FSU football: 5 MAJOR keys to victory for Noles against SMU Mustangs

FSU football will look to build upon its first win of the season by welcoming the SMU Mustangs to the ACC for their first conference game. The Noles enter the game as a betting underdog for the first time at +6.5, with an over/under total of 47.5. Those odds imply a 27-20 win for the SMU Mustangs. SMU throttled rival TCU last week, scoring 66 points, but nearly half of those points came from special teams or defense.

It'll be a sold-out crowd for FSU's first true road game this season. However, many Noles purchased tons of preseason tickets to help the game become a sellout in no time. Hopefully, they'll still show up for the game, but it's not like their stadium holds 80,000.  

SMU has the No. 53 offense, the No. 33 defense, and the No. 4 special teams nationally, according to FEI advanced metrics. However, they made a notable change at quarterback before last week's game. I wrote about the difficulty in defending their offense for FSU here.

I think the defense will have a better showing against SMU than Boston College because their offensive line isn't as good. However, this game will be all about whether or not the FSU offense can score 20+ points for the second time this season. Here are my five major keys to victory for the Noles.