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FSU Football: Position battle spotlight for Miami game

By Zack Scott

WINSTON SALEM, NC - SEPTEMBER 30: Head coach Jimbo Fisher of the Florida State Seminoles stands with his quarterback James Blackman #1 against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at BB&T Field on September 30, 2017 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
WINSTON SALEM, NC - SEPTEMBER 30: Head coach Jimbo Fisher of the Florida State Seminoles stands with his quarterback James Blackman #1 against the Wake Forest Demon Deacons during their game at BB&T Field on September 30, 2017 in Winston Salem, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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For FSU football fans, it has been another successful Miami hate week. FSU will look to cap it off with a win against the No. 11 Hurricanes this Saturday.

FSU football will take on 11th ranked Miami in Doak Campbell Stadium today at 3:30 p.m. on ESPN. Aside from the rivalry, this game will is crucial to both teams in terms of what direction the season will go moving forward.

Matchup preview

This week I will highlight FSU’s passing offense against Miami’s passing defense. I believe this is going to be the key matchup and what most fans will keep an eye on as the game progresses.

Florida State has not been dominant through the air in recent weeks and a lot of that is due to Francois going down. Jimbo has had to scale back a lot the concepts FSU has in place and work to Blackman’s strengths.

Miami’s strength is the front seven. Although their secondary isn’t nearly as talented, the pressure within the trenches could help balance that out. The Hurricanes defense is a very physical unit and will blitz quite a bit. I expect to see their corners jam FSU football’s WRs at the line and get after James Blackman as much as possible.

The edge goes to…

Miami has the edge in this one. If Miami forces FSU in obvious passing downs, it will be a long afternoon for the Seminoles. Florida State is not very good on third and longs. On obvious passing downs, the ‘Noles rank 122nd nationally in terms of success rate (22.5 percent) and that’s trouble going against an attacking defense such as Miami’s.

Florida State must do more on early downs and limit the false starts. Scoring has been a big problem for the ‘Noles in 2017 as well. When FSU football enters the red zone, they must not settle for just a field goal. Having more success in those two areas will certainly help the Seminoles chances.

This will be the 62nd meeting between FSU and Miami. Miami leads the series 31-30. The ‘Noles have a chance to tie that series record as well as extend their winning streak to eight years. However, there are some big “IF’S” for FSU football in this one.

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