Florida State Depth Chart released: Noles moving to 3-4 defense earlier than expected?

Florida State's depth chart for the Pitt game has been released, and hoo boy, are there some interesting bits.

The most obvious, is that Florida State is going to use its 3-4 or 5-2 look much earlier than anticipated. This makes some sense, given that Pitt is a team that wants to run the football and throw off play action. The look has been practiced at various times in practice (it pays to read our practice coverage), but Florida State had maintained that it was not moving to a 3-4 immediately (recruiting tells a different story about future years).

Dan Hicks has normally been playing at end opposite of Mario Edwards, Jr. In this look, which actually employs three defensive tackles (Goldman is the third), and two ends, they'll continue to be opposite of each other. Florida State had practiced the alignment a good bit, but had also practices 4-3, 3-4, 3-3-5, 4-2-5, and 3-2-6 alignments, plus a look with seven defensive backs.

FSU definitely won't be in this defense for the whole game.

Florida State will use this look to match Pitt's 12 personnel (1 back and 2 tight ends). It (when) Pitt decides to use more receivers, the Seminoles will adjust.

But man, this is an enormous front seven from this alignment -- 1897 pounds for the starters, which is one of the biggest college defenses in years.

It's also interesting to note that Tyler Hunter is listed as the starter at strong safety, while Terrence Brooks is listed as free. Karlos Williams is listed as backing up Brooks. All three will play substantial minutes.

The true surprise here is that FSU went ahead and listed its depth chart as a base 3-4 look.

Below you'll find the offensive analysis.

Special Teams