Seminoles show flashes of Taggart’s ‘Lethal Simplicity’ in rebound win
Lethal Simplicity … is that you?
That’s what most Florida State fans were asking after last Saturday’s 37-19 win against Northern Illinois that saw the Seminoles offense look downright effective at times following an ugly 1-2 start to the season.
“Lethal Simplicity” was new head coach Willie Taggart’s offseason mantra for how the offense would be run, but it didn’t appear that way early on as the Seminoles struggled to score, or move the ball, or not turn it over … or generally do anything Taggart promised.
But against the Huskies, Florida State (2-2, 0-2 ACC) scored on its opening two drives to jump out to a 14-0 lead, then was steadied by the field goal kicking of Ricky Aguayo, who connected on kicks of 42 yards twice and once from 50 yards.
“That’s when this offense can be what we all know it can be,” Taggart said. “It was good to start off that way, and we’ve got to put it together for four quarters.”
The Seminoles piled up 472 yards of offense against Northern Illinois, including 352 yards in the air from quarterback Deondre Francois, who finished a stellar 23 of 31 passing with two touchdowns. Florida State also broke 100 yards rushing as a team for the first time this season, although they’re still waiting for running backs Cam Akers, Jacques Patrick or Amir Rasul to go over the century mark on their own.
They should have a great chance this weekend when the Seminoles travel to Louisville (2-2, 0-1) for their third ACC clash of the season. The Cardinals’ defense is allowing 192 rushing yards per game, and their offense isn’t much better, scoring just three points in their loss last week to Virginia.
Taggart said this week he hopes to continue to build on the success of last week, even if he wishes the team was already further along.
“I thought our team improved in a lot of areas last week,” he said. “By no means are we where we need to be, but we made improvements in the right direction, and it’s going to be important to build off of it and try to play consistent winning football.”
To do that, the Seminoles might want to try to get the ball in the hands of receiver Tamorrion Terry, who only has four catches so far this season — but three of them have gone for touchdowns.
Louisville will be looking for just its fifth win against Florida State in their 18-game history. And while Florida State dominated the series, the Cardinals have won the past two meetings, in 2016 and 2017.
