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FSU football: A look at how good coaching improves things

By Kelvin Hunt

DURHAM, NC - OCTOBER 14: A detailed view of a helmet worn by the Florida State Seminoles during their game against the Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
DURHAM, NC - OCTOBER 14: A detailed view of a helmet worn by the Florida State Seminoles during their game against the Duke Blue Devils at Wallace Wade Stadium on October 14, 2017 in Durham, North Carolina. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /
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(Photo by Al Messerschmidt/Getty Images) /

2009 Defense vs. 2010 Defense

The 2009 FSU defense was one of the worst in recent memory in Mickey Andrew’s final season as defensive coordinator.

Andrews is one of the best defensive coordinators of all time, but the game probably had passed him by coupled with him wanting to retire even before that year.

Here were the results:

  • 30.9 allowed ppg
  • 6.75 ypp
  • 44.1 percent third-down conversions
  • 79.25 percent red-zone success rate
  • 66.04 percent red-zone touchdown conversions
  • 85 SP+ ranking

Jimbo Fisher hired Mark Stoops as his defensive coordinator in 2010. Stoops improved the defense drastically from the year prior and even implemented zone concepts. The crazy thing is the players were spot dropping into areas in the secondary, but you could at least tell they knew their assignments and it paid off.

Here were the results:

  • 19.6 allowed ppg
  • 4.93 ypp
  • 41. 4 percent third-down conversions
  • 75.00 percent red-zone success rate
  • 43.75 percent red-zone touchdown conversions
  • 16 SP+ ranking

The 2010 FSU defense was a lot of the same players from the prior year. To have a defensive improvement from 85 to 16 is remarkable.

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