’Noles aim to rev up run game

TALLAHASSEE — Jimbo Fisher and the Florida State football team knew it was going to be a challenge to replace former running back Dalvin Cook, but through two games in the disrupted 2017 season, the Seminoles have struggled mightily to run the football.

FSU has rushed for a total of 144 yards against two highly regarded defenses, as the rushing attack has been a contributing factor in the Seminoles’ inability to score touchdowns in the red zone (2-of-8), leading to the first 0-2 start in 28 years.

As the winless Seminoles prepare for Saturday’s game at undefeated Wake Forest (4-0), Fisher has said he has no plans to alter his running back rotation. He hopes the team is able to sustain a lead that will allow the offense to play with a balanced running and passing attack.

“It just takes time sometimes to find your rhythm,” Fisher said Thursday before the team departed for Wake Forest.

“We’ve had some really nice runs at times. We’ve had some success. We just have to stay with it, and have to get ahead, too.”

Jacques Patrick, a junior who was a former five-star prospect out of Orlando Timber Creek High, has 55 rushing yards on 14 carries as the starting running back.

But the Seminoles have seen a slight jolt in the running game when Cam Akers, a five-star from Mississippi and No. 1 running back in the last recruiting cycle, enters the game. Akers leads FSU with 22 carries and 86 yards in the young season.

“We try to capitalize as much as possible to help the offense,” Patrick said of himself and true freshman Akers. “We run the same plays. We just go out there and do our job.”

In FSU’s season-opening loss to No. 1 Alabama on Sept. 2, the Seminoles gained just 40 rushing yards. Against NC State last Saturday after a two-week layoff because of Hurricane Irma, the Seminoles rushed for 104 yards in a 27-21 defeat at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Only UTEP, Ole Miss, Temple and Washington State have averaged fewer rushing yards this season than FSU, which is ranked 125th nationally in the category.

FSU right guard Cole Minshew said the offensive

UCF REPORT struggles in the red zone this season are partially the offensive line’s fault for not getting enough push against Alabama, whose defense ranks seventh in the nation, and NC State, which sits 19 spots behind FSU at 47th nationally.

“A lot of those [miscues] are on us on the offensive line, execution-wise,” Minshew said. “We get in there, and we get in a situation to score, we got to be able to run the ball in there. Sometimes we’re just not getting it done. Sometimes it’s communication stuff. But I put that on us.

“We have to get in there and be able to do what we have to do to be able to score.”