Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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42 NOV. 9, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: FLORIDA STATE BY JACK SOBLE FLORIDA STATE RUNNING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME RUN DEFENSE Florida State's run game is terrible to a genuinely shocking extent. Even if you remove the Seminoles' sacks from the equation and leave everyone else's in, they still have the second-worst yards per carry average in the Atlantic Coast Conference. As things stand through Week 8, FSU is rushing for 2.5 yards per carry, which ranks 133rd out of 134 teams in FBS. No. 134 is Kent State at 2.2. An offensive line that was expected to be Florida State's strength has been abysmal. Redshirt se- niors Darius Washington (left tackle) and Maurice Smith (center) have been fine, but nowhere near as powerful as the Seminoles expected. Left guard, right guard and right tackle, though, have been disastrous. Redshirt junior left guard Terrence Ferguson II produced a Pro Football Focus run-blocking grade of 36.3 before being benched in Week 7. Fellow redshirt senior Jeremiah Byers had a 48.4 run- blocking grade in four games at right tackle. Six players have taken snaps at right guard this season, making continuity next to impossible. Don't blame the running backs, by the way. Red- shirt senior Lawrance Toafili leads a group with a broken tackle percentage of 14.6 percent. That's 102nd in the nation. But Florida State's hit-at-line of scrimmage percentage, per Sports Info Solu- tions, is third in the country at 54.8 percent. Notre Dame's run defense has improved dra- matically in recent weeks, shutting down a strong Georgia Tech unit in Week 8. Not counting a 16- yard loss on a botched snap, the Yellow Jackets rushed 28 times for 80 yards. That's 2.9 yards per carry for a team built on running the football. Graduate student defensive tackles Howard Cross III and Rylie Mills have returned to form, and the linebackers — led by graduate student Jack Kiser, sophomores Drayk Bowen and Jaiden Ausberry, and freshman Kyngstonn Viliamu-Asa — are play- ing some really good football right now. The Irish should destroy the Seminoles up front. Advantage: Notre Dame FLORIDA STATE PASSING GAME VS. NOTRE DAME PASS DEFENSE This starts up front as well. When redshirt senior quarterback DJ Uiagalelei played — he's out for most, if not all of the remainder of the season with a hand injury — he was pressured an eye-popping 44.7 percent of the time. That's second in the country among qualified signal-callers, just behind — you guessed it — Kent State's Tommy Ulatowski. With redshirt freshman Brock Glenn, who is pro- jected to start against the Irish, it hasn't been much better (40.0 percent). Uiagalelei and Glenn have combined to throw 6 interceptions and only 30 completions in 83 attempts when pressured. Of course, Uiagalelei and Glenn have been atro- cious in their own right. The former made head- lines for sailing wide-open receivers and throwing inexplicable interceptions, and the latter's yards per attempt is significantly worse at 5.3 in 64 at- tempts. Glenn managed to turn the ball over on three consecutive snaps in a Week 8 loss to Duke, which was the Blue Devils' first win over the Semi- noles … ever. Ever. Don't think I have forgotten about you, pass catch- ers. They've played their part in this, too. Their drop rate with Uiagalelei throwing them the ball was third in the nation among qualified quarterbacks at 13.5 percent. With Glenn, it's been somehow worse at 15.8 percent with 6 drops in 64 pass attempts. It's really been a conglomeration of awful for Florida State's passing game, one that will not serve the Seminoles well against a Notre Dame pass defense that ranks among the top 10 in the country in most metrics. Advantage: Notre Dame Redshirt senior wideout Ja'Khi Douglas led the Seminoles in receiving through seven games, reeling in 22 catches for 354 yards and 2 touchdowns. PHOTO COURTESY FLORIDA STATE ATHLETICS On PaPer