It's natural to be disappointed in your defense when it gives up 500 yards and loses but a coach's job is to identify not only the problems but the areas of success, he can build from.

I came out of the Clemson game thinking FSU had enjoyed a modicum of success in the redzone, so I took a deeper dive into the play by play to verify what my eyes had seen, and the results might surprise you.

The Tigers averaged 6.85 yards per-play over the course of the game but held the Tigers to 15 yards on 17 plays (.8823 yards per play) in the redzone.

Surprised?

The Seminoles are tied for 132nd among 134 FBS schools in terms of the number of times opponents have reached the redzone 28 times — an ignoble statistic — but ranked No. 25 nationally in limiting opponents to 21 scores (.750). Eight of those 21 scores were field goals.

So while it’s bad that teams are reaching the red zone so often, limiting the scores in the redzone is evidence the defense isn't quitting when their backs are against the wall, or while the offense to struggles to maintain drives or score points.

On Clemson's eight drives inside the 25 yard line, FSU’s defense managed seven third-down stops, gave up one touchdown and forced seven field goals, two of which were blocked.

In this story we also break down those 73 defensive plays, of which Clemson gained right at half (248 yards) of their 500 yards on just 8 plays and ask Adam Fuller about the redzone success and what he's doing to try to expand that to the whole field.


Amidst defensive struggles, a glimmer of light

I think Glenn shows promise. He made some really good throws

He's driven a pretty special bus right into the ground at lightening speed in front of the entire football nation. Maybe the Insiders can opine?

He hurt this weekend?? He didn't get a snap on Saturday.

Wow, everyone being safe?

Millions are without power in Florida. Hang in there. All of the best as you recover from the storm.

Drone footage of the Rays' stadium:

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FSU sports information:

The No. 22 Florida State soccer team (7-2-2, 2-2-1 ACC) hits the road for a third straight game to face Boston College (10-3-1, 2-2-1 ACC) on Saturday night.

Florida State faces BC for a fourth straight season and has won the last four meetings. The latest matchup in Tallahassee saw five different goal scorers for the Seminoles including a first and second career goal from Peyton Nourse in the 6-0 victory.

Jordynn Dudley scored her first goal since returning from the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup at Virginia Tech while Carissa Boeckmann sent in a pitch-perfect cross to Lara Dantas for the fourth goal in her rookie campaign.

Taylor Huff leads the squad in all scoring categories with eight goals and five assists for 21 total points inside September. Huff is the fastest to reach 20+ points in the past five seasons and is only 7 points away from reaching her point tally from last season.

The freshman class has performed well with 40 total points, 13 goals, and 14 assists across six players. This marks the most freshmen goal contributions in the past five seasons across all three metrics. Wrianna Hudson and Ashlyn Puerta have each scored three goals and provided four assists while Dantas has scored four goals with two assists.

FSU has scored 36 goals in 11 games this season, the most in that span since 2009 (42). The defense has kept 11 clean sheets since the 2023 ACC Championship victory.

The two sides will kickoff at 7 p.m. and is available to stream on ACC Network Extra. Live video and stats will be available at Seminoles.com.

FSU is on pace to average its fewest rushing yards per game (58.0) since the very first FSU team all the way back in 1947.

The team is using this bye to examine all that has gone wrong, return to basics and try to right what was expected to be the strength of the team.

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currently committed to UCF, Jayvan Boggs. The Cocoa standout is among the most productive in the country at the position. Boggs tells Rivals that FSU has long been an offer he had an eye on and now that it is in, an official visit could be soon scheduled. Not locked in yet, but the Seminoles have talked to Boggs about the UNC game weekend coming up the first weekend in November.

Definitely something to eye should the logistics get nailed down.

FSU sports information:

The No.27/RV Florida State Cross Country teams will host the annual FSU XC Invitational on Friday at Apalachee Regional Park, which will serve as the Seminole’s Heritage event.

"We are beyond excited to be racing at home on our renowned cross country course,” said FSU women’s head coach Cody Halsey. “We love the opportunity for our wonderful and supportive community to be able to attend our meets. The ladies are excited and are feeling great. We are all looking forward to Friday.”

The men’s 8k will start at 7:40 a.m., followed by the women’s 5k at 8:20 a.m. Live timing will be available.

Senior Jane Eiselstein won the women’s 6k at the Georgia Tech XC Invitational, leading the Noles to their second team victory of the season behind a tally of 34 points. The Chattanooga, Tenn., native crossed the finish line with a winning time of 21:48.2. Eiselstein captured the ACC Women’s Performer of the Week honors for her efforts.

“While our competition squad is small, I’m looking forward to seeing how these guys compete on the ARP tomorrow,” said assistant coach Ian Frazier. “Any opportunity we have to compete on our home course is something we value greatly, especially in a year where we are hosting such an important meet like the NCAA South Regional meet.”

The men’s team remained in the top 30 of the USTFCCCA nationals rankings for the second consecutive week at No.27, after Kaden Levings opened his collegiate career in the 8k securing his first career win with a time of 25:07.6. The Colorado Springs, Colorado native collected the ACC Men’s Performer of the week for his strong performance.

“All signs in training point to a successful day out here tomorrow, especially for our Seniors Patrick Donnelly, Wynne Thomas, and Lucas Bouquot, who get to experience our world-class home atmosphere in conjunction with our Heritage week,” added Frazier. “Special thanks to Visit Tallahassee for their work to make this course immaculate for the competition. Go Noles!”

The Seminoles offered Whitset a few hours after publicly decommitting from Purdue. The three-star tackle took an official visit to NC State over the weekend. He tells me that he is considering a visit to Florida State.
https://floridastate.rivals.com/news/florida-state-offers-former-purdue-commit-ot-takhyian-whitset

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The preseason perception of Florida State’s tight ends has flipped in a dramatic 180-degree turn.

Then: Kyle Morlock is the only constant in a room with unproven veterans and talented freshmen. Now: Morlock wasn’t consistent, veterans have contributed more as blockers while freshmen Landen Thomas and Amaree Williams are proving to be athletic pass-catchers who are working toward fulfilling the all-around responsibilities of a tight end.

“Those are two long, lean, athletic bodies that can go catch and run routes,” FSU offensive coordinator Alex Atkins said. “They’ve always excelled at that.”

Thomas and Williams have made their share of freshmen mistakes, but the growing pains are understandable. The Seminoles (1-5) are playing freshmen for a reason, seeking dependable pass-catchers and developing them as blockers for the second half of 2024 as well as the future.

He lived to be 88 years old.
Interesting guy - a Rhodes Scholar and ex-husband of singer and FSU grad Rita Coolidge.

Is Murphy hurt or out for the season or what?

(Football portal windows: For the 2024-25 academic year, the windows will be open Dec. 9-28 and April 16-25)

Via the NCAA:

The Division I Council on Tuesday approved changes to the notification-of-transfer windows in football and men's and women's basketball from a total of 45 days to 30 days, effective immediately.

The changes, which were initially introduced in June, are intended to provide greater stability to student-athletes and programs, in better alignment with academic terms and, in some cases, professional league draft rules.

"With several years of data now available, we know that the vast majority of student-athletes are entering the portal within the first four weeks of it opening," said Josh Whitman, athletics director at Illinois and chair of the council. "The NCAA remains committed to adjusting to the rapidly changing collegiate athletics landscape while continuing to keep student-athletes at the forefront of our decision-making process. These window adjustments met that standard."

Moving forward, the notification-of-transfer windows in basketball will be open for 30 days, starting the day after the conclusion of the second round of each NCAA Division I championship, when 91% of teams in both men's and women's basketball have concluded their season. For the 2024-25 academic year, the window will be open March 24-April 22 for men's basketball and March 25-April 23 for women's basketball.

In both the Football Championship Subdivision and the Football Bowl Subdivision, the notification-of-transfer windows will be a total of 30 days spread over two windows. The first window will open the Monday after the FBS conference championship weekend for 20 days, and the second window will open in the spring for 10 days. For the 2024-25 academic year, the windows will be open Dec. 9-28 and April 16-25.

The changes were recommended and supported by the Division I Men's and Women's Basketball Oversight Committees and the Football Oversight Committees on Tuesday before the council meeting and were adopted Tuesday by the council — which includes a voting representative from each Division I conference, as well as student-athlete representatives.

Student-athletes seeking to transfer and be recruited by other schools to compete the following year must provide their current school with administrative notice during the window for their sport. The window is for notice only and does not impact the amount of time a student might need to decide whether to ultimately transfer and to what school.

In all sports, student-athletes whose head coach leaves the school would continue to have an additional 30-day transfer window beginning the day after a coach's departure.

Jamir Watkins, Taylor Bowen and Leonard Hamilton are the FSU attendees on Wednesday at ACC Tipoff in Charlotte, N.C.

A few thoughts from Watkins:

Once I decided to come back (to school) it was a no-brainer to return to Florida State.

How the NBA workouts helped: I was blessed to go through the process. It gave me a boost coming back to college. I’m a little more advanced, seeing what it takes to get to that level.

Mike Norvell shared some bad news after this morning's FSU practice. Veteran LB DJ Lundy will miss the rest of the 2024 season.

Mike Norvell seemed quite pleased with what he saw from his team during Wednesday morning's Florida State practice to close out the bye week.

I think he's right to be. It was an energetic, competitive practice where both sides of the ball made plenty of plays. An encouraging way to end the bye week.

Here are some observations from FSU's Wednesday morning practice:

• For the second straight practice this week, the younger players were alone for the opening portion of practice before the veterans joined for the final 2/3rds. And for the second straight day, the true freshman wide receivers took advantage of that opportunity. Elijah Moore had a spectacular one-handed grab on an outside post route in 7-on-7. Lawayne McCoy also did a great job getting open, finding holes in the defense and adding yards after the catch with some impressively shifty moves. By my count, McCoy and Moore had six combined catches in the opening 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 periods before the veterans joined the practice. These two in particular continue to push for playing time and have made the most of this bye-week opportunity with expanded roles.

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• This bye week approach also gave Luke Kromenhoek a chance for an expanded role in practice, as has DJ Uiagalelei's injury. I've liked more and more of what I've seen from the true freshman quarterback. He has freshman moments where probably one of every five or so throws he makes is ill-advised and puts the ball in danger. But the arm talent remains impressive. He had an exceptional deep ball to Jalen Brown during 7-on-7 work that couldn't have been any more perfect. He also showed off his scrambling ability a few times Wednesday, taking off to extend plays with his legs and pick up some yards.
• The run game showed some promising signs of life during Wednesday's practice as well. Caveats should be attached because it was against a mix of defensive players from the first, second and third teams, but there were quite a few chunk runs Wednesday morning. Caziah Holmes busted a long 50-ish-yard touchdown early in practice. Lawrance Toafili busted a similarly long run late in practice. Even Brock Glenn had a touchdown run in red-zone work where he was pushing Darius Washington ahead of him as a lead blocker. That play and the celebration from Glenn and the offense that followed brought a smile to Norvell's face, something we don't see a ton from him on the practice field. Micahi Danzy had a great 1-on-1 catch where he created just enough separation, leapt into the air to secure a ball and held onto it through colliding with the ground. You saw FSU try to use him on wheel routes last week vs. Clemson and that could again be a lethal way to use the freshman running back going forward.
• Glenn managed the offense well Wednesday. He had some really nice throws and remains capable as a passer on the run, a skill that may be required going forward from how this offensive line has performed this season.
• There weren't nearly as many drops Wednesday as there were Tuesday. However, these catching issues still showed up a few times and often at the worst moments. Both Glenn and Kromenhoek got one-minute drill situations early in Wednesday's practice and both their drives were derailed by bad drops. Toafili dropped a screen on fourth and four that would have extended the drive and BJ Gibson -- who had a chunk catch over the middle of the field earlier in the drive -- dropped a third-down pass that would have given Kromenhoek a first down at the opponent's 15-yard line with about 30 seconds left.
• Kyle Morlock had a few really nice catches Wednesday, including one on a nice ball down the seam from Kromenhoek which he held onto through contact. The freshman tight ends, Amaree Williams and Landen Thomas, each had moments of brilliance Wednesday as well with catches to convert first downs.
• I really appreciated the hustle I saw from a few younger defensive tackles, KJ Sampson and Daniel Lyons, during Wednesday's practice. They each made plays where they hustled way out towards the sideline to assist on tackles. Sampson helped blow up a screen, showing off remarkable acceleration to get out there in time to make a play.
• Safety Ashlynd Barker made quite a few plays Wednesday morning. He nearly had an interception early in practice, settling for a leaping pass breakup. However, he got his interception later in the day on a fourth-down pass. He also added another PBU in 1-on-1s when he kept with a play and knocked a deep pass that appeared to be caught out of the receiver's hands before he could secure it.
• Cornerback Edwin Joseph also once again showed off his playmaking ability late in Wednesday's practice. On consecutive plays, he came up to assist on stopping a screen pass and then knocked away a pass intended for Elijah Moore in the back corner of the end zone with a leaping PBU.

Here's this week's PFF story breaking down snap counts, grades and some statistical analysis from FSU's loss to Clemson Saturday night.

Some confirmation in here about what we thought last night. The FSU youth movement is really here.

A ton of news here:

Pat Burnham and Rivals' John Garcia discuss this topic, among three big questions on the Big 3 schools: