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Seminoles look to dash Gators’ playoff hopes

The Sports Xchange

November 25, 2015 at 12:20 am.

Stopping Dalvin Cook will be big for FSU. (USA TODAY Sports)

Stopping Dalvin Cook will be big for FSU. (USA TODAY Sports)

Oh, what a difference a season makes.

When Florida-Florida State kicked off last year, the Seminoles were rolling toward a conference championship game and still vying for the national title, while it was the Gators who were down and out, looking for answers.

In 2015, roles have been somewhat reversed.

No. 13 Florida State (9-2) enters Saturday’s 60th meeting between the rivals not quite at the depths to which the Gators sunk to a season ago when Florida finished 7-5 and fired their head coach, but the Seminoles — as a team — aren’t playing for much more than the state championship and bragging rights for the next 364 days.

The No. 12 Gators (10-1), on the other hand, will be feeling the pressure.

Led by first-year head coach Jim McElwain, the Gators are in a spot they haven’t been in some time: relevant.

Not only have they already clinched the SEC East title for the first time since 2009 — and will play for the SEC championship on Dec. 5 against No. 2 Alabama — they’ve also got an outside shot at reaching the College Football Playoffs should they beat Florida State and then knock off the Crimson Tide.

It’s been seven years since a national title has even been a possibility for UF, which won it all in 2008. Since that great season, they’ve gone a very-un-Florida-like 50-27.

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, for one, is impressed by the dramatic turnaround in Gainesville. After all, just five years ago he did the same thing in Tallahassee.

“I think Jim has come in with great structure, great organization and a great big?picture plan, and he implemented that and got everyone over there to buy into it and become one. And think that’s the key,” Fisher said.

“It’s structure, organization, which then allows you to start changing culture, which is the most important thing if you’re going to turn a program around.”

Saturday marks only the third time in the last eight seasons both teams are ranked when they face each other, with the Seminoles — 52-13 winners against FCS opponent Chattanooga last week — moving up one spot to No. 13 in the latest College Football Playoff rankings.

Florida, however, dropped four spots from No. 8 to No. 12 following a narrow 20-14 overtime win against a 2-9 Florida Atlantic team. The Gators completed only eight passes in the near-shocking upset, while turning the ball over three times, missing three kicks (a PAT included) and nearly squandering a late two-score lead to a vastly inferior opponent.

Entering Saturday’s game, the Gators’ last three wins — which have come by an average of 6 points against teams with a combined 9-24 record — have been anything but impressive.

So maybe that explains why the Seminoles were listed this week as 2-point favorites.

“I am sure (Florida State is) going to look at this and maybe go on vacation,” McElwain said, half-joking, about Florida’s struggles entering the game. “Because (the way we’ve been playing) they should beat the heck out of us.”

The Seminoles certainly want to.

Aside from being able to head to a bowl game with momentum, win the mythical state title and achieve their fourth straight 10-win season, one of Florida State’s stars has something left to play for individually — and the team can likely help the cause.

Running back Dalvin Cook — who was a Gators commit during his senior year of high school before flipping to Florida State — continues to be just on the fringes of the Heisman Trophy race. Aside from tallying 1,475 yards and being the nation’s second-leading rusher at 147.5 yards a game, he is the only player in the nation to rank in the Top 10 nationally in rushing yards per carry (second), rushing yards per game (third), all-purpose yards (sixth), total rushing yards (sixth), rushing TDs (seventh) and scoring (eighth).

Cook became a 50-to-1 underdog to win the trophy in the latest odds released Tuesday by the sportsbooks — the same as Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey, who has been among the perceived finalists for weeks.

Even Gators star defensive back Jalen Tabor called Cook “the best running back we’ll face all year” — and the Gators played LSU’s Leonard Fournette and Alabama’s Derrick Henry.

And now, with a primetime game in hostile territory Saturday night against Florida — which boasts the nation’s eighth-ranked rushing defense — this appears to be Cook’s grand, and final, stage to make his case to Heisman voters.

“I’m going to go out there, just give it all I’ve got,” said Cook, who had a monster game last season against Florida as a freshman, running for 144 yards on 24 carries. “If it impresses (Heisman voters), it does. But I’m just going out there to compete and try to win. I’m going out there to lay it all on the line. That’s it.”

Florida State, which has started a social media Heisman campaign with daily tweets and posts featuring the hashtag #D4LVIN, sure feels like it has a worthy candidate. And so does Fisher, who has quietly lobbied for his star over the last few weeks.

He also knows that all three past Florida State Heisman winners — Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke and Jameis Winston — all propelled themselves to college football’s most coveted perch with big season-ending games against the Gators.

And it just might happen again.

“Big games, big moments,” Fisher said with a smile while talking about what to expect from Cook against Florida this week. “Big players always rise up.”

NOTES, QUOTES

PLAYERS TO WATCH

–The Florida State offensive linemen have killed themselves in the last five games with false start penalties, averaging nearly three per game over that span. Coach Jimbo Fisher called those errors one the catalysts for the season’s first loss to Georgia Tech, and he has continued to fume each week as the mistakes keep happening. The offensive line is mostly freshmen, and Florida State has used two quarterbacks — both relatively new — this season. Some of the penalties have been on receivers, but Fisher said for Florida State to win a game like this against Florida, the Seminoles must be error-free. “Guys have to focus more and concentrate,” Fisher said Tuesday. “You can’t be coaching them all the time. They have to listen and go.”

–DE Demarcus Walker, a junior, announced this wouldn’t be his final Florida-Florida State game — in effect, saying he was returning for his senior season. The Seminoles’ sack leader with eight — to go along with a team-high 12 tackles for loss — will be licking his chops Saturday considering the Gators have allowed an SEC-high 33 sacks this season.

–WR Jesus Wilson could be the x-factor on offense Saturday against the Gators. With lots of attention on star RB Dalvin Cook and leading wideout Kermit Whitfield, Wilson could be forgotten about and able to get open and produce a big game. He had just two catches for 4 yards last week against Chattanooga, and was equally invisible a week earlier in Florida State’s win against N.C. State, with one reception for 4 yards. But Wilson is explosive and is also the most veteran starting wideout, so look for him to shine Saturday against the Gators.