Miami Hurricanes Football Game 5 Preview: Florida State Seminoles

The Miami Hurricanes are coming off their first loss of the season (a really bad one at that) and now have to turn around and get ready for their bitter rival, the Florida State Seminoles. Florida State always brings out the best out of the Hurricanes and it’s a bragging rights game which players love. Will Miami be able to beat the Hurricanes for the first time in six years or will FSU make it six in a row against the Hurricanes with a win in front of a packed house? We’ll find out Saturday night under the lights.

Game Details

Miami Hurricanes (3-1, 0-0 ACC) vs. Florida State Seminoles (4-0, 2-0 ACC)

Saturday, October 10, 8:00 PM EST, ABC

Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, Florida

Line: Florida State -8.5

Passing Offense vs. Florida State

The Miami passing attack has struggled to get going this season aside from a really good first half against the Nebraska Cornhuskers a couple of weeks ago. Brad Kaaya, who is one of the better quarterbacks in the conference — if not the best — has struggled at times this season. A big reason Kaaya hasn’t played as well as people hoped is the offensive line. Miami’s offensive line was a huge concern coming into the season, and it’s an even concern now. Even with a subpar performance against the Bearcats, the ‘Canes offense has a lot of weapons that can cause the Seminoles defense some problems.

When you think of the Seminoles defense, you immediately think of Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey is the best player on the Seminoles defense and he proved that with a huge game against the ‘Canes last season, one that ended with a Ramsey interception on Kaaya. On the other side of Ramsey you have Marquez White who’s a pretty solid cornerback. White has one interception this season against USF. At safety the Seminoles trot out Nate Andrews and Lamarcus Brutus. Andrews is dealing a left knee injury and after Jimbo Fisher ruled him out for this week on Wednesday, Andrews practiced on Thursday. It’s UM-FSU so you know he’s going to play. If Andrews can’t play (don’t count on it), FSU has Derwin James ready to go and he’s a beast at stopping the run and rushing the quarterback.

Miami and Kaaya have to take some shots against this defense, but they have to be calculated ones or the ‘Canes might run into some trouble.

Rushing Offense vs. Florida State

The Miami rushing attack was one of the few positives from last week’s loss to the Bearcats. Joseph Yearby and Mark Walton continue to be a bright spot for the Hurricanes despite a shaky offensive line. The Hurricanes are going to try and establish the run early against the Seminoles and they definitely have the two runners to make that happen. This is just a thought, no inside info, but don’t be surprised if Miami throws some Trayone Gray into the mix against the Seminoles. These games are physical and that definitely fits Gray’s style.

For the Seminoles, they matchup with a pretty good defensive line. Derrick Nnadi, Nile Lawrence Stample, Demarcus Christmas and Gio Newberry are the main guys for the Seminoles in the middle of the defensive line. Terrance Smith is an athletic linebacker that also helps contain the run. Florida State ranks 48th in the country against the run, allowing 140.5 yards per game. If Miami can establish the run early, they should be in pretty good shape.

Passing Defense vs. Florida State

Everett Golson decided to transfer out of Notre Dame and decided to transfer to Florida State to try and compete for a championship in his last year. While that all sounded great in April, Golson has been a huge disappointment in Tallahassee and has shown why he lost his job in South Bend last season. The FSU passing attack has been bad during their first four games. If you watched the game against South Florida, you understand how bad Golson has looked at times for the Seminoles.

A weak passing attack is something the ‘Canes need to capitalize on. Stop the run game, take a lead and then make Golson beat you. This isn’t a team with a Kelvin Benjamin or Rashad Greene, either. Travis Rudolph was supposed to be the next guy in line but he hasn’t lived up to that, and some of that is definitely on Golson.

Florida State ranks 76th in the country in passing yards per game at 213.5 yards per game. To put that in perspective, 0-5 UCF with a backup quarterback is averaging 217.0 yards per game.

FSU has a really good, young team, but this is the one area that Miami can definitely expose. The last time Golson played Miami, his Notre Dame team destroyed Miami, but this Miami team isn’t nearly as bad as that one was.

Rushing Defense vs. Florida State

Well the big question coming into this week was whether Dalvin Cook would play against the Hurricanes or not. Cook tweaked his hamstring against Wake Forest and he’s still being considered a game-time decision, but there is no way he doesn’t suit up and play against his hometown team. The Florida State offense went from a Jameis Winston driven offense the last two seasons to a Cook-driven offense this year. Golson has not been very good for the Seminoles, but Cook has shown why the Hurricanes and every other school in the country wanted him out of Miami Central. How important is Cook to this offense? The Seminoles have 769 rushing yards this season and Cook has 570 of those yards. While Cook is the featured guy, he’s still not 100% and they’ll be careful with him so the Hurricanes have to account for a couple of other talented guys on the Seminoles roster.

The one guy that comes to mind is Jacques Patrick.

Patrick was one of the best (if not the best) running back coming out of high school last year, but he’s been a non-factor through the first four games this season. Patrick is a 6’2 235 pound freshman that has supreme talent. If Cook isn’t fully effective, Jimbo Fisher might just go ahead and unleash the talented running back against the ‘Canes.

Prediction

Predicting a Miami-Florida State game is usually the hardest thing to do during the season. It doesn’t matter if one team is bad or the other team is great, both teams bring their best effort to these games. This one is no different.

Miami is coming off an inexcusable loss to Cincinnati and will have 9 days to prepare for the Seminoles. Florida State, on the other hand, has looked shaky and is coming off a close win against Wake Forest.

Florida State 28, Miami 24

I want to pick the Hurricanes to win this game, but I can’t pick them because Al Golden hasn’t won a big game since he’s been in charge at Miami. It’ll definitely be a sloppy game Saturday night and the Hurricanes can very well end up winning this game. Or they could get blown out, who knows. That’s the beauty of Miami-Florida State and I can’t wait.