Tudor's Take: What we learned Saturday

Does anyone in the audience have Jeff Bowden’s cell phone number?

Wow, that’s exactly what a lot of Florida State fans have to be thinking today. Based on the Seminoles’ offensive performance, as designed by coordinator and head-coaching crown prince Jimbo Fisher in a 12-3 loss to Wake Forest in Doak-Campbell on Saturday, the program is in a bad way.

And this part of it can’t be blamed on Bobby Bowden, who was virtually forced at the end of a flaming spear to fire son Jeff and hire Fisher away from LSU to engineer the offense after the 2006 season. Papa B can advise, but the entire offense is in Fisher’s hands.

Whatever Fisher had in mind should have stayed in mind Saturday, judging from the way Wake’s defense completely blew up quarterbacks Christian Ponder and D’Vontrey Richardson, who combined for five interceptions that could have been seven.

But the Seminoles’ sterile passing game was equalled only by a ground attack that did almost nothing against Wake’s defensive front.

• From the opposite perspective, give Wake defensive assistants Tim Billings, Keith Henry and Brad Lambert (coordinator, linebackers) plenty of black-and-gold stars.

Even in that landmark 30-0 Wake win at Tallahassee in 2006, the Seminoles were able to escape with “only” four turnovers and did manage to muster up a couple of reasonably decent drives.

It’s a wild guess — nothing more, nothing less. But my gut today is telling me that Jim Grobe has just as good a chance of actually becoming FSU’s next head coach as Fisher.

• Frustrated North Carolina fans would be unwise to judge second-string quarterback Mike Paulus entirely on what they saw in his hurried meltdown against Virginia Tech.

Obviously, the Tar Heels would prefer to have T.J. Yates (ankle injury) ready in time for Saturday’s trip to Miami, but Paulus still has a promising upside.

Regardless of talent, it simply takes a while for inexperienced quarterbacks to adjust the quickness and complicated coverage schemes of opposing defensive units. Proof of that is as close as N.C. State’s Russell Wilson.

In the second half of the Wolfpack’s 30-24 win over East Carolina, Wilson no longer looked like the overwhelmed youngster that struggled against South Carolina and Clemson. He resisted the urge to panic by relying on his blockers and secondary receivers to give him a chance to flourish.

If the Tar Heels have to go with Paulus at Miami, he may not be ready enough to produce a win. But he will be better.

• The late Bear Bryant is generally credited with having coined the phrase, “Don’t let the same loss beat us twice.”

ECU coach Skip Holtz will have to deal with that possibility this week against Houston. So will Florida State, which has to face Colorado in Jacksonville.

If you’re trying to dig up a  trap game, keep an eye on Wake, which returns to Winston-Salem to face Navy. The Mids aren’t very good, but they are due and they are catching the Deacons between Florida State on front side and Clemson on the back end.