With Florida State Football opening preseason practice this Friday, Aug. 2, it's time for the Warchant staff to tackle the top five questions facing the Seminoles in 2019.
In this edition of the Warchant Roundtable, Gene Williams, Ira Schoffel, Corey Clark and Aslan Hajivandi offer their thoughts on everything from the possible switch to a 3-4 defense, to who's going to step up at defensive end and linebacker, to which position change is going to reap the biggest rewards this season.
In case you missed it, here was our earlier roundtable discussion: 5 key questions on offense.
1. How much 3-4 will we see from Florida State's defense this season?
Gene: Even though Willie Taggart was coy about this topic at ACC Kickoff, I suspect we’ll see a good dose of 3-4 this season. It’s something they worked on a lot this spring, and it seems to be a better fit for the Seminoles' current defensive personnel. However, in today’s modern football, you rarely see a team line up in one formation all the time. As such, I suspect we’ll see a little of everything -- 4-3, 3-4 and nickel (3-3-5) defenses. It will all depend on the opponent and situation.
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Corey: A good bit. I don't know if I could put a percentage on it, but it just seems to me that with what FSU has -- and maybe more importantly doesn't have -- in terms of proven defensive ends, it would make more sense to have more speed coming off the edge. The counter to that argument, of course, is that FSU has hardly any proven depth at outside linebacker. So why put more of those guys on the field? But I think with the likes of Hamsah Nasrildeen and Jaiden Lars-Woodbey, there will be some hybrid-type guys playing closer to the line of scrimmage anyway. Why not use them in different ways to try to affect the quarterback?
Ira: I think we're going to see a whole lot of it. For starters, it's no secret that Florida State has some major question marks at defensive end, and the Seminoles have a very nice assortment of defensive tackles -- guys who could easily transition to ends in a 3-4 defense. They also have some athletic defensive ends, who could move to outside linebacker. But I don't expect FSU to sit in a 3-4 all day, either. I would expect to see some even fronts and plenty of nickel and dime packages. If you look back at Willie Taggart's years as a head coach, he is certainly not afraid to try different looks. USF switched at different points from a 4-3 to a 3-4 to a 4-2-5 as the base defense, and Oregon ran a 3-4 in his one year there. But my guess is we're going to see more 3-4 than anything else.
Aslan: I'd say something closer to 30 percent. The reasoning from most people has been that the 3-4 will get FSU's most talented players on the field, but here's what I don't get: Marvin Wilson is your best player ... and he’s not a prototypical 3-4 defensive end. And if you put him at nose tackle, then what do you do with Robert Cooper? There is some real intriguing talent at outside linebacker, but just being fast won’t get a 220-pound linebacker past a 310-pound offensive tackle. Leonard Warner III and Adonis Thomas are you’re more ‘girthy’ LBs, but do they have the explosive ability coming off the edge? I'm curious to see how it will all meld together.
