Florida State v Pittsburgh: The Odds and Ends

April 13, 2013; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State Seminoles head coach Jimbo Fisher during the first half of the spring game at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Vastola-USA TODAY Sports

Florida State is going to open up their season at Heinz Field in just a week. This is good news for those college football obsessed, people going through Jameis Winston withdrawal and folk who are enamored with all things Florida State. It is bad, however, for the Pittsburgh Panthers — who each season feel increasingly less like a once proud program and more like people who call their careers as ‘street performer’ a success.

Throughout the week we will be sharing position battles and whatnot with you, the seemingly loyal reader. Since most other Florida State websites will also likely do this — and there is seven more days until kick — we are going to start our look at the game with some of the odds and ends surrounding the first match-up of the season.

Vegas Likes Florida State

This shouldn’t come as a huge shock, but Las Vegas has the Seminoles opening this week as a 10-1/2 favorite. Meaning, even though Florida State is going to play a freshman quarterback and even though they are going to be on the road, even Las Vegas thinks the ghost of Dave Wannstedt’s mustache is too much for Pitt to overcome. And to be frank — I don’t blame them.

Projected Weather

Sure, the game is still seven days away. Obviously the weathermen are basically glorified educated guessers. But man, weather can always be a big part of any football game. According to our friends The Weather Channel (we use the term ‘ friends’ loosely), it’s going be to 78 degrees and a chance of isolated thunderstorms. Here is my question for them, are thunderstorms ever not isolated? Like, at any point in the history of mankind has thunder struck the Earth every where imaginable at the same time?

You know what, weatherman, I apologize. I shouldn’t be hammering you for such semantics as getting your job done accurately. Plus, I know isolated thunderstorms happens to be relative to your viewing audience. As in, relative to it being sunny until it rains.

Trends Heading into The Game

I am not a big fan of trends. I also become increasingly less a fan of them when the trends from the previous season have nearly zero relevance to the two teams playing in a brand new season — with a slew of new players, sometimes coaches and in different venues.

Alas, you don’t care for my likes or dislikes. You come here for your barely readable — and far less informative — Florida State news.

Pittsburgh is 4-1 in their last five home games. In the interest of honesty, though, it should be pointed out that Pitt played last season in the abomination of a football conference, The Big East. Winning four out of five home games while being a member of the Big East is like me gathering 10 more people to start a football team called The Club State Pool Cleaners — then bragging when we beat The University of Broken Dreams.

The over/under for this game is at 47. Not advocating it, but for people who like to place their mortgages in the hands of 19 year-olds, Florida State has gone under the line in seven of their last nine games. Which again, means nearly nothing.

Come Back Tomorrow

Because I promise, there will be more, relevant stuff.

Me, Twitter @JosephNardone