FSU football: Why ‘Noles run defense could be elite in 2020
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football will return almost every starter on its defense in 2020. Here’s a look at how they could be elite against the run.
The FSU football defense was thought to be one of the better defenses in the nation going into the 2019 season.
FSU finished No. 37 in SP+ advanced metrics in 2018 while having to offset one of the worst FSU offenses in over a decade that turned the ball over 26 times.
The Noles returned its entire defensive line and most of its secondary but had questions at linebacker going into last season.
There were rumblings the Noles would be switching to more of a 3-4 defense, and that’s what we saw as the season got closer.
Florida State Seminoles Football
It’s what they trotted out the first couple games, and it was a disaster. FSU had a team that was recruited to a 4-3 scheme with a defensive coordinator that had only run a 4-3 in his career.
Yet, they were trying to implement a 3-4 scheme? Needless to say, it didn’t take long before that experiment was scrapped, as Boise State and Louisiana-Monroe ran for 214 and 178 yards in the first two games.
However, we saw the run defense improve as the season progressed aside from the Clemson game. FSU allowed teams to average 3.95 yards per carry in the first three games in 2019.
The remaining 10 games saw teams only averaged 3.21 yards per carry, including the Clemson game, where they gave up 320 yards rushing.
Overall, FSU football allowed 3.58 yards per carry on the season, good enough for No. 27 in the nation.
Teams within the top 10 rush defenses allowed 3.17 yards per carry or less. Here’s why I think FSU could be elite against the run in 2020.