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Ponder Taking Some Risks

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By STEVE ELLIS

The Tallahassee Democrat

Published: October 9, 2008

Chip Baker has yet to be asked for tips on sliding as he was more than 15 years ago.

Mark Richt, Florida State's offensive coordinator back then, made the request after watching QB Charlie Ward put himself at risk one time too many as he tried to make something out of nothing or extend a designed run a few yards.

Baker, FSU's director of baseball operations, would offer the same advice for the Seminoles' current starting quarterback, Christian Ponder, after watching the sophomore take some hard hits on his way to 144 yards rushing against Miami last Saturday.

Baker's message: Don't do it halfway.

"If you're going to slide, slide," he said.

Ponder is already getting plenty of advice. His father David, a former defensive lineman at FSU, has encouraged his son to slide or run out of bounds.

"He's just telling me: 'Don't take the hits if you don't have to,' " the younger Ponder said.

Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher has been known to scream his advice: "Touchdown, first down, get down."

Ponder is FSU's second-leading rusher with 262 yards. He's also third in rushing in the ACC among quarterbacks behind Virginia Tech's Tyrod Taylor (338) and Georgia Tech's Josh Nesbitt (290).

FSU fans and opponents have quickly become acquainted with Ponder's mobility and toughness.

"Toughness without intelligence isn't the toughness I always want, " Fisher said. "Sometimes we've got to be careful he doesn't take a couple of shots and get banged up."

Fisher knows Ponder's teammates feed off his toughness. Of the 144 rushing yards Ponder had against Miami, 58 came on plays that weren't designed for him to run -- and some resulted in third-down conversions.

"I'm not going to make him think about running or not. It's about reacting to what happens," Fisher said. "You can't coach instinct and you shouldn't take it away.

"That's who he is and what he is. I'm not here to change him. But hopefully at times he'll make a more intelligent decision -- get down, protect yourself."

Ponder allows that sliding simply isn't second-nature to him. When he slid against Colorado he realized it might have been the first time he did that as a quarterback.

"It's a matter of making myself do it," Ponder said. "Sooner or later, I'm going to get hit hard enough that I'll make myself do it."

IT ADDS UP: Thanks in part to Ponder's running, Florida State did something against Miami it had not done in a long time.

But it wasn't until Thursday that Seminoles players and coaches learned they had rushed for 301 yards on Saturday.

Shawn Powell's punt out of the end zone for a safety went against the punt team and not the rushing statistics. The last time FSU ran for 300 yards in a regular-season game was against Virginia in 2002. The Seminoles have not reached the more elusive rushing mark of 400 yards since 1995 against Wake Forest.

"That's very encouraging that we can run the ball," TB Antone Smith said.

FSU put together its impressive ground game against Miami without the services of senior FB Joe Surratt.

"Joe, right now, has been dismissed from the team," Coach Bobby Bowden said. "That's as far as I want to go with it. It was [an] administrative decision."

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