FSU football: 3 keys to Noles defeating Florida Gators
By Kelvin Hunt
FSU football (5-6, 4-4 ACC) will have a chance to put a huge feather in their cap with a win over the rival Florida Gators (5-6) Saturday afternoon.
The Noles come into the game off a road win over Boston College last week, where they had to battle the referees and the potential letdown coming off of the Miami win. The good news is the Noles showed no issues with a letdown and overcame a rash of terrible calls by the refs that kept Boston College in the game.
Florida ranks No. 33 overall, according to advanced metrics at BCF Toys, seven spots in front of FSU football. However, those rankings include all of the games FSU played without Jordan Travis at quarterback and can’t measure Florida firing three of their coaches in the past couple of weeks.
Florida is the more talented team, but they have huge question marks coming into the game, not to mention Florida will likely start freshman quarterback Anthony Richardson.
Defensively, they allow 5.46 yards per play, but that side of the ball has fallen off in most of their games of late. They had a decent effort in a losing effort against Missouri last week, so the question is will they show up motivated against FSU?
They have trouble stopping the run and don’t have a defense that creates havoc. Florida ranks No. 72 nationally with 62 tackles for a loss. For comparison, FSU football ranks No. 20 nationally with 80 tackles for a loss. This game is another one I feel confident the Noles can win if the offense shows up. Let’s get into my three keys to victory for the Noles against the Gators to secure a bowl bid.