FSU football: Where Mike Norvell could upgrade the offense in 2020

FSU Third Down Stats in 2019

The amazing thing is Memphis ran 992 plays in 14 games, and FSU football ran 909 plays in 13 games last season which is nearly the same average number of plays per game.

Florida State Seminoles Football

It’s crazy how similar the numbers on third down were, and you’ll get to see that come to fruition.

FSU had 192 third downs(21 percent of total plays) and converted for the first down 35.6 percent of the time. If we break that down further, 105 of those third downs (55 percent) had a distance of seven yards or more to convert for the first down.

The interesting thing was when passing, FSU converted 3rd and 7-9 yards 41 percent of the time averaging 11.3 ypp and completing 78 percent of its passes.

If the distance was 3rd and 10+, FSU converted 27 percent of the time, averaging 8.16 ypp and completing 65 percent of its passes.

If the distance was 3rd and 7-9, the Noles ran the ball 13 times and converted the first down once.  When the distance was 3rd and 10+, FSU ran the ball 28 times and never converted a first down once.

That’s 41 rushes on 3rd and 7+ with one first down conversion. If the distance was 3rd down 1-6, the Noles rushed 37 times and converted the first down 22 times (59 percent).  If the distance was 3rd down 1-6, the Noles passed 50 times and converted the first down 21 times (42 percent).

So lack of accuracy on short passes, running the ball a ton on obvious passing downs coupled with the inability to convert third and long were the problems in a nutshell.