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Wake Forest passing attack will present real challenge for FSU secondary

Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman became the ninth quarterback in ACC history to reach 10,000 career passing yards last week vs. Clemson.
Wake Forest quarterback Sam Hartman became the ninth quarterback in ACC history to reach 10,000 career passing yards last week vs. Clemson. (Reinhold Matay/USA Today Sports Images)

Florida State’s secondary has stood out this season from a statistical standpoint.

Through four games, the No. 23 Seminoles are allowing just 165.8 passing yards per game, fewest in the ACC and tied for 16th out of 131 FBS teams.

Although FSU hasn’t yet had its top cornerback, Omarion Cooper, at 100 percent this season, the Seminoles have done well enough in the secondary to be 4-0 for the first time since 2015.

But after games against an FCS team, a revamped LSU roster playing its first game together and a BC team with a very depleted offensive line, the FSU secondary will get a very real test this weekend when No. 22 Wake Forest and its high-powered offense heads to Tallahassee on Saturday (3:30 p.m., ABC).

“It’s a really talented group,” FSU head coach Mike Norvell said of Wake Forest. “They were really talented last year without a couple guys who emerged on the scene last year. This year, they’ve got them back and you see the depth. They’re going to run at you and you’ve got to go compete. There are going to be a lot of 1-on-1 matchups just by the nature of what they do. You’ve got to compete. They’re a talented receiver room.”


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For a time this preseason, it seemed that FSU could be facing the Demon Deacons without their starting quarterback, Sam Hartman. Wake Forest announced in August that Hartman was out indefinitely due to a non-football medical issue. Hartman wound up missing just one game, returning for Wake Forest’s game at Vanderbilt after undergoing a procedure to fix a blood clot in his subclavian vein.

“I sent him a message when I heard what happened,” FSU quarterback Jordan Travis said of Hartman. “I’m happy for him, so happy he’s back out on the field. He’s a great player. I watch him a lot and I support him.”

Hartman will be making his 40th career appearance for Wake Forest this weekend. He arrives at FSU fresh off joining an exclusive club last week at Clemson when he became the ninth quarterback in ACC history to reach 10,000 career passing yards.

He enters Saturday in sixth place in ACC history with 10,228 passing yards and needs 56 yards to move into fifth place and 274 to move into fourth. Hartman is also sixth in ACC history with 85 career passing touchdowns after tossing a career-high six touchdown passes in Wake’s 51-45 overtime loss to Clemson.



“I would say he's definitely the most confident and comfortable quarterback we played against,” FSU defensive coordinator Adam Fuller said. "There's nothing that's going to happen out there that he's probably going to be confused (by)…If there's guys running behind your secondary and he's got a pocket to throw the football, it's going to be a long day. And so you've got to find ways to disrupt timing. You've got to find ways that disrupt his comfortability in the pocket. You've got to find ways to rally to the football when maybe your numbers are put somewhere else. He's been really successful in our league.”

It isn’t just Hartman who powers Wake’s passing attack. He also has an exceptionally talented group of receivers to distribute the ball to all over the field. A.T. Perry is back after he was a first-team All-ACC wide receiver in 2021 with 1,293 receiving yards and 15 touchdown catches.

Third-year wide receiver Jahmal Banks is breaking out in a major way for the Demon Deacons to give Hartman another major target. In four games this season, he has 15 catches for 238 yards and five touchdowns, nearly matching the six total catches he had over his first two seasons.

To prove a larger point, four Wake Forest wideouts and one tight end have recorded two or more touchdown catches already this season. Overall, Wake’s 16 touchdown passes this season are only one behind Ohio State for the most in the country.

While FSU’s secondary has risen to the occasion at times this season, this will be that unit’s biggest test of likely the entire 2022 regular season this weekend. And while earlier forecasts projected some potential weather impacts on Saturday’s game due to Hurricane Ian, which could make it harder for the Demon Deacons to run their passing game at peak efficiency, the weather is now projected to be perfectly fine with minimal chance of rain and no severe wind.

“They have a really good receiving corps, compete at a high level,” FSU defensive back Greedy Vance said. “They have a really good quarterback. They’re really good at what they do, really disciplined. Just some real good players.”


One aid to the Seminoles’ cause is their revamped wide receiver unit. While in the past few years FSU’s defensive backs maybe haven’t had an adequately talented group of wideouts to prepare them for what they will be seeing on Saturday, that has changed this season with FSU’s top-graded wide receiver unit according to Pro Football Focus.

“Listen, there's no bigger fan of our wideouts in practice than me," Fuller said. "If you want your DBs to step up to competition and you want your D-line to play well, it's important that the other side (is good) and vice versa. It's the same thing. I mean true competition is about trying to be your best, right? I know that's a line that we use around here, but it's critical to understand that. The wideouts that we brought in here, the wideouts that we have developed, because it's not just about recruiting, sometimes it's about the development too. Kentron (Poitier), the way he's showing up, and some of the other guys, I think it's definitely helped our secondary be more disciplined, be more fundamentally sound, and, yeah, that's going to help you play on game day.”

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