FSU football: Special teams improvement is critical to upsetting Clemson

Final Thoughts

I know Mike Norvell and the coaching staff is looking to implement their foundation and what they believe.

However, there comes a time when you have to abandon those things for the sake of the greater good. A win against Clemson would do more for this program than attempting to implement a certain way of playing special teams.

The right approach to winning this game is fair-catching every kickoff and not fair catching any punt inside the 10-yard line(unless the returner knows defenders are already behind him to potentially stop the ball if it hits the ground before going into the end zone). They should also kick every kickoff deep into the end zone so Clemson can’t return it because kickoff coverage has been terrible as of late. It would be ideal to kick it short and have great coverage to tackle the returner inside the 20-yard line, but they haven’t been able to do that at all. It’s not worth the risk of Clemson getting a cheap special teams’ touchdown.

The FSU offense will need to play a clean football game, and every yard will count, especially since the Clemson offense has struggled this year.

They have looked much worse than FSU on offense as of late, and the best plan of action could be to allow THEM to make the mistakes and take advantage of them. It’s not like they have been playing against elite defenses.

If FSU football can gain a couple of possessions near mid-field, they are only a couple of Jordan Travis scrambles away from the red zone, and those can happen on broken pass plays.

That’s where a lot of his rushing production has come, escaping the pocket and creating havoc running or hitting receivers while scrambling.

Other aspects will come into play, but this is something they can easily control with good decisions.