Three (over)reactions from Florida State’s upset victory with CoachAB

It has been awhile my friends but finally we have something worth (over)reacting to. I have been waiting and waiting for this opportunity and the time is finally upon us. So much good has been taking place over the last couple of weeks for Florida State football but it hasn’t always manifested itself into victories.

We’re going to talk a stroll through some storylines from the upset of No. 5 North Carolina on Saturday night. There were so many situations that were programming defining for the Mike Norvell regime. Three scenarios, though, I believe will alter the course of history for Mike Norvell and propel his vision forward. The team definitely #CLIMBed on Saturday night.

Finally we have a big win to discuss and (over)react to so lets jump in.

Short Yardage Defense

A few short weeks ago we saw the FSU defense get blown off the ball and dominated in a short yardage situation against Miami. You may not want to click, I think to appreciate the (over)reaction, you should.

This play has been all over the message board and discords in Seminole land and for good reason. We see the line of scrimmage get re-established two or three yards down the field and an easy conversion for the Canes.

Fast forward to the game against UNC and some more time to evaluate and teach. Similar type of situation but much different result.

Look how the defensive line wins the line of scrimmage and moves the game into the Tar Heels backfield. The submarine technique is not one they used against Miami but chose to against UNC. Clearly they have evaluated these situations and are figuring out how to deploy the defense in them.

Hats off to Marvin Wilson, Joshua Kaindoh, Robert Cooper, Cory Durden, Janarius Robinson, Amari Gainer, and Emmett Rice for deciding that it was time to win the line of scrimmage and take pride in the outcome of this play. This piece is all about (over)reacting and these two plays scream growth.

Right Tackle

How many years has it been since there has been an offensive tackle that FSU can be proud of? Or, maybe I should say, can build around? Well they have one in Robert Scott. Scott was inserted into the lineup against Jacksonville State and has continued to impress as a true freshman. That’s right I said true freshman.

Scott is clearly comfortable at RT and within this scheme. What Alex Atkins has done getting this “project offensive tackle” ready as a true freshman is incredible. It makes all the difference in the world for an offense when you can get average tackle play. It is fun for me to watch OL play and see these double teams work in sync. Scott does a nice job of handling the shift pre-snap and then feels the pressure from McDonald and comes off on the linebacker on his run through.

Also, beautiful job by Mike Norvell and Kenny Dillingham for attacking angles to make things easier for the OL.

Special Teams

So you lead the nation in blocked kicks/punts. No big deal, except, that Florida State has never been in that situation before (don’t fact check me on that). How do you spark upsets though? You do it through momentum changing plays and a blocked punt is just that. So when FSU started the game with a blocked punt I knew they were going to win.

The other eye-opening part about this is the coaches knew going into the game that they could block at least one punt. They schemed this up and attacked the situation with an aggressiveness required to upset a top-5 team. Check it out.

Sorry, my body refuses to spend more time talking special teams but this is championship type effort/program stuff right here.