Florida State vs. Samford Preview

This Saturday marks the first official Saturday of the 2010 college football season. It marks a new day at the field and a new night under the lights, but most importantly, it means one thing: A clean slate.

Every team is undefeated and looking to start off strong. After coming off of a disappointing 7-6 season, Florida State may perhaps be the team that has looked forward to redemption the most.

The Seminoles start the season off with a should-be-easy opponent in Samford University. The Bulldogs are a FCS school that just so happens to be the place where new Head Coach Jimbo Fisher played quarterback at years ago.

Florida State won't have to worry about any Ryan Perrilouxs on this squad, such as last year's opponent Jacksonville State, but Samford isn't a team to look past either. The most important thing Florida State can do is go out and prove they are worth watching out for.

Now that may not happen against a FCS school, but it will certainly help to prep them for next week's contest against Oklahoma. Given the fact that this is a new defense with a new defensive scheme, a start-up game is exactly what is in order.

Florida State will be able to display their new defensive scheme and will be able to see early results on whether or not the switch will make the difference. It will take more than one game to determine this, of course, but the nation will be able to see if they have improved their weakest link yet.

The matchup also gives FSU a chance to fill in the holes left by Jarmon Forston, Nigel Carr, and Moses McCray. While there are plenty of wide receivers to go around at FSU, filling the void left by Carr and McCray will be a tough task.

This weekend also marks the start of what hopes to be a successful season for Heisman hopeful, Christian Ponder. Ponder, who is coming off of offseason shoulder surgery, will get a chance to prove that he is healthy and better than before.

This marks the beginning of the Jimbo Fisher Era even though former head coach and legend Bobby Bowden will be on the minds and hearts of thousands of Seminole fans across the country.