Dalvin Cook is a scoring machine for FSU. Photo Credit: Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports
Of all the neutral sites No. 4 Florida State could’ve opened its 2016 season at, it doesn’t get any better than Orlando for the Seminoles.
Between the short 4 1/2-hour drive from Tallahassee, an expected pro-Seminoles crowd and playing No. 11 Ole Miss in front of a captive Labor Day night national TV audience, things could certainly be worse.
Oh, and then there’s little doozy of a stat: The Seminoles have never lost a game in O-Town, going 8-0-2 dating back to 1952.
“It has its advantages,” seventh-year Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher said Monday at his weekly press conference. “(One) advantage is it puts your team in a bowl-game, playoff-like atmosphere (right away), while getting great national exposure. And you get an opponent you don’t always get to play — a great, top-notch opponent.”
Any disadvantages?
“Yeah,” Fisher laughed, countering: “You have to play a great opponent (in your first game).”
All eyes will certainly be on Central Florida and the Camping World Kickoff come Monday night as two ACC and SEC powerhouses clash for the first time since their lone meeting in 1961 in Oxford, Miss., where Ole Miss — then-ranked No. 2 in the nation — drubbed Florida State, 33-0.
That game wasn’t much of a contest, but fast forward 57 years later, and this time around the matchup is arguably the best season-opening game of the Week 1 college football slate — a slate that features only one game between Top 15 teams: Ole Miss vs. Florida State.
“I’m ready, the guys are ready,” Fisher said Monday. “Looking forward to playing somebody else. I think our guys are getting tired of playing each other.”
One player Fisher hopes doesn’t get tired Monday is new starting quarterback Deondre Francois, who will be the second redshirt freshman starter in the last four seasons for the Seminoles. Francois was named the starter only after fifth-year senior QB Sean Maguire all but ended the preseason quarterback competition when he fractured a bone in his foot during one of the Seminoles’ first practices. The injury was especially significant because Maguire missed almost all of the offseason workouts after fracturing his other foot in the Seminoles’ season-ending Peach Bowl loss to Houston, not to mention Florida State lost depth at the key position when Maguire went down.
Of course, even before the injury, Francois — a 6-foot-2, 205-pound blue-chip recruit who was ranked as the No. 1 dual-threat QB in the nation out of high school — was seen as the front-runner for the job. And Fisher acknowledged as much when he announced Francois as the starter this past Friday.
“If you didn’t think it was official a long time ago, I’m worried about you,” Fisher said with a smile.
And while Francois was likely also smiling at the news, it remains to be seen if he’ll handle the pressure as well as Florida State’s last redshirt freshman starter before him in 2013: A fellow by the name of Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston, who went a mind-blowing 25-of-27 for 356 yards and four touchdowns in a Labor Day night romp of Pittsburgh.
If nothing else, Francois should feel even more at home than anyone on the field Monday night. After all, Orlando is where he grew up, and the Seminoles played their Spring Game on the same field as Monday night’s game — Orlando’s Camping World Stadium (previously known as the Citrus Bowl) — earlier this year.
“I don’t think the lights will be too bright,” said Francois, who played his first two years of high school football at Orlando’s Olympia High School before transferring and finishing at IMG Academy in nearby Bradenton. “I believe in my preparation.”
Backing up Francois will be redshirt freshman J.J. Cosentino, but behind those two, the lineup is thin. Maguire is reportedly out until Week 2 or 3 (most likely returning Sept. 17 at Louisville), and true freshman quarterback Malik Henry was suspended indefinitely — just two weeks into preseason practice — for what Fisher called a violation of team rules.
The head coach did not elaborate, only to say Henry would not be available to play against Ole Miss.
Of course, depth issues at quarterback aren’t nearly as big of a deal when you have a player the caliber of Dalvin Cook at running back. The Seminoles’ blazing redshirt junior — who says he models his game after Kansas City Chiefs All-Pro RB Jamaal Charles — enters the season as one of the Heisman Trophy favorites after a breakout sophomore year that saw him shatter Florida State’s single-season rushing record with 1,691 yards, despite missing almost two full games with injuries. Florida State also returns its entire offensive line, making the running game its most powerful weapon coming into the season opener. And there’s little doubt with a young QB and a finally-healthy Cook, the Ole Miss front, which lost shutdown run stopper Robert Nkimdiche to the NFL Draft, will be challenged again and again Monday night.
“He’s going to get his share of (yards against us) — he’s just that talented,” Ole Miss fifth-year head coach Hugh Freeze said Monday when asked how the Rebels’ run defense — ranked 17th in the nation a year ago — planned to stop Cook. “We’ve got to be really disciplined with whoever is in there with us on defense.”
But Ole Miss’ defense won’t be the only one with its hands full Monday. The Rebels counter Cook with an explosive offensive weapon of their own: Quarterback Chad Kelly, who led Ole Miss to No. 1 SEC rankings in passing, points and total offense a season ago. Kelly’s 4,542 total yards and 4,042 passing yards also ranked third all-time in SEC history.
“Chad Kelly … this guy is a great competitor,” said Fisher, who was one of the many coaches who openly recruited Kelly out of high school. “He can move the ball. He ran for 500 yards, too, last year, if I’m not mistaken. He makes plays all over the field.”
Kelly will be hunted all night by the Florida State defense, a unit some are already saying could be as good the 2013 National Championship starting squad — all of whom went on to play in the NFL. The Seminoles’ ball-stoppers are paced by senior defense end DeMarcus Walker — who made his collegiate debut in that 2013 game against Pitt and will make his team-leading 21st consecutive start Monday night — and sophomore defensive back Derwin James, a player Sports Illustrated called the “most unstoppable freshman in the nation last year” and whom USA Today predicted “will be a household name by the end of the regular season.”
So, where does that leave the outcome Monday night? Two great offensives, facing two great defenses, in Week 1’s only Top 15 matchup?
Florida State enters as a four-point favorite, but Freeze chuckles at that. Not because he thinks the Seminoles are more than four points better than his team, but because he’s been quite vocal this offseason about Monday’s ACC vs. SEC showdown being called a “neutral site” game.
“I did get a kick out of our AD telling me it’s a ‘neutral-site’ game,” Freeze said at SEC Media Days over the summer. “And I’d use that in quotes, ‘neutral site,’ and I explain to him, ‘Any time you go on the road to a neutral-site game and you have to use silent cadence, it shouldn’t be considered a neutral site.’ So we’ll have a great opposition there in a lot of ways, and it will be an atmosphere that we have to handle.”
And yet another reason Orlando favors Florida State: The two teams haven’t even played a snap, and it’s already getting a rise out of the Seminoles’ opponent.
See you Monday night.
NOTES, QUOTES
PLAYERS TO WATCH:
–DT Derrick Nnadi, a 6-1, 312-pound junior, is coming off his best season, recording 45 tackles and disrupting some of the best interior offensive lines he faced. Nnadi even changed his diet some this offseason, and his teammates have gushed about his dominance in practices. Fisher would agree. “He’s been a pain in (the offense’s) neck all through camp,” Fisher said. “He’s really good on the field. He’s strong as heck. He’s a force inside. And it’s gap-to-gap control; he’s running down the line of scrimmage, defending the run, pass, everything.”
–WR Keith Gavin, a 6-3, 225-pound true freshman wideout may not even play a down this season; Fisher often likes to redshirt young players he expects to be great. But in Gavin’s case, Fisher may not have a choice after guys on his own team have been saying Gavin has been the hardest wideout to stop or cover in preseason camp. Gavin was one of the top receiving prospects in last year’s class, but Florida State won a back-and-forth recruiting war with Alabama for Gavin, who grew up just 20 minutes from Florida State’s campus in Crawfordville, Fla. Gavin was actually listed on the depth chart Monday by Fisher, but as the fourth option at outside receiver — for now, that is. Gavin has other, more seasoned wideouts in front of him in the pecking order — George Campbell, Jesus Wilson, Da’Vante Phillips and Ermon Lane, to name a few — but he may emerge as a force very soon if someone is not producing.
–RB Jacques Patrick, a sophomore, shined in a spot starting role last year when Cook was hurt, and his hard-nosed, Adrian Peterson-style of running endeared himself to Florida State fans quickly. Patrick is 6-3 and a strong 231 pounds and, like Francois, Orlando is his hometown — making Monday’s night bigger for him than most. Patrick, who was listed as the backup to Cook on Monday’s depth chart, is important in part because he will have to spell Cook many times this year — or even be called on to start if Cook gets hurt. But his real value is being in the game when Cook is in, too. Because there will be so much attention will be on Cook at all times, Patrick could slip into the open field very easily and bust big plays — something he did often last year as a freshman. And now, with a year more under his belt to perfect the offense, he could be as dangerous an offensive weapon as Cook this year.
–K Ricky Aguayo is a true freshman who has never played a down in college — so why the heck did we include him as a “Player To Watch?” That’s simple: Fisher makes no secret of the fact that having not just a good kicker, but a great kicker, is a game-changer at all levels of football. No one player, outside of the kicker, can win you a football game, Fisher says. Meanwhile, Florida State lost its All-American kicker from a year ago — Robert Aguayo, Ricky’s older brother who was drafted in the second round by the Tampa Bay Bucs — and Ricky appears to be the heir apparent. He’s looked a little shaky in camp at times, which is perhaps why Fisher listed Aguayo “OR” Logan Tyler as Monday’s starting kicker. But all signs point to Aguayo winning the job — and it’s an important one. Florida State, after all, is a little more than a field goal favorite against Ole Miss, and tight games often come down to special teams.
