North Carolina Tar Heels: Florida State Game Preview
The North Carolina Tar Heels return to Tallahassee to face the ranked Seminoles on their home turf.
The North Carolina Tar Heels meet the Florida State Seminoles today in the biggest game yet on the Heels schedule. There are some shades of the Georgia game here, but this one is more important to the goals of the season than that game was. Conference position will be determined.
Don’t get wrapped up in the Seminoles being an ‘elite’ opponent. If the Tar Heels beat them then they will have two losses and that elite status will be lost for a little while. The best friend that the Heels have for an elite win right now are the pollsters who are promoting Miami every week.
So what do the Heels need to do to win? Well Louisville beat Florida State by shredding their defense. The Seminole defense also gave a few points to South Florida despite winning that game rather handily.
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Louisville utilized a mobile quarterback to drive the Seminoles nuts. Lamar Jackson had over a hundred yards rushing in that game. The Tar Heels have a willing runner in Mitch Trubisky, but not a guy who strikes fear into defenses with that ability.
No, the Tar Heels will have to rely on what they do best, having Trubisky find his weapons all over the field. Additionally they to keep Florida State honest by establishing Elijah Hood on the ground with enough carries.
Trubisky has always been pretty accurate as a passer. Tentative play calling and lack of Mack Hollins limited him against Georgia, but in the last two games Trubisky has thrown for more than eight hundred yards. While the James Madison win could be written off, the Pitt win cannot. Trubisky combined to find Ryan Switzer for key plays and found big target Bug Howard in the end zone on two occasions. Those things allowed the Heels to come back in a game where they tried to bury themselves.
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The Pitt game also showed the worst case scenario for three quarters. Creative play calling kept the ball moving on the ground even without huge doses of James Conner. Pitt had probably showed its entire game plan before the Tar Heel defense figured things out in the fourth quarter. The Seminoles will try to the same thing.
However their example will likely be Georgia. The Bulldogs decided to forget fooling anybody. Instead they brought in extra blockers and just hammered Nick Chubb, a Heisman candidate at the time, at the Tar Heel defense. The Seminoles have an inexperienced quarterback and they have Dalvin Cook, another Heisman caliber back.
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Cook ran over South Florida for more than 250 yards. That tape would be good to show the Tar Heel defense. Broken tackles cannot be accepted because Cook has another gear. The simplest thing is not to let him get started. Bend don’t break may be enough here as long as the offense scores on the other side.