Owls receivers seeking to grow from opening-game loss
Unit taking ‘baby steps’ during preparations for Air Force defense.
BOCA RATON — At least for one day, Florida Atlantic’s wide receivers showed there’s reason to be optimistic about what coach Lane Kiffin called the team’s most concerning unit.
The final numbers in a dismal 63-14 loss to No. 7 Oklahoma on Air Force at Florida Atlantic, 2 p.m., CBS Sports Network
Saturday don’t immediately jump off the page, with redshirt junior Tavaris “Pico” Harrison leading the Owls with four catches for 57 yards. Former West Virginia wideout Jovon Durante also had four catches for 52 yards, and sophomore Willie Wright had four catches for 28 yards.
After Kiffin repeatedly critiqued a group that lost seniors Kalib Woods and Kamrin Solomon, Durante and the other receivers are hoping they can build off their opening-game performance.
“I see this as a wake-up call for us,” said Durante, who caught 60 passes for 627 yards and seven touchdowns in two seasons with the Mountaineers. “We went in there, some of us, we (were overconfident). The outcome was the outcome and we’re working on
TALLAHASSEE ida gart ing a State did wounded a coach bang-up — fan Willie New base job heal- Flor- Tag- that was down and out following an awful 2017 season and the awkward departure of Jimbo Fisher.
No matter how much goodwill a coach builds up, if you don’t win, and especially if you lose badly, it will evap- orate quickly. That is very evident on the Tribal Coun- cil message board and social media this week where Taggart and the Seminoles are being raked over the coals by many fans in the wake of Monday night’s 24-3 loss to Virginia Tech.
The Hokies were probably not the best opponent to open the season with, considering the massive amount of learning that is still taking place on the FSU foot- ball team.
While it’s premature to trash the coaching staff or write off the 2018 season, the season-opening loss clearly showed that there are some major issues that this team needs to resolve. Among them: Offensive line is still a major problem. For the past couple seasons, the offensive line has been the team’s Achilles’ heel, and it doesn’t look like much has changed. Virginia Tech racked tackles over offensive gain inability up door to red starters, front, flags or with 50 negative up for going percent to and plays recurring has a loss. block staggering the to forward. went raise yards. All revolving anybody of injuries for in FSU’s major The all, no 14 time. the had No scoreboard, surprisingly Despite adjustments three the accumu- points at offense half- on lated first blown half. 247 red-zone total With yards all chances, those in the you and had offensive the feeling coordinator Taggart Walt group Bell on would track in have the their second half. Instead, the offense completely reversed direction, converting one first down and totaled -5 yards on 20 of the 21 plays in the second half. It appeared as though FSU doubled-down trying to run up the middle against Tech’s stacked defensive front and to run gimmicky plays on the edges that were being snuffed out by the defense. Other perplexing moves by the coaching staff. With Virginia Tech stacking the box, FSU continually ran head first into the teeth of the defense. That’s a major reason why the offense was so inept on all but one play in the second half. With Tech stacking the line, and an inexperienced secondary, FSU’s two most elusive players – Khalan Laborn and D.J. Matthews – had one touch between them for the entire game. That one touch, a short pass completion to Laborn, went for 37 yards. There were several other bizarre moves by the coaches such as running a diamond formation near goal line, a screen to a tight end with the smallest receiver on the team (Mat- thews) out blocking for him, putting Cam Akers at quar- terback just to hand the ball off on a key third-and-goal play from the 10-yard line, or hurrying to get a play off instead of challenging what looked like a touchdown pass to Nyqwan Murray.
Deondre Francois refusing to run. One of the factors for Francois winning the starting quarterback job was his ability to run. However, it was very clear Monday he was unwilling to take off and run like he was before his knee injury. Francois always opted to hand the ball off on zone-read plays when it was apparent that the quarterback run was the right read. He either didn’t see it or was hesitant to test his surgically-repaired knee.