Jimbo Fisher, Bobby Petrino Preview FSU-Louisville

TALLAHASSEE, Fl. – A contest that was expected to be one of the ACC’s premier match-ups before the season has been reduced to a noon EST kickoff on Saturday, as Florida State (2-3, 2-2 ACC) meets struggling Louisville (4-3, 1-3 ACC) in Tallahassee.

With offensive lineman Landon Dickerson sidelined for the remainder of the 2017 season, redshirt freshman Josh Ball has been thrust into the starting position. Ball endured some hardships during his first career start against Duke, but settled in nicely at left tackle.

Fisher said in his postgame press conference that Ball “had some youth mistakes” when lining up before the snap, but performed well overall.

“[Ball] did really well,” Fisher said during his appearance on the weekly ACC teleconference. “First of all, for a young guy making his first start penalty-free. He had a pressure or so here and there, but the situations we were in, did an excellent job of run blocking. We ran it very well. Ran it to his side very well.

“I think Josh has a really good future ahead of him. We’ve just got to get him more experience, but he is doing a really good job.”

The Seminoles were without safety Trey Marshall and linebacker Jacob Pugh against Duke. Fisher offered no update, saying he will provide one on Thursday.

Fisher characterized FSU’s 2016 blowout loss to Louisville as a wakeup call for many of his players. In that contest, the No. 2 ranked Seminoles trailed 14-3 after one quarter before being outscored 49-17 over the remainder of the game.

“It was 14-10 and they got the big third down conversion — I remember the drive and score that we turned it over and then they turned the faucets on,” Fisher said. “Shows you how dynamic and explosive they are. They did a great job and earned every bit of it.”

“But also, showed there’s a lot of character here in our kids when they rebounded back and ended up having a great season…”

It took until October, but the Seminoles have begun to find their identity on offense, with the emergence of running backs Cam Akers and Jacques Patrick. The two combined for 213 rushing yards against Duke, capped off by Akers’ 42-yard game-winning touchdown.

Fisher hopes to continue using the 1-2 punch of Akers and Patrick.

“We’ve been much more consistent establishing the running game,” Fisher said. “Got to hit a few more big plays and things and hopefully runs will break or our guys will make guys miss…”

Louisville’s defense struggled mightily against Boston College, surrendering 42 points and 364 rushing yards to the Eagles. BC finished with 555 yards of total offense, and Cardinals’ head coach Bobby Petrino knows that this week, his team must score in bunches.

“Yeah, well, offensively, we have to have the mindset that we’re going to go score every time we touch the ball,” Petrino said. “We have to be more consistent doing that.

“But defensively, we need to improve, we did some good things in the first half but did not do a good job in the second half.”

Petrino also echoed Fisher’s statement, saying that the 2016 game, which the Cardinals won in lopsided fashion, is in the past. The tone was noticeably different than Petrino sounded in the past, when he quipped that the Cardinals “should’ve hung 80” on the Noles.

“It’s always a new team, new year, new players, new momentum,” Petrino said. “You try and prepare and get ready for this year’s team and what we’re going to face from Florida State.”

Game Info
Florida State vs. Louisville
Time: Noon EST
Location: Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, Fl.
TV/Radio: ESPN/XM Radio 193

Josh Mixon covers Florida State athletics for The Daily Nole. You can find him on Twitter @JoshDMixon