Friday night at 7 p.m. on ESPN the ‘Noles will take on the Virginia Cavaliers in Charlottesville, Virginia.
The Cavaliers are 3-1 on the season with wins against Coastal Carolina, William & Mary, and Stanford with a loss NC State. FSU is 14-4 versus Virginia all-time. The last Florida State win in Charlottesville in the series was in 2010.
Observations from the last game
The ‘Noles piled up 8 rushing touchdowns on Saturday (FSU had 8 all last season).
The defense played well once again except for the one blown coverage.
Florida State offense versus Virginia defense
The ‘Noles offense has been tremendous to start the season (3rd in yards per play, and 2nd in yards per game). The rushing attack has been the spark, 3rd in yards per rush (7.1). With so much success in the run game Thomas Castellanos has been able to connect on some big pass plays via the play action.
Virginia will be locked in on stopping the run and with that in mind Castellanos needs to continue to hit on the long pass plays. This should be easier with the emergence of Micahi Danzy and the return of Randy Pittman and Squirrel White. UVA defense is ranked 39th in yards allowed and is slightly better against the run than they are the pass. Players to watch out for are linebackers Mitchell Melton (3.5 tackles for loss), Kam Robinson and Landon Danley (20 tackles).
Florida State defense versus Virginia offense
The explosive UVA offense (11th in FBS in yards per game) is led by quarterback Chandler Morris. Morris has 1,050 yards passing to go with 9 TDs and 1 interception. Morris ha 3 receivers he likes to throw to, Trell Harris (3 touchdowns), Cam Ross (19 catches) and Jahmal Edrine. The biggest reason for the success of the offense is the experience of the offensive line that consists of four graduate players and one senior. The O-Line has only given up 1 sack this season.
UVA likes it run with J’Mari Taylor and the QB and expect FSU to be ready for it. The defensive tackles need to keep stopping up the middle runs and let the ends like James Williams and Jayson Jenkins set the edge. If they can do that linebackers Elijah Herring and Justin Cryer need to continue their solid tackling. When Virginia decides to throw, keeping Morris from scrambling around to give his receivers time to get open will be top priority for Florida State.
Special Teams
Jaylin Lucas is starting to look shaky, so I expect Squirrel White to get another look at punt returner when he’s healthy. UVA’s kick returner Cam Ross has a kick return for a TD and is averaging 11 yards per punt return. The kicking matchup looks to be even. Advantage: UVA
Prediction
FSU will continue its dominance in the run game with running back Gavin Shawchuk leading the way and get enough stops on defense to get a road victory.
Florida State 38 Virginia 26
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