Notes, stats and more from FSU's loss to Wake - TheOsceola: Florida State Seminoles Football & Basketball Recruiting

Published Oct 1, 2022

Notes, stats and more from FSU's loss to Wake

Bob Ferrante • TheOsceola

Editor

Florida State played its first game as a ranked team and looked far from it early. The second-half fight was much more of what Mike Norvell would have expected but still short of what it takes to beat a veteran Wake Forest.

Sam Hartman threw for 234 yards and Wake ran for 171 yards as the Demon Deacons took a 31-21 win on Saturday afternoon in a matchup of top-25 teams.

“Disappointed,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “I thought our guys, especially there in the first half, really started almost pressing when we had a little bit of adversity that showed up, did a lot of uncharacteristic things, uncharacteristic mistakes showing up. Way too many penalties. Turnovers, balls were in jeopardy. You look at the third-down situations on both sides, they did a really good job in those critical down situations. I think they were 13 out of 21 of third and fourth downs.”

Jordan Travis connected with Mycah Pittman on touchdown receptions of 18 and six as the Seminoles (4-1, 2-1 ACC) opened both halves with TD drives. Travis completed 23 of 35 passes for 281 yards.

An Oregon transfer, Pittman had career-bests with five receptions and 85 yards. The touchdowns were also his first since he had two TD receptions at Oregon in 2019. Through five games, five receivers have led FSU in yardage — Kentron Poitier vs. Duquesne, Ontaria Wilson against LSU, Johnny Wilson at Louisville, Darion Williamson against Boston College and then Pittman on Saturday.

Johnny Wilson also had five receptions for 85 yards. Wilson leads FSU with 19 receptions for 357 yards. FSU's 2021 receiving leaders were Ontaria Wilson (23 catches, 382 yards) and Andrew Parchment (24 catches, 363 yards).

Treshaun Ward ran 13 times for 87 yards. (He now has 1,050 rushing yards in his career.) FSU ran 28 times for 112 yards (4.0-yard average), although Trey Benson had just four carries for 10 yards and Lawrance Toafili had five rushes for 13 yards.

The Demon Deacons (3-1, 1-1) also converted 7 of 11 third-down conversions and 2 of 2 fourth-down conversions as they took a 21-7 lead at the half. Wake made 10 of 18 third-down conversions in the game and went 3 of 3 on fourth down.

The Seminoles were penalized 11 times for 96 yards.

Patrick Payton, Jared Verse, Josh Farmer and Kalen DeLoach each had sacks.

Jammie Robinson had a team-high 13 tackles.

Ryan Fitzgerald missed a 29-yard field-goal attempt late in the second quarter. He also attempted a desperation 55-yard field goal with 1:13 to go when FSU faced a fourth-and-long.

Pittman's 34-yard punt return was the longest of his career and the longest by an FSU player since D.J. Matthews' 74-yard TD return at Miami in 2018.

The big stat

Wake Forest had been converting just 41 percent of its third-down opportunities coming into the game, while FSU's third-down stop rate was 31.5 percent.

The Demon Deacons flipped the script and used those third-down conversions to build lengthy scoring drives. Wake had touchdown drives of 80, 90, 75 and 39 (the short field off the Travis fumble) and also a final 66-yard drive that took 6:37 off the clock and resulted in Matthew Dennis' 27-yard field-goal attempt with 2:55 to go.

“That’s huge,” Hartman said. “We take pride on that. We take pride on staying on schedule.”

Injury updates

Fabien Lovett had a boot on his right foot and a crutch under his left armpit, similar to how he moved around pregame before BC. Wide receiver Darion Williamson was not observed pregame. Tight end Jackson West moved around on crutches on the sideline.

Jared Verse did play, recording four tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack. Verse was injured in the Louisville game and missed last week's win over BC.

Leonard Warner earned the start and had three tackles.