’Noles hope Murray, Ball keep contributing
TALLAHASSEE — The longest catch of the season by Florida State junior receiver Nyqwan Murray was among the plays coach Jimbo Fisher said his team could have better executed to score more points during the Seminoles’ win at Duke last week.
The Seminoles were near midfield on their first drive of the second half when quarterback James Blackman delivered a strike to Murray, who took the 38-yard reception down to Duke’s 8-yard line.
Fisher wished the Seminoles would have scored a touchdown instead of settling for a field goal during the 17-10 victory. The coach believes his team was several miscues away from scoring at least 35 points.
“He’s got to put it in the end zone,” Fisher said earlier this week of Murray. “We haven’t gotten him in the offense a lot. He hasn’t gotten a lot of plays. When he gets to running and playing, you'll never get him on the ground in that. He was just so happy to get the ball out in space, like that hasn't happened for him in a while.
“That's not a criticism of him. But as we get this going and we're getting very close and you hit those one or two little big plays and you get that executed like the first drive of the second half, we could have scored there.”
Murray had his best game of the season, leading FSU with five receptions for 81 yards, improving to 18 catches for 180 yards and moving to the second-leading receiver on the team behind junior Auden Tate (19 receptions, 312 yards, five touchdowns).
Murray’s play could be an instrumental contribution to FSU’s offense with Tate recovering from an AC separation in his left shoulder, and fellow receivers Keith Gavin (right ankle) and George Campbell (hip/core) coping with injuries.
After the Duke game, Murray said he has to “just keep working hard, have confidence, run good routes, [and] keep my body healthy.”
“With Keith down and George down, me or Tate, somebody has to step up,” Murray said.
Redshirt freshman Josh Ball made his first career start at left tackle against Duke as the Seminoles needed to reshuffle their offensive line to get him into the lineup.
With sophomore left guard Landon Dickerson lost for the season because of an ACL injury, FSU moved starting left tackle Derrick Kelly to his natural guard position to make way for Ball.
Fisher praised Ball’s composure, adjustments on the line, comprehension of the offense and his performance in run blocking plays sent his way up the left side.
Most important, was “penalty-free.”
“I think Josh has a really good future ahead of them,” Fisher said. “We've just got to get him more experience, but he is doing a really good job.”
Starting center Alec Eberle, who is from Mechanicsville, Va., has also seen the grown from Ball, who lives roughly an hour away in Fredericksburg, Va.
Eberle even believes Ball has the ability to be “dominant.”
“Just being with him throughout this whole process, watching him get more [repetitions] during practice, and get more playing in the game, you can tell he’s growing, and his confidence is growing a lot,” Eberle said of Ball.
“He realizes if he practices how he’s been practicing, he can be a pretty good offensive tackle.” Ball