FSU football: Duquesne offensive and defensive tale of the tape

FSU football will open up its 2022 season against the FCS Duquesne Dukes Saturday afternoon. Most FSU fans know little to nothing about this team, so this post is a quick glance at who they are and what they did last year.

It’s a small private Catholic university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Dukes compete in the Northeastern Conference and finished (7-3, 5-2 NEC) in 2021.

Their head coach is Jerry Schmitt, who’s heading into his 18th year at the helm. Duquesne averaged 29.5 points per game, running the ball 57 percent of the time and averaged 4.5 yards per rush. The offense overall averaged 5.5 ypp and 19 passing attempts per game.

They were good on third downs, converting 43.55 percent of the time. They scored touchdowns 53.8 percent of the time in the red zone. From a defensive standpoint, Duquesne allowed 22.9 points per game, allowing 3.9 yards per rush.

However, opposing teams scored 16 rushing touchdowns against them in 2021. They allowed third-down conversions at 32 percent and allowed 5.5 yards per play overall.

Teams scored touchdowns 56.7 percent of the time in the red zone. From a discipline standpoint, Duquesne averaged 59 penalty yards per game (FSU football averaged 62 on 6.8 penalties per game).

I provided a quick breakdown of their depth chart for FSU game here. Their strength of running the ball doesn’t stack up well against FSU’s defensive front, who will likely only allow about 3.5 yards per rush or fewer this season.

FSU will be able to run the ball at will and likely look to display aerial attacks, so opposing defenses will have to spend time addressing it in practice. There is no betting line for the game, but I expect all of the reserves to be in the game during the second half.