ran for 107 yards and a score for the Seminoles (1-0), who dominated from the start and outgained the Bulldogs 481-300. Jermaine Thomas and Chris Thompson also ran for touchdowns and Lonnie Pryor caught pair of scoring passes from Ponder, who finished 12-of-14 with an interception.
Dustin Taliaferro completed 22-of-32 passes for 174 yards with an interception for Samford (0-1), which plays in the FCS out of the Southern Conference.
Florida State's first offensive series ended with an interception of a tipped Ponder pass inside the Samford 10-yard line, but the Seminoles came right back and marched 47 yards in six plays for a score on their next possession. Ponder keyed the set with a 22-yard pass to Thomas on 3rd-and-2 and finished it with a four-yard toss to Pryor for a 7-0 lead.
Ponder threw a 15-yard scoring pass to Bert Reed early in the second quarter to cap a five-play, 51-yard series and the Seminoles blocked a punt deep in Samford territory soon after, leading to a four-yard touchdown run by Thomas for a 21-0 cushion with 11:21 to play in the opening half.
The Seminoles continued to pile it on in the second quarter, as Greg Reid returned a punt 74 yards for a score and Ponder connected with Pryor for an eight-yard touchdown pass on the first play after an interception to make it 35-0. Ponder then finished Florida State's next offensive series with an 11- yard TD pass to Taiwan Easterling before Samford finally got on the board as the half concluded with a 41-yard field goal from Cameron Yaw.
EJ Manuel took over for Ponder to start the second half and was intercepted on Florida State's first possession. The Bulldogs converted the turnover into a 32-yard field goal from Yaw midway through the third quarter.
The Seminoles needed just two plays to answer, as Manuel threw a 14-yard pass to Reed and Jones found a huge hole in the line on the way to a 57-yard touchdown run.
Thompson's nine-yard scoring run on the first play of the fourth quarter extended the advantage to 56-6 and Dustin Hopkins kicked a 24-yard field goal with just over 6 1/2 minutes left to account for the final margin.
Game Notes
Fisher became the first Florida State head coach to win his debut since Larry Jones in 1971. Bowden lost to Memphis State in 1976...The 42 points were the most for Florida State in the first half since 2000 against Duke...Manuel connected on 10-of-13 throws for 129 yards...Florida State visits Oklahoma next week.
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SPORTS BETTING: NFL Football Sportsbook Betting
NFL owners, already life's biggest winners, want to try their luck with the lottery.
That was the news out of their meetings last week, where team bosses voted unanimously to allow stamping state and local lottery tickets with franchise logos, if, ahem, any governments wanted to do a deal.
A shocker: Within days the Pats announced they'd be sponsoring the Massachusetts state lottery, the Skins said they'd slap their sticker on Virginia scratch-offs and the Ravens admitted they were talking to Maryland lottery bosses. In all likelihood, it won't be long before every team is a presenting sponsor of scratch-offs or just plain old pick fives. "The change in policy was approved 32-0," said NFL spokesman Greg Aiello. "So you can expect to see more deals soon."
It's a branding opportunity too big for the owners to ignore, and one a couple of dozen baseball franchises have enjoyed for years. The fact the NFL has been slower to act than those slack-brained Seligites is indicative of its complicated relationship with all forms of gambling. Consider this: Last Thursday, as the Pats and the Redskins finalized their new lottery deals, a lawyer representing the NFL argued before Delaware's Supreme Court that the state's newly signed sports betting law should be repealed.
The NFL betting is the face of opposition to sports gambling . And as much as it would like to share that responsibility with other leagues, that's not going to happen as long as more than 40% of all money legally wagered on games is bet on football. That's why the Brewers can do a multi-million dollar deal with a local casino, or the Celtics can make their own pact with the Mass lottery, and the response is, "Sweet, let's play." But when the NFL does it the stakes are higher, and everyone from NPR's Frank Deford to the Associated Press to the guys blogging at Deadspin will line up to play gotcha.
So I asked Aiello, who surely knew there'd be piling on, how the league can rail against being bait for sports bettors, then allow its franchises to be just that for lotteries, the most insidious and addictive form of gambling around. He emailed me this response: "We are not moral crusaders. NFL personnel are permitted to engage in legal forms of gambling, except for betting on NFL games. We are making a distinction here between the spread of gambling on the outcome of our games and supporting state lottery scratch-off games, that have nothing to do with the outcome of our games."
Here's where I should rip him. But, the thing is, he's right. Not to get Obama on you, but this is a complicated, nuanced issue. As much as lotteries are considered a tax on the poor, the NFL isn't a socially obligated government program -- it's just a business. Scratch-off's help the bottom line, sports betting doesn't. Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors … But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal.
Now, it's okay to call the league hypocritical when it releases injury reports, which players have told me only helps bettors. And it's okay to mutter something obscene when the league pretends gambling doesn't help drive TV ratings and fan interest and put money in owners' pockets. But when it supports other forms of gaming? Big Deal. The Bears should put an orange "C" on every deck of cards dealt at Harrah's in Joliet; the Eagles should slap their logo on roulette wheels at the Borgata in Atlantic City; the Dolphins should hold training camp at the El San Juan in Puerto Rico.
Seriously.
The NFL's problem, when it comes to the gambling world, isn't hypocrisy, it's worse: The bosses lack vision. That's why the league is picking unwinnable fights in Delaware and taking pot shots from critics after making smart sponsorship deals. Roger Goodell and his gang are acting and thinking locally rather than globally, which is rare for them, especially compared to their professional (and amateur) counterparts.
The NBA held its All Star game in Las Vegas and David Stern's kingdom didn't crumble (although the town did bring plenty of players to their knees.) I'd say it's 6 to 5 and pick 'em that Lebron will make a road swing through Sin City before his career is over.
Even the NCAA College Football Betting is more progressive on this issue than the NFL. Several years ago Rachel Newman Baker, college sports' gambling czar, opened a dialogue with Vegas bookmakers to learn about how they do business. She's visited Nevada sports books, studied their operations and listened to how they regulate action. Now she knows she can expect a call from bookmakers, who lose money when sports are fixed, if they think something sketchy is going on in NCAA games. She's not in favor of sports betting, but, as she once told me, "I know it's not going away, either."
The NFL can't seem to accept that. And until it can find peace with the idea, it'll get flack, even when it's right.
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