FSU Football: Harlon Barnett bringing physicality back to defense

The FSU football defense is trying to get back to what it was known for when they were on top of the college football world.

FSU defense when they were running the college football world was known for being fast, aggressive and extremely physical.

However, those days seemed to become a distance memory the past few years. National media members called the Noles soft, we’ve called them soft and it seemed like they lacked that killer instinct the program once had.

Enter Harlon Barnett, FSU’s new defensive coordinator who was a physical defensive back in his prime. One of the things he wanted to wanted to instill in his players is physicality.

Now, I understand some players may take plays off here and there. Some players may not know exactly where they are supposed to be in a certain coverage at times.

Matter of fact, they were still some players on the team who still play soft to put it mildly. However, I’m noticing things are changing for this FSU defense when it comes to physicality.

I often joked the last time I saw a FSU player lay the wood to an opposing player recently was when Matthew Thomas destroyed that Michigan running back in the 2016 Orange Bowl just after the Nyqwan Murray fumble.

Well, I’m here to tell ya I’ve seen some hits this year that will not allow me to make that statement any longer.

A few players have laid the wood this season in only five games. Players like Hamsah Nasirildeen, Jaiden Woodbey, Dontavious Jackson, Asante Samuel Jr. come to mind.

Matter of fact, check the highlights of the Louisville game below and the first two plays show what I’m talking about.

Thoughts

They still have ways to go in learning Barnett’s defense inside and out and communicating with one another. However, these players are taking after their defensive coordinator’s mindset much like players of yesteryear did with Mickey Andrews.

It probably doesn’t hurt to have Mickey Andrews back on the staff either in that regard. Another factor is the buy-in from players with FSU’s new strength and conditioning coach.

They appear to be stronger and in better shape than in years past. One example is Louisville running 46 offensive plays in the first half, but the Noles were able to avoid fatiguing too much in the second half even though Louisville ultimately ran 83 plays.

Here’s to watching a defense that seems like they’re really embracing the idea they can put fear in opposing teams like back in the day.