FSU football: Revisiting what went wrong against Notre Dame in 2020

FSU football is only a few days away from the 2021 season opener against Notre Dame. Both teams have many new faces, but I thought it would be interesting to revisit the 2020 matchup to see where things went wrong for the Noles.

Notre Dame will start a new quarterback and will have many new faces on the offensive line.

They’ll also have different wide receivers and a couple of new faces on defense, as well as a new defensive coordinator.

What happened in last year’s game? Here’s the just of it:

• FSU couldn’t stop the run
• FSU couldn’t convert on third downs
• FSU couldn’t get pressure on Ian Book and had ONE tackle for loss
• Notre Dame had nine tackles for loss (4 sacks) and six quarterback hurries

Notre Dame totaled 353 rushing yards, with both running backs over 100 yards rushing. Quarterback Ian Book had 58 yards rushing on nine carries and a touchdown. It’s one of the reasons Notre Dame only faced seven third downs in the entire game. Notre Dame averaged 8.4 yards per rush, which is more than their passing average for the game.

FSU was the total opposite as they faced 14 third-down opportunities and only converted on two of them. However, they were 3-3 on fourth down conversions, and going for it on fourth down is something FSU may have to implement more on Sunday night.

FSU had one tackle for a loss, and only three quarterback hurries. Ian Book is more mobile than Jack Coan, so the probability of the Noles getting to him may be higher, especially with a new offensive line.

Notre Dame lived behind the line of scrimmage, and if it wasn’t for Jordan Travis’s ability to run, it would have been much worse. Travis had 96 rushing yards, and the only other person with success running the ball was La’Damian Webb. Webb had 59 rushing yards on 15 carries (4.5 ypc). The only wide receiver with a pulse was Tamorrion Terry, who finished the game with nine receptions for 146 yards and a touchdown.

Story of the Game

FSU’s defense couldn’t stop the run, and Notre Dame never faced many third downs in the game. FSU couldn’t convert on third down because Notre Dame put them behind the chains with several tackles for loss.

Ian Book didn’t have to worry about pressure from the defense because FSU couldn’t stop the run, and he was rarely in predictable passing situations. I’ll break down why this game could be different in the game preview in a day or so, but I thought it would be good to revisit this game.

That way, we can see what variables have changed and how the 2021 game could be different.