Jimbo, FSU Not Looking Past Louisville

Louisville head coach Bobby Petrino may still be having flashbacks about what happened to his team last season against Florida State. 2 Seminoles from their unbeaten perch and derail their back-to-back national title bid.

He returned to the game, exploding for the game-winner on a 23-yard run, but for two quarters neither he nor the Seminoles offense moved the ball as effectively.

And the FSU squirmed off the hook.

“I didn’t sleep much”, Fisher said. “That hurts a lot”.

Florida State rallied from a 21-0 deficit a year ago in Louisville in a 42-31 win.

“We lost a few guys, yeah, but this is Florida State and we don’t have drop-offs here”, senior placekicker Roberto Aguayo said.

The undefeated Seminoles look to stay that way when they host Louisville for an ACC Coastal Division bout Saturday afternoon at Doak Campbell Stadium.

“We’re taking steps in the right direction”.

“Yeah, we’re working those guys in”. Are we there? No, we’re not flawless.

“That’s the exciting thing”.

There’s no wondering, of course, about the Seminoles’ biggest star, Dalvin Cook.

– As the college football season reaches its midway point, the Florida State Seminoles are among the Sweet 16 of unbeaten teams remaining in the Football Bowl Subdivision. The victory was extra special considering Miami is Cook’s hometown. Perhaps the Jackets get the benefit of being at home in this game, but there is no way to argue that Pitt will have every opportunity to go into Atlanta and win.

Speaking of starting fast, the Miami game also represented arguably quarterback Everett Golson’s best outing of the season. I’m not saying we have it totally because we did it on one drive. On Monday, Fisher finally explained his reasoning.

“We finally got it down once again with communication, understanding each other, making the right calls, being able to read defenses and being able to talk it out”, right guard Wilson Bell said. Everybody’s expectations, things like that. It’s not about that. “I think we did a pretty good job”. “That’s why. And there may be a time he does (get to talk to the media), but not right now”. Florida was also the last team to defeat Florida State in the regular season in 2012.

Miami’s 24 points in its loss Saturday was the most allowed by the Seminoles, who have allowed opponents an average of 14 points a game. In the time I’ve spent around him and his wife Jerri, they’ve been great people. “The last two weeks, at Boston College and Wake Forest, I didn’t like the look in our eyes those moments, even though we had leads and were putting games away”. “I know that. It’s lineup or how we start the game, whatever it is, we’re working our tails off to be more consistent”.

“[Nick] was close today, we held him out”. Meanwhile, Louisville played a tough nonconference schedule and paid for it, but the Cards are growing up their young team and Lamar Jackson poses a serious threat at quarterback. Miami rushed 19 times for 20 yards at Florida State. The 281-pound junior had a pair of sacks, forced a fumble and batted won a pass attempt. “Worked hard every week”.

“This is a really good football…they’ve had three losses but all of them have been right to the wire”, said Fisher. LB Jermaine Grace made plays all night and led the team in tackles. Nate Andrews is limited due to an ankle injury and Tre Marshall was ejected in the first quarter due to a targeting penalty. FSU was forced to punt three times on five possessions in the 2nd half thanks to a great effort by Miami’s defense, especially from guys like Muhammad, Thomas, and Norton on the defensive line. He has one of the secondary’s three interceptions and is sixth overall in tackles. They gave up an average of 206 yards rushing in their first three games, but only 45 against NC State.