Seminoles Show Coming of Age, Perseverance with Strong Finish

Throwing in the towel might have been the easy thing to do for Florida State as the Seminoles found themselves down 10 points late in the third quarter on the road against N.C. State on Nov. 5.

The Seminoles were 5-3, out of contention for both an ACC and national championship and seemingly out of the picture for a New Year’s Six bowl. FSU had just lost a heartbreaker at home the previous week against Clemson, 37-34. A season that began with national championship aspirations seemed to slowly be spiraling away.

Fast forward to three weeks later and the Seminoles appear on the cusp of a fifth straight major bowl appearance and perhaps a 10-win season and top 10 finish. In a third straight dominating performance on Saturday night, FSU took down rival Florida for a fourth straight time 31-13 to improve to 9-3 on the season and alleviate some of the heartache from the early parts of the season.

Given the preseason expectations, it will be hard to honestly portray 2016 as a success for FSU, but it’s no longer an abject failure. After rallying with two touchdowns in the final 15 minutes to beat the Wolfpack 24-20 to start the month, the Seminoles have destroyed the competition over the last three games, outscoring Boston College, Syracuse and Florida by a combined margin of 121-34.

Throughout the season, running back Dalvin Cook and defensive end DeMarcus Walker were the constants. Following a 153-yard rushing performance against rival Florida, Cook is now just 71 rushing yards away from breaking his own school-record for rushing yards in a season. He’s already surpassed Warrick Dunn as the school’s all-time leading rusher and Greg Allen as the top rushing touchdown scorer in school-history.

After passing up on the opportunity to enter the NFL Draft, Walker has had one of the greatest seasons ever for an FSU pass rusher. His 15 sacks this season is the third most in FSU history.

The Seminoles never fully recovered from the loss of safety Derwin James, whose impact on the defense was immense. James suffered a knee injury in the home-opener against Charleston Southern and hasn’t played since. For the rest of the defense however, the improvement has been gradual and significant.

For the early parts of the season, defensive coordinator Charles Kelly had been under fire. His defense gave up a school-record 63 points in the ACC-opening loss at Louisville and following the loss to Clemson, it had yielded at least 34 points in five of its first seven games against FBS competition.

Over the last four games, the Seminoles are yielding just 13.5 points per game and one of those touchdowns allowed came on special teams. Another came against a defense full of reserves.

Throughout the course of the year, others stepped up to make the FSU defense a respectable unit once again. Derrick Nnadi came of age on the interior of the defensive line while sophomore Josh Sweat and freshman Brian Burns provided consistent pressure off the edge opposite Walker. Matthew Thomas and Ro’Derrick Hoskins made significant improvement at linebacker while Dontavious Jackson, a freshman, gave glimpses of a very bright future.

Without James and senior safety Nate Andrews in the secondary, others filled in admirably. Marquez White and Tarvarus McFadden, the nation’s leader in interceptions, were one of the best cornerback duos in the country over the second half of the season. A.J. Westbrook improved dramatically from a terrible start to his sophomore season in place of James while wide receiver turned safety Ermon Lane and freshmen cornerbacks Levonta Taylor and Kyle Meyers provided meaningful depth.

All in all, the FSU defense has gone from a unit that ranked outside the top 100 following a Oct. 1 loss to North Carolina to a unit that now ranks in the top 30 nationally.

On the offensive side of the ball, Cook’s outstanding season has been even more remarkable considering the status of the offensive line. Once thought to be a strength in 2016, FSU shuffled six different combinations up front. Despite being among the worst teams in the country when it came to giving up sacks, the unit seemed to put it all together for the final two games, yielding just two total sacks while averaging 291.5 yards per game rushing.

Moving forward, it appears as though the FSU offense will revolve around redshirt freshman quarterback Deondre Francois. Francois burst onto the scene with nearly 500 yards in his debut — a 45-34 win over Ole Miss. Francois finishes the regular season with 3,128 passing yards and 22 total touchdowns compared to just six interceptions, but more importantly has improved in going through progressions and gaining command over the offense.

Wide receiver Travis Rudolph appears on his way to leading the Seminoles in receiving for a second straight year, but later in the year, others came into their own. Sophomores Nyqwan Murray and Auden Tate have each become a bigger part of the offense in recent weeks, giving Francois a solid corps to build around for the future.

With Saturday’s win, FSU’s group of seniors became the first in school-history to go a combined 8-0 against rivals Florida and Miami. If some things fall in line, they’ll help run the streak of consecutive major bowl appearances to five.

A month ago, none of this seemed possible. Following a devastating loss to Clemson, it wasn’t clear whether or not FSU would be able to pick itself off the canvass or even if it would want to.

Aside from the unofficial “state championship”, the Seminoles seemed to have little to play for other than pride. Thanks to back-to-back embarrassing losses by Louisville, the Seminoles are now in line to play for something much more rewarding — both financially and in terms of prestige.

For that, the credit goes to head coach Jimbo Fisher and the coaching staff for not letting the team quit in a year where expectations had no chance of being met. Fisher has been advocating for his team to make us “remember November”. If the Seminoles sneak their way into the Orange Bowl following another dominating effort against Florida, we certainly will.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson