Cole Pepper
After upsetting Alabama to open the season, Florida State hosts East Texas A&M on Saturday (noon ET, ACC Network) with an eye on returning to the national title conversation.
FSU beat Alabama 31-17 Saturday behind 152 yards passing and 78 yards rushing by quarterback Tommy Castellanos in his Seminole debut.
If Florida State can play at the same level, they could go into the Oct. 4 matchup with Miami undefeated. After this weekend’s game against East Texas A&M, the Noles will host Kent State before opening ACC play on the road at Virginia on Friday, Sept. 26.
Despite the victory over Alabama, head coach Mike Norvell said he expects improvements this week in several areas, including “consistency of our execution, where it’s 11, understanding leverages, making sure we’re putting ourselves in the best position within the details of the work.”
“We had too many missed tackles there defensively that I think we can definitely clean up,” Norvell added. “I thought we had a couple of opportunities to be able to create takeaways that we want to be able to finish on.”
Florida State was also hit with the first $50,000 fine from the Atlantic Coast Conference for storming the field after the victory.
While it is too early to say for sure, the FSU-Miami matchup could be one of the most significant in the illustrious series between the two rivals. The two programs have met with both teams ranked in the Top 5 six times in history, but not since 2004, when No. 5 Miami topped No. 4 Florida State 16-10.
Miami enters this weekend ranked fifth in the Associated Press Top 25. After being unranked to start the season, Florida State debuted at No. 14 after upsetting Alabama.
As for Saturday’s matchup with East Texas A&M, it is the first time the two programs have met in football. The Lions, who became full NCAA Division I members in June, opened the season with a 42-13 loss at No. 16 SMU. The program previously competed at the Division II level.
