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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.

Offense
QB
5 Jameis Winston
6-4
227
r-Fr.
14 Jacob Coker
6-5
230
r-So.
TB
8 Devonta Freeman
5-9
203
Jr.
or
32 James Wilder Jr.
6-2
226
So.
FB
41 Chad Abram
6-0
229
Sr.
44 Cameron Ponder
6-1
240
Jr.
Z-WR
1 Kelvin Benjamin
6-5
234
r-So.
3 Jesus Wilson
5-9
177
Fr.
LT
75 Cameron Erving
6-6
320
r-Jr.
78 Wilson Bell
6-4
314
Fr.
LG
70 Josue Matias
6-6
322
Jr.
60 Jacob Fahrenkrug
6-4
326
r-Sr.
C
52 Bryan Stork
6-4
300
r-Sr.
53 Sterling Lovelady
6-3
291
Jr.
RG
54 Tre' Jackson
6-4
330
Jr.
65 Ruben Carter
6-4
309
r-So.
RT
51 Bobby Hart
6-4
315
Jr.
74 Jonathan Wallace
6-7
295
r-Sr.
TE
35 Nick O'Leary
6-3
248
Jr.
4 Giorgio Newberry
6-6
280
r-So.
Y-WR
81 Kenny Shaw
6-0
170
Sr.
89 Christian Green
6-2
200
r-Jr.
X-WR 80 Rashad Greene
6-0
180
Jr.
84 Isaiah Jones
6-4
200
Fr.

Special Teams

Specialists
PK
19 Roberto Aguayo
6-1
203
r-Fr.
KO
19 Roberto Aguayo
6-1
203
r-Fr.
P
38 Cason Beatty
6-3
229
So.
DS
57 Philip Doumar
6-1
225
r-Sr.
HO
38 Cason Beatty
6-3
229
So.
PR
81 Kenny Shaw
6-0
170
Sr.
80 Rashad Greene
6-0
180
Jr.
1 Tyler Hunter
5-11
198
Jr.
KR
9 Karlos Williams
6-1
223
Jr.
9 Levonte Whitfield
5-7
178
Fr.
KR
20 Lamarcus Joyner
5-8
190
Sr.
80 Rashad Greene
6-0
180
Jr.