The Florida State football team is a stunningly different team on the road than at home, where the Seminoles went 5-2. Even when removing two September guarantee games, FSU averaged 32.6 points at home against Alabama and its four ACC opponents.
But in four ACC road games, all losses, the Seminoles have averaged just 18 points per game. They have scored a combined no points in the first quarter, committed nine turnovers and have struggled to limit penalties (31, a majority on the offense).
Two fumbles in FSU’s 21-11 loss at NC State came as a result of special teams mistakes. But the Seminoles still surpassed midfield on seven of their nine drives on Friday. An eighth drive was halted by NC State at the 50-yard line.
FSU is just 83rd in red-zone efficiency at 82.7 percent. While it's not a stat that's kept nationally, the Seminoles are crossing midfield often but seeing drives stall out.
“Some of the same things on the road happened again,” offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said. “We were really focused on getting off to a better start. We did put some drives together. Got in the red zone, couldn’t finish points there. We got to do a better job this week.”
Finishing drives has been a common storyline for the Seminoles, who are vastly improved in total offense at 478 yards per game (No. 9 in FBS). But it shows how flawed FSU’s offense is when those yards don't result in field goals and touchdowns.
The Seminoles script out their first dozen plays, Malzahn has previously said. What they practice during the week and prepare for in a day-before walk-through practice isn’t translating on game days. Whether FSU (5-6) can flip the trend at Florida (3-8) on Saturday (4:30 p.m. on ESPN2) will be critical to ending a two-year road losing streak and defeating a rival.
“We have not seen good enough application on the road for us playing our best game,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “That's what our focus is and that's what we're working to go do."
Biletnikoff Award finalists named
Duce Robinson surpassed the 1,000-yard mark in Friday's game, grabbing four catches for 74 yards and a touchdown. But he was not among one of the top three receivers in balloting by voters for the Biletnikoff Award on Tuesday. Ohio State's Jeremiah Smith, Southern Cal's Makai Lemon and UConn's Skyler Bell are finalists for the award, with a winner to be named on Dec. 12.
Robinson now has 1,021 yards in 11 games. That has helped him move up to 10th on FSU’s single-season receiving yards list, surpassing the likes of Anquan Boldin (1,011 in 2022) and Kelvin Benjamin (1,011 in 2013) as well as E.G. Green (1,007) and Andre Cooper (1,002).
Next up is E.G. Green, who had 1,059 yards in 1997.
Who are FSU’s top tailbacks?
On the surface, FSU has a top-20 ground attack. The Seminoles average 5.24 yards per carry (18th in FBS) and 2,457 rushing yards (11th in FBS). But unlike prior years where FSU had defined, productive tailbacks with the likes of Trey Benson or Lawrance Toafili, there hasn’t been much consistency of late in who and how the backs have been used.
FSU had 180 rushing yards in the loss at NC State and averaged 5.3 yards per carry. But Gavin Sawchuk had eight carries for 35 yards and Roydell Williams added seven carries for 34 yards. Tommy Castellanos was the leading rusher (11 carries for 76 yards) at NC State.
A week after Ousmane Kromah had 11 carries for 59 yards in the win over Virginia Tech, he had just four carries for 12 yards at NC State.
Samuel Singleton Jr. has been productive in spurts, accumulating 91 yards in the win over Wake Forest and 53 yards in the victory over Virginia Tech, but he missed the NC State game due to injury. Even Singleton's carries have fluctuated, from 14 vs. Wake and VT to six at Clemson.
“I think when you look at that room, it's a good room,” Norvell responded when asked about Kromah’s usage of late. “Good balance of abilities, talents. Some guys are probably a little further along in certain areas, maybe certain concepts of what they're being asked to do, and we're trying to put guys in the best position for us to have success.”
Thanks for reading the Osceola. Subscribe now for less than $50 annually to enjoy a full year of coverage of FSU athletics. You’ll also earn discounts at the Osceola’s merch store and Alumni Hall.
