Shyheim Brown has had a front-row seat to the resurgence of the Florida State defense the last few years.
A 2021 FSU signee, the safety has seen the Seminoles go from 0-4 and defensively disastrous at moments in his redshirt season to an opportunistic and smothering unit the last few seasons, appearing in 30 games over his first three seasons at FSU.
He's also well aware that the defense's performance in its 2024 opener was not up to the standard that has been established over the last few seasons in Mike Norvell's rebuild.
That's been a major talking point of the message that Brown and a number of other FSU leaders have been spouting since the end of last Saturday's 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech in Dublin.
"Constantly pushing that we have a standard around here and that we have to get certain stuff done..." Brown said when asked what the leaders on the team have said. "At the end of the day, there's a standard around here. Stuff still has to be upheld and other guys pointed that out. I've got great guys to help me. I've got great guys around me, same mindset, same goals."
Part of the problem for the FSU defense vs. the Yellow Jackets was that there wasn't one single issue that plagued that unit. A new-look FSU defense with quite a few new faces allowed 5.28 yards per carry and three rushing touchdowns after averaging 4.19 yards per carry allowed and 1.21 rushing touchdowns per game in 2023.
The Seminoles missed 11 tackles according to Pro Football Focus, struggled with filling proper gaps to stuff the run and also failed to record any sacks in the loss, just the second time FSU has done that since 2020.
Removing the 2023 Orange Bowl and a garbage-time touchdown in last year's LSU game, GT's 6.46 yards per play Saturday were the most the Seminoles have allowed since 2020.
"We didn't play as good as we wanted to play," FSU defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said Wednesday. "Some of it came to the line of scrimmage, some of it came to space tackling, some came to leverage. My job is to get it fixed, but we definitely didn't play as well as we wanted to play, that's for sure...
"Some of it was individuals, some of it was the group, some of it was technique, but it's all part of the improvement plan of what needs to get fixed. Because we can't go out there and give up yards that shouldn't be given up because when there's those plays to be made and some of those space plays, those are the things we gotta count on. Good defenses make all those one-on-ones and we've got to do a better job."
Without taking too much credit away from what the Yellow Jackets accomplished, Brown was pretty adamant when he talked after Thursday's practice that GT's success was more about what the FSU defense didn't do than what the Jackets did.
"We beat ourselves, to be honest. Georgia Tech is a good program, but it wasn't anything that they did," Brown said. "Every time we messed up, it was corrected on the sideline. It was us coming together as a group trying to figure out what happened, how to fix it...
"Most of the time, if you just say one little word, then (the issues will) probably be fixed. I'm very confident in how we're going to move forward from this. We're coming to work every day. Nothing is stopping that. I'm very confident in where we're going to go."
In some ways, Monday night's home opener vs. Boston College (7:30 p.m. on ESPN) should be a bit easier for the FSU defense. The Eagles were picked to finish 14th out of 17 teams in the ACC this season and it's another game where FSU would appear to have a notable talent advantage.
However, BC quarterback Thomas Castellanos should again present a challenge to the Seminoles after nearly pulling off a significant upset last year in Chestnut Hill.
While Castellanos' numbers weren't great in his debut season at BC -- he completed 57.3% of his passes and had 15 touchdown passes to 14 interceptions -- he did have success that day vs. a much more established FSU defense.
In last September's 31-29 loss, Castellanos threw for a season-high 305 yards and added 95 rushing yards with two total touchdowns. He finished the 2023 season with 1,113 rushing yards and 13 rushing touchdowns, presenting another mobile quarterback threat after GT QB Haynes King ran for 54 yards a week ago.
That first-hand knowledge of Castellanos' ability plus the uncertainty about exactly what BC's offense will look like under new head coach Bill O'Brien and new offensive coordinator Will Lawing presents a number of hurdles that will test exactly how much better FSU's defense can be nine days removed from a very underwhelming debut.
"I think they do have an elite playmaker that's back there at quarterback..." Fuller said. "You're constantly trying to make sure that you put guys in good leverage positions, but at the end of the day, defense is still about getting off of blocks, chasing down the ball, and tackling. So we’ve got to do a great job with doing that this week.”
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