Florida State is coming off of its best defensive performance in years, and they will look to keep things going against an explosive Louisville offense. The Noles finished their game against UVA with 10 sacks while holding the Hoos to 2.8 yards per play. The defense spent the afternoon giving their offense opportunities to get things going, and they put together a full-team performance that they’re hoping will spark a successful season.
The defensive line accounted for most of the sacks on Saturday
with FSU flexing its depth up front. They are able to play a lot of guys up front, and they rotate players a lot in this scheme. Mandrell Desir is the big name up front, along with his brother Darryl. Mandrell led the Noles in tackles for loss and sacks last year, before flirting with the portal. FSU secured their return, but the results this season had been lackluster until this past weekend.
Other players have stepped up to replace the production of the Desir brothers. Rylan Kennedy leads the team in tackles for loss and sacks, while Jalen Anderson has played well on the opposite edge. Kevin Wynn flashed to me against Virginia at defensive tackle as well. Deante McCray is also a player who has become a leader up front after transferring in from WKU. Overall, this group dominated a veteran offensive line last weekend. They’ll be a huge factor in the game on Friday.
Chris Jones is the leader of the defense from his linebacker position. The junior was an absolute star for Southern Miss last year with 135 tackles and 9.5 tackles for loss. He immediately became a leader on this team, and he has been a playmaker with 4 tackles for loss and 1.5 tackles for loss this year. Omar Graham and Mikai Gbayor round out a strong group of linebackers, who will only see their production increase as the defensive line continues to play well.
The FSU secondary has had some issues this year, but playing SMU and Alabama will do that to you. The Noles gave up some big plays to New Mexico State to start the season as well, but they held their own outside of a few plays. They shut down a very poor UVA passing attack last weekend, but it was by far their best performance as a group. The defensive front got great pressure, but a good amount of the 10 sacks on the day were due to very good coverage in the back end. Louisville should challenge this group and make some plays.
Ja’Bril Rawls is the top corner on this team, and his production has been sporadic. He was roasted by a New Mexico State receiver in their first game so badly that I audibly gasped as I watched it. However, he is a solid player with good size, and he plays better against intermediate and short routes. Quindarrius Jones and Nehamiah Chandler have been better on the opposite side, but FSU doesn’t have a corner who has played overly well this season.
The FSU safeties have also been up and down this year, but Ashlynd Barker has impressed me at times. The 6-3/217 JUCO transfer had a nice leaping interception against SMU earlier this year. CJ Richard leads the team in tackles from his free safety spot while Ma’Kai Jones mans the nickel spot. This group has been abysmal in coverage this season, with quarterbacks completing most of their passes against them. If the Noles decide to deploy an aggressive approach this weekend, the Cards may have an opportunity to take advantage of these players in the passing game.
