Latest / ACC Football Addiction (Atlantic Coast Conference) / Miami Hurricanes & FSU Seminoles COLLIDING In DIFFERENT Way Than ANYONE EXPECTED
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: November 25th, 2023, Florida State walks into the swamp against
- 0:05Speaker 1: another rival and they beat Florida 24-15. That win made
- 0:10Speaker 1: them 12-0. They were the program that everybody in the
- 0:13Speaker 1: ACC and in the state was chasing. And nobody in
- 0:17Speaker 1: that stadium had any idea what that night would end
- 0:20Speaker 1: up meaning because that was the last time that Florida
- 0:22Speaker 1: State won a road game. Not the last big road win,
- 0:26Speaker 1: not the last road win against a rival, the last
- 0:29Speaker 1: road win period. That's over 1,000 days now. I believe
- 0:34Speaker 1: it's 1,052. By the time we get to Saturday, we'll
- 0:36Speaker 1: be at 1,058 days. And on Saturday night, the streak
- 0:42Speaker 1: will get its next shot to end at Hard Rock
- 0:45Speaker 1: Stadium against the third-ranked, unbeaten Miami Hurricanes. Now look, I
- 0:51Speaker 1: think I'm pretty up front on this channel and This
- 0:54Speaker 1: is your first time seeing it. You'll figure that out now.
- 0:57Speaker 1: But I very much have a soft spot for Florida State.
- 1:02Speaker 1: And the last couple of years have not exactly been
- 1:05Speaker 1: a pleasant experience. You guys know I also watch Miami
- 1:09Speaker 1: pretty closely. And I'm telling you right now, this is
- 1:12Speaker 1: not a preview that's about some kind of a rooting interest.
- 1:16Speaker 1: It's about something that I think a lot of people
- 1:18Speaker 1: are missing about this game. This is TJ Pittenger, ACC
- 1:22Speaker 1: Football Addiction. We are presented by PrizePix, and all new
- 1:26Speaker 1: users who play a $ 5 lineup using code HMA will
- 1:29Speaker 1: get $ 150 in lineups instantly if they win. I think
- 1:33Speaker 1: people in this game are asking, can Florida State keep
- 1:36Speaker 1: this close? I don't know if that's the right question.
- 1:40Speaker 1: I think Saturday night tells us exactly how far apart
- 1:42Speaker 1: these two programs really are right now, and I'm not
- 1:46Speaker 1: convinced it's the answer that everyone's assuming. Let's start with
- 1:50Speaker 1: the team on top. Because Miami is not just good
- 1:53Speaker 1: right now. Miami is rolling. 5-0 for the third straight season.
- 1:57Speaker 1: 3-0 in ACC play. Third in the country. And they've
- 2:02Speaker 1: done it in a way that's honestly a little bit
- 2:04Speaker 1: ridiculous when you lay it all out. An absolute blowout
- 2:09Speaker 1: on the road at Stanford when people were wondering how
- 2:11Speaker 1: travel would impact them. 77-7 over FAMU. And that one
- 2:16Speaker 1: got so out of hand. The Two sides agreed to
- 2:19Speaker 1: shave five minutes off of the fourth quarter. Miami put
- 2:23Speaker 1: up 856 yards that night, a school record. 33-20 at
- 2:27Speaker 1: Wake Forest, clearly the second best team in this conference.
- 2:33Speaker 1: 52-3 over Central Michigan, and then the one that really mattered,
- 2:36Speaker 1: 41-13 at Clemson in Death Valley at night. and do
- 2:41Speaker 1: some quick math, and Miami has outscored its opponents 248
- 2:44Speaker 1: to 49 through five games. 49 points allowed in five games.
- 2:51Speaker 1: That's not just a hot start. They've made a statement
- 2:54Speaker 1: every time they took the field. And the reason starts
- 2:58Speaker 1: with the quarterback. Darian Menta came over from Duke this offseason.
- 3:02Speaker 1: He had a massive price tag attached to his name,
- 3:05Speaker 1: and he had every expectation in the world on his shoulders.
- 3:10Speaker 1: And All he did in his Miami debut was go
- 3:14Speaker 1: 27 for 30, 401 yards and five touchdowns. His efficiency
- 3:19Speaker 1: is off the charts. Then against Wake Forest, he set
- 3:22Speaker 1: an ACC record for consecutive completions. The accuracy has been absurd.
- 3:28Speaker 1: Not good, but absurd. You've got Malachi Toney, who was
- 3:31Speaker 1: already a problem as a freshman last year. He put
- 3:34Speaker 1: up a school record of 234 receiving yards in the opener.
- 3:39Speaker 1: He catches everything. Cooper Barquet, Mensah's old teammate at Duke,
- 3:43Speaker 1: took the ball 61 yards to the house on Miami's
- 3:46Speaker 1: very first offensive snap at Clemson. But here's the thing
- 3:49Speaker 1: that scares me if I'm the other side. It's not
- 3:53Speaker 1: the offense. It's what Miami did to Clemson up front.
- 3:57Speaker 1: Six sacks, 55 rushing yards. Damon Wilson by himself had
- 4:02Speaker 1: two and a half sacks. It's a defensive front that
- 4:05Speaker 1: took one of the loudest places in college football and
- 4:08Speaker 1: turned it into a library in the fourth quarter. That's
- 4:12Speaker 1: why Kirk Herbstreet went on college game day this last
- 4:15Speaker 1: Saturday and he said, the best team right now in
- 4:19Speaker 1: college football resides in Miami. Not one of the best,
- 4:24Speaker 1: but the best. So that's the picture. Undefeated, top three,
- 4:30Speaker 1: elite quarterback, dominant defensive front coming off of a bye week.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Sounds pretty untouchable. Well, here's where I think it gets interesting.
- 4:41Speaker 1: That Clemson win was impressive, but it was also expensive.
- 4:44Speaker 1: Defensive lineman Marquise Lightfoot left the game and didn't come back.
- 4:47Speaker 1: Right tackle Matthew McCoy went down in a lot of pain.
- 4:50Speaker 1: Starting right guard Max Buchanan injured his left knee, actually
- 4:53Speaker 1: returned to finish the game, and then during the bye week,
- 4:55Speaker 1: he posted that he was having surgery. So Miami's likely
- 4:59Speaker 1: heading into this one without a starting guard who had
- 5:01Speaker 1: started every game this season, right when the interior of
- 5:04Speaker 1: that offensive line had finally started to look a little
- 5:06Speaker 1: bit better against Clemson. On top of that, the secondary
- 5:10Speaker 1: has been banked up all year. Starting corner, Xavier Lucas
- 5:13Speaker 1: did not play at Clemson. He is supposed to come back.
- 5:15Speaker 1: Mark Fletcher missed the Central Michigan game and then played
- 5:19Speaker 1: through pain through that Tigers game. Now, we'll obviously get
- 5:23Speaker 1: a much clearer picture after Mario Cristobal talks on Monday.
- 5:27Speaker 1: Bi-weeks can certainly do a lot, and I'm not telling
- 5:29Speaker 1: you that an injury or two is going to flip
- 5:32Speaker 1: a 21 or 19 point spread based on where you're
- 5:35Speaker 1: looking at it. But I am telling you this, Miami
- 5:37Speaker 1: is not walking into Saturday at full strength. It would
- 5:40Speaker 1: appear there's one more thing hanging over this game for
- 5:44Speaker 1: the hurricanes that has nothing to do with injuries. It's
- 5:47Speaker 1: that November 7th game at Notre Dame. Everybody in South
- 5:51Speaker 1: Florida has that date circled. Everybody in the country has
- 5:53Speaker 1: that date circled. And if you're a 20 year old
- 5:56Speaker 1: kid on a roster, that's coming off of a statement,
- 5:58Speaker 1: when coming off of a bye week, coming off of
- 6:01Speaker 1: Kirk Herbstreet, calling you the best team in America, and
- 6:04Speaker 1: you're a three-touchdown favorite in Vegas, is that three-touchdown underdog,
- 6:09Speaker 1: that rival, is it the thing that's keeping you up
- 6:12Speaker 1: at night? Now, it absolutely should be. Rivalry games do
- 6:15Speaker 1: not care about your record, but it is human nature.
- 6:18Speaker 1: And I think that's the one place that Miami can
- 6:21Speaker 1: actually get beat in this game. It has nothing to
- 6:23Speaker 1: do with Florida State. I'll get to them in a minute.
- 6:25Speaker 1: But it has to do with the roster on your
- 6:27Speaker 1: own sidelines. It has to do with you taking every
- 6:30Speaker 1: game seriously, despite where your opponent comes in at. All right,
- 6:35Speaker 1: now the hard part. Florida State. Before I talk about
- 6:39Speaker 1: the Seminoles, I will just quickly tell you guys about something.
- 6:42Speaker 1: I've told you about things that have been brought to
- 6:44Speaker 1: my attention in the past. I get requests and people
- 6:46Speaker 1: that ask about things all the time. I know of
- 6:50Speaker 1: a family, and I'm not starting a GoFundMe for this,
- 6:52Speaker 1: but I know of a family that was in a
- 6:54Speaker 1: car accident, and they're dealing with a few things, insurance issues,
- 6:58Speaker 1: is something they have, but not the best situation. With that,
- 7:02Speaker 1: you know how insurance companies can be. If anybody wants
- 7:05Speaker 1: to reach out and help with just a situation that
- 7:09Speaker 1: I'll explain more to you, if you do reach out
- 7:11Speaker 1: to me, you can find my email on the channel.
- 7:14Speaker 1: It's just TJ at garnetconnection.com. TJ at doublefriesnoslaw.com works as well.
- 7:20Speaker 1: I know there's a lot of people that watch that
- 7:21Speaker 1: like to help folks in need. I'll certainly give more information.
- 7:24Speaker 1: I'm not taking anything In fact, all the money from
- 7:27Speaker 1: this video, whether you super thanks or just watch it
- 7:30Speaker 1: and share it, I'm going to donate all of this
- 7:32Speaker 1: money to try and help out a family in need
- 7:33Speaker 1: that I'm familiar with. Nobody's required to give anything, but
- 7:36Speaker 1: if you just want to reach out and it's laid
- 7:39Speaker 1: on your heart to help, then great. They're a fan
- 7:41Speaker 1: of one of the two teams in this rivalry. We
- 7:44Speaker 1: can certainly do some work to help them out this week.
- 7:47Speaker 1: Let's talk about the Seminoles for just a moment. I
- 7:49Speaker 1: want to be fair for a sec because this season
- 7:52Speaker 1: has not been just about one thing. It's been about
- 7:55Speaker 1: four different things, sometimes in the same game. Florida State
- 7:58Speaker 1: opened the season with a very unimpressive 34-17 win over
- 8:02Speaker 1: New Mexico State. They lost a one-possession game at home
- 8:05Speaker 1: to SMU, a game in which they were dominated but
- 8:07Speaker 1: won the turnover battle pretty drastically. They went up to Tuscaloosa.
- 8:11Speaker 1: They put up 36 points on Alabama, yet their defense
- 8:14Speaker 1: gave up 50. They handled Central Arkansas despite having about
- 8:18Speaker 1: half the time of possession, and then came that Virginia game.
- 8:23Speaker 1: And I'll be honest, for one afternoon, we didn't know
- 8:25Speaker 1: what to think. 38-7 over a team that had played
- 8:29Speaker 1: in last year's ACC title game. Ashton Daniels runs for
- 8:32Speaker 1: five touchdowns, a school record. He won National Quarterback of
- 8:36Speaker 1: the Week for it. And for about six days, the
- 8:39Speaker 1: heat on Mike Norvell cooled just a little bit. And
- 8:43Speaker 1: then Friday night happened. Florida State went to Louisville. They
- 8:47Speaker 1: jumped out to a 14-0 lead. They had a long
- 8:50Speaker 1: opening drive. They had a fourth down stop on defense.
- 8:53Speaker 1: They had a one-handed touchdown grab by Makai Danzy, which
- 8:56Speaker 1: was on an awful pass, but it still worked. Everything
- 8:58Speaker 1: was going their way. They drive down to the Louisville
- 9:01Speaker 1: two-yard line, and they come away with nothing. It was
- 9:03Speaker 1: the very first time this season they reached the red
- 9:05Speaker 1: zone and had zero points to show for it. What
- 9:08Speaker 1: happened next? Isaac Brown, 97 yards on one play. And
- 9:12Speaker 1: from that point on, Louisville went on to outscore Florida
- 9:15Speaker 1: State 44-6. Brown finished with 235 rushing yards on 17 carries.
- 9:21Speaker 1: Louisville ran for 397 yards as a team. That included
- 9:24Speaker 1: a couple of kneel downs at the end, or it
- 9:26Speaker 1: would have been over 400. It wasn't a bad night.
- 9:29Speaker 1: It was a defense that got run over in front
- 9:31Speaker 1: of a national audience. So now Florida State sits at 3-3.
- 9:35Speaker 1: Their coaches' seat could not be any hotter than it
- 9:37Speaker 1: is right now. They're 1-2 in the conference, and they
- 9:40Speaker 1: get to walk into Hard Rock Stadium on a Saturday
- 9:43Speaker 1: night as an underdog of three touchdowns. And here's what
- 9:46Speaker 1: makes it even heavier. This is supposed to be the
- 9:49Speaker 1: make or break year for the Seminoles. Everybody knew that
- 9:52Speaker 1: back in August. You had back-to-back losing seasons. You went
- 9:55Speaker 1: two and 10 in 2024, you went five and seven
- 9:58Speaker 1: last year. Norvell took the play calling back this off season.
- 10:02Speaker 1: This program has bet a lot on this year to
- 10:06Speaker 1: try and hope that Mike Norvell could get things headed
- 10:09Speaker 1: back in the right direction. And they put a lot
- 10:12Speaker 1: on their quarterback transfer Ashton Daniels. And honestly, Daniels has
- 10:16Speaker 1: been kind of the whole story. He just set the
- 10:19Speaker 1: program record for rushing touchdowns by a quarterback in a season.
- 10:25Speaker 1: He's got 10 already. He's also thrown seven picks. He
- 10:28Speaker 1: had three at Alabama. So he's the reason that this
- 10:31Speaker 1: team can win some games. And on some nights, he's
- 10:34Speaker 1: the reason they can't win some games. That's where Florida
- 10:38Speaker 1: State is. They're a team that can look like a
- 10:40Speaker 1: bold team for a half, and they look like a
- 10:44Speaker 1: completely different roster in the next one. So does this
- 10:48Speaker 1: game actually get interesting? I don't think it's crazy to
- 10:52Speaker 1: think that it can. I don't think that's likely, but
- 10:55Speaker 1: it's possible. I think it comes down to three things
- 10:58Speaker 1: and I'll tell you how I think it goes. Probably
- 11:01Speaker 1: end up talking about Miami Florida state every day on
- 11:03Speaker 1: this channel for the entire week. So tune in. I
- 11:06Speaker 1: got a lot of thoughts. Can Florida state run the
- 11:09Speaker 1: ball against Miami's front? That's number one to me. That's
- 11:13Speaker 1: FSU's identity right now. Usman Chroma has gone for at
- 11:16Speaker 1: least 80 rushing yards in every single game this season.
- 11:18Speaker 1: Florida State says he's the second Seminole since Borg Dunn
- 11:23Speaker 1: back in 1995 to do that through the first six games.
- 11:28Speaker 1: You add in Daniels as a runner, Trey Weisner as
- 11:30Speaker 1: a runner, and the formula is pretty clear for FSU.
- 11:33Speaker 1: You run the ball, you shorten this game, you keep
- 11:36Speaker 1: Mensah and Toney on the sideline. The problem with that
- 11:39Speaker 1: is that Miami just held Clemson to 55 yards on
- 11:42Speaker 1: the ground. And last year, this exact thing is what
- 11:45Speaker 1: decided it. Florida State came into the Miami game having
- 11:49Speaker 1: rushed for over 230 yards in every game before that one.
- 11:52Speaker 1: Miami held them to 132 on 38 carries. If FSU
- 11:56Speaker 1: can't move it on the ground on Saturday, the game
- 11:59Speaker 1: script is going to flip. Daniels has to throw from behind,
- 12:02Speaker 1: and we've seen how that goes. Number two, can Florida
- 12:05Speaker 1: State stop the run at all? This one might worry
- 12:08Speaker 1: me more than Florida State having to run it is
- 12:10Speaker 1: stopping Miami. The Miami offense that everyone talks about is
- 12:14Speaker 1: Mensah and Toney, but what actually broke Clemson was the
- 12:17Speaker 1: second half. Miami turned around and pounded them. A 14-play,
- 12:22Speaker 1: 8-minute drive late in the third quarter that ended the game.
- 12:26Speaker 1: Florida State just gave up nearly 400 rushing yards to Louisville. Now,
- 12:30Speaker 1: the counter-argument is real. Miami's down a starting guard, maybe more.
- 12:35Speaker 1: The offensive line is going to be shuffled. If there's
- 12:37Speaker 1: a week to test the hurricanes in the trenches, it
- 12:40Speaker 1: might be this one. But if Miami can run the
- 12:43Speaker 1: ball the way that Louisville did, this one will be
- 12:45Speaker 1: out of hand before halftime. Number three, turnovers and explosive plays.
- 12:50Speaker 1: Miami did not turn the ball over once at Clemson.
- 12:53Speaker 1: They came close. Mensah barely misses. Florida State, on the
- 12:57Speaker 1: other hand, has an offense that lives on the edge.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Daniels makes some plays, but he also makes a lot
- 13:03Speaker 1: of mistakes. For Florida State to hang around, they almost
- 13:06Speaker 1: need to win the turnover battle by at least two.
- 13:09Speaker 1: They need a short field or two. They need a
- 13:11Speaker 1: special teams play. And they also need their offense to
- 13:15Speaker 1: take care of the ball, which, let's be honest, it
- 13:17Speaker 1: hasn't all season. Speaking of special teams, which they may
- 13:21Speaker 1: need to play there as well, there's a little bit
- 13:23Speaker 1: of a subplot worth watching here. Jake Weinberg, the kicker
- 13:26Speaker 1: who drilled a 50-yarder from Miami in Death Valley. He
- 13:29Speaker 1: was a Seminole last year. He transferred from FSU to
- 13:32Speaker 1: the Canes this offseason. So if this thing somehow does
- 13:35Speaker 1: come down to a late kick in the fourth quarter,
- 13:37Speaker 1: I don't even want to think about it. Kicking hasn't
- 13:40Speaker 1: typically gone well for me in this rivalry. Now, I
- 13:43Speaker 1: want to go back to last year for just a
- 13:45Speaker 1: second because I think it's the perfect example of how
- 13:47Speaker 1: people are going to read this game wrong no matter
- 13:50Speaker 1: what happens. The final score last year in Tallahassee was
- 13:53Speaker 1: Miami 28, Florida State 22. If you didn't watch the game,
- 13:56Speaker 1: it sounds a little bit like it was a war,
- 13:58Speaker 1: wasn't it? No, it was not. Miami led 28-3 heading
- 14:02Speaker 1: into the fourth quarter. Carson Beck had thrown four touchdowns,
- 14:05Speaker 1: two of them to some freshman named Malachi Toney. Florida
- 14:08Speaker 1: State scored late. They tried onside kicks. They made it
- 14:10Speaker 1: look respectable on the scoreboard. And that's the danger with
- 14:13Speaker 1: this rivalry right now. The scoreboard can lie in both directions.
- 14:18Speaker 1: If Miami wins by 30 or more, people are going
- 14:21Speaker 1: to say Florida State is hopeless. If Florida State keeps
- 14:23Speaker 1: it to 10, people are going to say maybe they
- 14:25Speaker 1: found something like that UVA game. And none of those
- 14:28Speaker 1: might actually be true. What's going to matter in this
- 14:31Speaker 1: game is whether the game is closed for the first
- 14:33Speaker 1: three quarters, whether Florida State's lines can actually hold up,
- 14:36Speaker 1: whether Miami plays like a team that knows what's at
- 14:39Speaker 1: stake or a team that's already thinking about South Bend.
- 14:42Speaker 1: Miami's not been very good coming out of bye weeks.
- 14:45Speaker 1: That's something that they need to change, and they've got
- 14:47Speaker 1: a perfect opportunity to do so this week. So what
- 14:50Speaker 1: does this game actually mean? For Miami, it's about protecting something.
- 14:54Speaker 1: It's a playoff seed. It's a Heisman conversation for Mensah.
- 14:58Speaker 1: The idea that this team didn't just get lucky last year.
- 15:01Speaker 1: It's the new standard in this state and in this conference.
- 15:04Speaker 1: Because let's not forget, just three years ago, Miami was
- 15:08Speaker 1: 7-6 and Florida State was undefeated in the regular season.
- 15:12Speaker 1: That's how fast this thing flipped. And Miami wants this
- 15:15Speaker 1: one to say that, hey boys, it's not flipping back
- 15:17Speaker 1: anytime soon. For Florida State, it's about something a little
- 15:21Speaker 1: more basic. It's about survival. Surviving after you just got
- 15:26Speaker 1: embarrassed on the road on a Friday night surviving a
- 15:30Speaker 1: defense that cannot seem to make plays, surviving an offense
- 15:33Speaker 1: that always seems to go cold at the wrong time.
- 15:37Speaker 1: Because after this for Florida State, it's Clemson at home,
- 15:40Speaker 1: and then it's Boston College, Pittsburgh, NC State, Florida to
- 15:43Speaker 1: finish it out. Three and three right now, they need
- 15:46Speaker 1: three more wins to make a bowl. They probably need
- 15:49Speaker 1: three or four more wins to save their coach's job.
- 15:52Speaker 1: And if Saturday goes the way that most people think
- 15:54Speaker 1: it is, on ESPN at seven o'clock, then the conversation
- 15:59Speaker 1: around Mike Norvell is going to get even louder. Not
- 16:03Speaker 1: because anybody expects Florida State to beat the third-ranked team
- 16:06Speaker 1: in the country on the road, but because the gap
- 16:08Speaker 1: between these two programs is what people are measuring. And
- 16:12Speaker 1: right now, it's a canyon. I'm thinking that Saturday is
- 16:17Speaker 1: the first real chance that we're going to get to
- 16:19Speaker 1: find out how deep that canyon truly is. So here's
- 16:23Speaker 1: where I land, at least on Monday. I think Miami's
- 16:26Speaker 1: going to win this game comfortably. On paper, it is
- 16:29Speaker 1: not close. The quarterback, the front seven, the depth, the
- 16:31Speaker 1: home crowd, the bye week, which historically they haven't been
- 16:34Speaker 1: good coming out of. But I'm truly watching two things
- 16:38Speaker 1: harder than I'm watching the final score. I want to
- 16:41Speaker 1: see how Miami's offensive line holds up against a bad
- 16:43Speaker 1: defensive front without their starting guard. And I want to
- 16:47Speaker 1: know whether or not Florida State's defense looks like the
- 16:49Speaker 1: one that held Virginia to seven or the one that
- 16:51Speaker 1: just got bent over by Louisville for 397 yards. I
- 16:57Speaker 1: think that's going to tell us more about where this
- 17:00Speaker 1: program is than anything else. Florida State three years ago
- 17:03Speaker 1: was the one that everyone was chasing. On Saturday night,
- 17:06Speaker 1: they're going to get to find out just how far
- 17:07Speaker 1: behind they've fallen. And they're also going to find out
- 17:10Speaker 1: whether they're close enough to even still see who's in
- 17:12Speaker 1: front of them. I'd love to hear your thoughts on
- 17:14Speaker 1: this game. I'll have a lot of people on this
- 17:16Speaker 1: week to talk about this matchup. I am going to
- 17:20Speaker 1: this matchup. If you're going to the game, let me know.
- 17:23Speaker 1: Like I told you earlier, if you want to help out,
- 17:25Speaker 1: a family in need, you're more than welcome to email me.
- 17:27Speaker 1: It's TJ at garnetconnection.com. You can shoot me a message
- 17:30Speaker 1: on social media if that's easier as well. If you
- 17:33Speaker 1: reply to the comments, I'll do my best to try
- 17:35Speaker 1: and check them on this video. We're going to have
- 17:37Speaker 1: a fun time this week. I don't know how fun
- 17:39Speaker 1: it will be for me for about three and a
- 17:40Speaker 1: half hours in hard rock, but we will have fun nonetheless.
- 17:43Speaker 1: Appreciate our friends over at PrizePix. Again, all new users there,
- 17:46Speaker 1: play $ 5, get $ 150 in lineups instantly if you use
- 17:50Speaker 1: code HMA and win. We'll see you guys next time
- 17:52Speaker 1: on ACC Football Addiction.