Seminoles Up Next for Orange Football

SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Don't let the record fool you. At 3-4 overall and 2-3 in the ACC, Florida State has every bit as much talent as it did during the halcyon days when the Seminoles were winning ACC championships with regularity and competing for national titles.

Syracuse head coach Dino Babers knows he and the Orange (3-4, 0-3 ACC) have a difficult task when they head to Doak Campbell Stadium this weekend, a place Syracuse has not won in five previous tries.

"Florida State is a very, very explosive football team," Babers said Monday at his weekly press conference. "Cam Akers is one of the top running backs in the ACC. The guy literally breaks a lot of tackles by himself. It's really hard for one guy to bring him down.

"Their defense is extremely large, too. They have big people on the inside who are difficult to move. Their corners are very talented and their safeties are big hitters, so they are a defense full of four- and five-star guys who have either played a lot of football against us or guys who have played a lot and waited their turn to become a starter."

Last season, the Orange imposed their will on the Seminoles in a 30-7 victory. Syracuse registered four sacks while allowing just 62 yards rushing in the Dome. Syracuse outgained the Seminoles 441-240 and had 25 first downs to Florida State's 11. The triumph marked the Orange's first win in the series since 1966.

To duplicate that result, Babers said he needs to see more growth across his football team.

"We're just not growing fast enough for me," he said.

While the development in some areas has not been as quick as the head coach would like, there have been individual examples of strides being made in technique and performance. Babers noted a perfectly executed cut block by running back Abdul Adams Friday night against Pitt as an example.

In the bigger picture, players like senior linebacker Andrew Armstrong, who led the team with nine tackles against the Panthers, and redshirt junior defensive lineman Josh Black, who logged five stops and two sacks in the Pitt game, are playing some of their best football.

At other positions, the coaching staff may decide to make personnel adjustments to create a spark.

"We're going to do some things differently in practice. More people are going to get more opportunities and what they do with those opportunities will let us know whether they get those opportunities in the game," Babers said. "We're at the point where we're willing to break up the continuity of certain positions to make sure we have the right people in the right spot."

Syracuse has lost its last two games by one score, and in a jumbled ACC anything is possible with roughly a month of football remaining. Only two of the ACC's 14 teams (Clemson and Virginia) have more than two conference victories. In the Atlantic Division, only Clemson, with a 5-0 league mark, has distanced itself from the pack.

"I don't think the guys have quit. We've been in all the games. I don't think there's a game in the ACC that we've been out of," Babers said. "Some people think it's nice to be close, but we're not in it to be close. Everyone here wants to get a win as much as the next guy and we're going to do either what we've always done or we're going to change and do some things that we've never done to find that first [conference] win."

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Syracuse University Athletics

Players Mentioned

Abdul Adams

Andrew Armstrong

Josh Black

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