Eyes on the Enemy: Florida State rival rundown

Hey did you guys know that Florida State hasn’t played football in two weeks? No? Just me?

In those two weeks, Clemson has been kinda maybe pretty really good, Miami’s been stuck in the same limbo and Florida has stayed absolutely on brand.

Let’s get to it.

Clemson:

So remember that whole thing about Clemson losing a bunch of players to the NFL, probably taking a step back and possibly being overranked at No. 5 to start the season?

That was a fun two weeks right?

A week after squeaking past dark horse SEC candidate Auburn, the Tigers effectively squashed Louisville 47-21 on Saturday, a far cry from the close contest that came last season.

It’s to be seen how exactly good Auburn (who turned the ball over five times in a 24-10 win over Mercet) and Louisville (who started off the year with close games against both Purdue and North Carolina) are this season, but it’s hard to ignore the way that Clemson won both games.

From Bill Connelly:

Last year, on the way to the national title:

The Tigers held Auburn to 13 points and 262 yards and sacked its revolving door of quarterbacks four times in a six-point win.

They allowed Louisville 36 points and 568 yards in a Death Valley thriller.

This year:

Auburn scored just six points, gained 117 yards, and took 11 sacks in an eight-point Clemson win.

Louisville gained only 433 yards and scored 21 points, but that doesn't tell the story: The Cardinals gained just 185 of those yards and scored just seven of those points in the game's first 43 minutes (which included seven UL punts and the pick-six), as Clemson built a 33-7 lead. The Cardinals made things respectable in the late going, but only because Clemson allowed them to.

Oh yeah, and Clemson gained 613 yards on Louisville, 106 more than last year.

After taking on a few high-profile opponents to start of the season, the next biggest test for the Tigers comes when they take on current No. 17 Virginia Tech on the road in two weeks.

This week, Clemson takes on Boston College at home. The spread is currently hovering around -32 to -34 on most books, with an over/under of 52.5. The game’s set for 3:30 p.m., and will be broadcast on ESPN2.

Miami:

There isn’t a whole bunch to relay back on Miami, who have had their own two-week break to deal with. Football-aside it’s unfortunate how much Hurricane Irma affected the campus, which won’t actually be open until next Monday, and I’m grateful that there was no serious damage to the university.

With the game now moved to Oct. 7, Miami will actually get the chance to be challenged by an opponent before heading to Tallahassee. This week, the Hurricanes have a matchup against the fearsome Toledo Rockets but after that, they head on the road to play Duke, who is currently hilariously undefeated and may very well be leading the ACC Coastal when the two match up. The Blue Devils currently have two mildly-respectable out-of-conference wins (Northwestern and Baylor) and play North Carolina this week.

With Clemson taking on Virginia Tech and Miami playing Duke on Sept. 30, the ACC race should be making itself pretty clear when the Seminoles and Hurricanes meet.

Miami vs. Toledo is slated for 3:30 p.m., and will be broadcast on regional ACC networks. The spread is near-unamioiusly 13.5, with an over/under range of 60-62.

Florida:

What do you guys want to start with first, the nine players that’ll probably remain suspended for a good chunk of the season at minimum or downplaying the Gators’ miracle win over Tennessee by pointing out how god awful the entire game was?

I like to give credit where credit is deserved, so the utmost congratulations to Florida for somehow stumbling ass-first into a situation where they had Tyrie Cleveland in single coverage on the final play of the game. I think the best part of the play is that Feleipe Franks was seriously considering running the ball and that Mark Thompson was calling for the ball like it was a good idea to throw a checkdown with five seconds left on the clock. I’m envious of the alternate Perry that got to watch those things happen in a parallel universe.

(If you want a nice breakdown of what exactly happened on that final play, Richard Johnson has got you covered.)

Now, with the #Florida9 that currently remain suspended, things might be looking a little bit worse. The Read Optional, who has led coverage of the entire investigation, has reported that those nine players may be facing felony fraud charges, and that’s before considering other potential charges for misuse of school funds.

From their article:

Antonio Callaway, Jordan Smith, and one other player are likely to be arrested on charges of felony grand theft, with the possibility of further misdemeanor charges being tagged on, according to a lawyer representing one of the players. It’s anticipated that the other six players will also be arrested, but only three players have hired legal counsel thus far.

Callaway has had an up-and-down time at Florida, and it’d be pretty unfortunate to come to an end based on something like this.

But then again, watching Florida lose to Kentucky is going to be hilarious.

The game between the Gators and Wildcats is set for 7:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on the SEC Network. The spread is ranging anywhere from 1.5 to 4 in Florida’s favor, with the over/under on average being 44.

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Questions? Comments? Trash talk? Leave ‘em below, and I’ll see y’all at the same time next week.