Florida State which finds itself ranked 4th in the country is an over four touchdown favorite heading into its home opener against Southern Miss on Saturday night. Mike Norvell's squad finished off then-No. 5 LSU with a dominant second-half performance.
The Osceola staff offers their keys to a dominant performance against the Golden Eagles and also submit their score predictions for the game.
Osceola Football Analyst Mark Salva
Taking Care of Business: After an emotional win and on a short week, will the team perform lethargic and sloppy or come out sharp and focused? Coming into this game as a 30+ point favorite all of human nature screams let up. Southern Miss has some dudes up front defensively and a dangerous, productive running back. They'll play hard and can make FSU look silly if they let them. But this is a veteran team with mature leadership and high emotional intelligence. A focused group. I think they take care of business.
Young Guns Learning on the Run: Assuming No. 1 is an affirmative answer, will the young guys come in and have success? Can top reserves get significant playing time and build the depth that is needed, no, required, for a deep run? I hope so. This game is truly about the FSU mindset and about how they come out and perform. I think they do and a lot of young guys get good time and allow some late scoring.
Prediction: FSU 42, Southern Miss 20
Osceola Managing Editor Bob Ferrante
Start fast, get backups in: This will sound arrogant, especially given the September loss to an FCS opponent two years ago, but high-level P5 teams should mash the gas from the start and dominate a middle-of-the-pack G5 opponent. We think the Seminoles are a playoff-caliber team and have a chance to maximize the $1.5 million guarantee to USM by being efficient and controlling the game from the start. But it's also about getting second- and third-team players playing time to advance their development in game settings, ideally in the third and fourth quarters.
Clean up the mistakes: Coaches say you make progress from Week 1 to Week 2, but who knows if that's true when the caliber of opponent drops from an LSU to a Southern Miss. Ideally, we need to see fewer penalties, fewer missed tackles, better communication on both sides of the ball and no turnovers — at least from the 1s and 2s. Mistakes from younger players are part of the learning process. After one game, it feels like FSU has few weaknesses. But one could be self-inflicted miscues.
Prediction: FSU 48, Southern Miss 10
Osceola Writer Curt Weiler
Make a statement early: I feel like I always default to something to this effect when FSU is taking on a G5 or FCS opponent. The biggest key in these games is flexing your talent advantage from the opening kickoff. Score early and on your first few drives, build a big lead early. You rarely see lower-tier teams rally from significant deficits in these scenarios because they aren't built to do so against teams of FSU's caliber. I've been impressed with how the FSU coaches have approached this week of work. You'd have no idea what they did last Sunday by watching how they have coached this week. They seem well aware of the possibility of a hangover effect and seem hell-bent on not letting it happen. However, it will be ultimately up to the FSU players if that occurs Saturday night.
A complete defensive performance: We were all quite impressed with the FSU defense's performance against LSU last weekend. The defensive line won a great deal of the short-yardage scenarios against a vaunted Tigers offense and should have posted a second-half shutout were it not for a bunch of freshmen on the field for LSU's final series. If this FSU defense is as good as it looked in the first game of the season, it should be able to largely stifle Southern Miss' offense. I'm by no means saying that FSU should post a shutout. USM has a standout running back in Frank Gore Jr. and a quarterback in Billy Wiles who threw for over 260 yards and three touchdowns in his debut last week vs. Alcorn State. But FSU's defense should flex its physical advantage against the Golden Eagles, dominate the line of scrimmage and, most importantly after last week's game, limit the big plays it allows.
Prediction: FSU 52, Southern Miss 14
Osceola Football Analyst Pat Burnham
Match Mike's Intensity: Mike Norvell is never short on energy, enthusiasm or intensity. But it was clear at Tuesday's practice that he had moved on from the LSU game and wanted his team to do the same after having Monday to revel in the season-opening win. Norvell is always intense, but he and several members of his coaching staff had a little extra juice at practice on both Tuesday and Wednesday. If this veteran team can produce that same level of intensity on Saturday night this game should be decided sooner rather than later.
Keeping Count(er): USM gave up almost 200 yards rushing to Alcorn State last week, so I expect for FSU to try to exploit the Golden Eagles on the ground. As well as FSU ran the ball in the second half against LSU, they didn't run as well as they would have liked to. With Clemson two weeks away getting the run game moving at full stride against USM will shorten the game and give FSU some momentum heading into ACC play next week. Whether it's the counter or inside and outside plays, I expect the Seminoles' offensive line and running backs to be the stars of this Saturday night.
Prediction: FSU 49 Southern Miss 17
Osceola Recruiting Analyst Charles Fishbein
Don’t get gored: Frank Gore Jr. is one of the top backs in the nation. Gore wants to put on a show and this is just the type of game for him to see his stock rise with an impressive perforce against a team like FSU.
Don’t let them stick around: When a team like Southern Miss is such a big underdog, you've got to take it to them early and often. Southern Miss has nothing to lose so don’t help them out with stupid penalties and turnovers.
Prediction: FSU 45 Southern Miss 10
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