The Florida State Seminoles visit the Miami Hurricanes Nov. 15th
By Ian Palmer
The Florida State Seminoles will be making the short trip to Sun Life Stadium in Miami to take on the Hurricanes in one of the week’s best college football showdowns this Saturday, November 15. The defending national champion Seminoles head into the game with a perfect record of 9-0 while the Hurricanes are 6-3 on the season. Miami’s on a bit of a roll though as they’ve won their past three outings.
- The Bovada college football betting lines on Florida State vs Miami: The Seminoles are laying 3 points at Miami.
The Seminoles beat Virginia 34-20 last week and have now won a school-best 25 games in a row dating back to the 2012 season. They’re now the 25th NCAA team in history to achieve the feat. But even though they’re 9-0 this year, they’re just 2-7 ATS so far this year. Quarterback Jameis Winston was intercepted twice by Virginia in the first quarter last week as Florida State fell behind. However, Winston turned it up a notch and finished the contest with 261 yards in the air. He also passed for a touchdown and rushed for another.
Wide receiver Rashad Greene gained 136 yards on a career-best 13 catches and scored a touchdown. His 3,454 receiving yards now rank him third overall in the history of the ACC. He works well with Winston, but they’ll be up against the ACC’s fourth-best passing defense in the Hurricanes as Miami concedes just 180.6 yards against in the air per game. The Seminoles also need a good game out of their backfield rotation of Mario Pender, Dalvin Cook, and Karlos Williams.
Running back Williams carried the ball five times for 46 yards when these two teams met last year and has a team-best seven touchdowns this season. He also averages 4.6 yards a carry this campaign. Defensively, cornerback P.J. Williams had a rough game last week and he’ll need to pick up the pace against Miami.
The Hurricanes had a bye last week and have gone 5-1 since 2011 in games after a bye. One of their best weapons is running back Duke Johnson who’s sixth-best in the country this season with nine touchdowns and 1,213 rushing yards. The junior carried the ball 27 times in their 2013 clash against Florida State and gained 97 yards. The Seminoles’ defense has conceded more than 150 yards on the ground in three of their past four outings.
Florida State will need to keep their eye on Johnson, but they also need to watch receiver Phillip Dorsett who leads Miami with 572 yards. Clive Walford is also having a good season as the tight end has 395 yards. The Hurricanes will need a good game out of quarterback Brad Kaaya and he should be confident heading into the contest. Kaaya has tosses seven touchdowns passes in the past three contests and the Seminoles defense has been struggling lately by allowing 238 yards in the air against per game, which is third worst in the ACC.
Miami has their work cut out for them as they try to contain Winston, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner. The Hurricanes have a pretty good pass rush as they average 2.67 sacks a game with linebacker Thurston Armbrister leading the way with five sacks. Defensive lineman Ufomba Kamalu has 3.5 sacks while fellow defensive lineman Anthony Chickillo has chipped in with a pair.