What has led to FSU’s road woes this season?
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By the time Friday rolls around, it will have been 727 days since the Florida State football team won a true road game
The Seminoles are 0-3 on the road this season and were 0-4 a season ago, leaving them 0-7 since their 24-15 win at Florida on Nov. 25, 2023 with Tate Rodemaker and then Brock Glenn at quarterback.
“Obviously, we’ve not played well on the road,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said this week. “ … You go and see what are the connecting things? Is it things that at the end of the day we can control? Is it things that that we faced in the moment?”
If Florida State is going to return to a bowl this season — not the standard for the program by any means but certainly something that matters at least marginally — it will have to snap that drought.
The first of those chances comes Friday night at NC State (5-5). If the Seminoles fail there, their final chance comes in the very stadium where they last won a road game against rival Florida (3-7).
What have been the common themes in Florida State’s road losses this season? Let’s take a look.
Slow starts
The Seminoles have not done well at all in getting off to fast starts to negate the hostile atmospheres they’ve walked into.
Quite the opposite, in fact.
In all three road games this season, FSU has been held scoreless in the first quarter and failed to score in its opening two drives.
In the last two road games at Stanford and Clemson, the team hasn’t reached the end zone until the final minute of the first half. That’s also reflected in the yardage discrepancy the last two games, with the Seminoles averaging more than a yard per play more in the second half of each of those games than the first.
In the first half on the road this season, Tommy Castellanos is a combined 24-of-47 passing (51.1%) for 274 yards, one touchdown and one interception.
In the second half, he’s completed 36 of 67 passes (53.7%) for 539 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. The completion percentage hasn’t improved considerably but the production has.
“We’ve got to take control of the game early. We’ve got to be able to play from ahead, if possible,” Norvell said. “ … This year, we’ve obviously not been good enough. We are looking at every component, to what are the things that we need to fix to to make sure that we’re starting the game the way we want to start that? What are the things that we’re doing to make sure that we are not distracted by any of things that can be distracting when you go on the road?
It’s not as drastic on the other side of the ball, but the Florida State defense has also been better in the second half than the first on the road. In all three games, it has allowed less yards per play over the final 30 minutes and it has allowed 27 total second-half points in those games combined to 49 first-half points.
Establishing the run
With Castellanos at the helm and a deep room of running back options to work with, the run game was expected to be the bread and butter of this FSU offense under new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn this season.
At home, that was certainly the case. The Seminoles averaged 5.59 yards per carry and 254 rushing yards per game, with 26 rushing touchdowns in seven home games this season.
On the road? They’re averaging 4.26 yards per carry, 166.3 yards per game and have four rushing touchdowns.
The East Texas A&M and Kent State games certainly boost the home rushing numbers a bit, but the Seminoles ran for 230 yards and four touchdowns against Alabama, 132 yards against Miami and 170 yards against Pittsburgh.
FSU’s lowest yards-per-carry total of the season actually came in the Stanford loss, when it managed just 3.1 yards per carry.
So this isn’t just about the level of competition FSU has played at home as opposed to on the road. Something about the run game has not traveled at all this season.
Penalties
Playing in hostile atmospheres creates quite a bit more adversity that a team needs to overcome.
That, in particular, seems to have been a real struggle for the Seminoles this season.
In seven home games, Florida State has committed 4.3 penalties per game.
In three road games, that nearly doubles to 7.7 penalties per game on average.
The most egregious game was far and away the Stanford loss when the Seminoles committed 13 turnovers for 79 yards, both season highs. But the other two also had moments where untimely penalties killed the team’s momentum.
At Clemson, a promising fourth-quarter drive into the red zone which could have made it a 10-point game instead ended in a field goal after an offensive pass interference penalty.
At Virginia, a pair of offensive penalties contributed to the slow start while a false start in overtime turned fourth-and-7 into fourth-and-12, making things even harder for an offense that needed a touchdown to keep the game going.
“Collectively, we’ve not played complementary football on the road,” Norvell said. “When we do that, I think we’re a really good football team. On the road, it’s our energy, our focus. Everything that we can do to dictate the game, that’s coming from the sideline. That’s going to be a big focus for this week.”
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