2006 Florida State Football

Jimmy's 2007 Florida State Seminoles football preview and predictions will keep you up to date!

The 2006 Florida State football team may have caught the break they needed to repeat in the ACC with Miami having several key players suspended for the season opener. However, even if the Seminoles do get past the Hurricanes, at the end of the season they won’t get past Miami in the conference standings.

Florida State has an exceptional talent in Drew Weatherford at quarterback who threw for over 3,200 yards and 18 touchdowns while leading the ‘noles past VA Tech in the ACC’s first conference championship game. However, their running game was pathetic last season, not just for a school who has a traditionally good running game, but for any school. They averaged just 94 yards per game on the ground last season which was good for 109th in the nation out of 117 D-1A schools. I do expect much improvement in the running attack this season, but not enough to really open things up for Weatherford. Booker and Smith will split duty in the backfield. Weatherford’s arm should open up some opportunities for draw plays, but don’t expect the Seminoles to be a team who can sit on the ball and grind down the clock in close games. 

Click here to bet on sports using your checking account!

Last season it was the defense which carried the ‘noles to the Orange Bowl. This season the offense will have to pick up some of the slack as Florida State lost 6 of their top 7 tacklers from last year including the outstanding linebacker duo of Sims and Nicholson. Senior linebacker Buster Davis, who had an outstanding season in 2005 with 91 tackles, 10 of those behind the line of scrimmage, will be the defensive leader in 2006.

Florida State had a disappointing 8-5 season in 2005, and the Seminoles only return 10 starters from last year’s team which is the fewest of any team in the ACC. But they’ll likely finish 2nd in the conference behind Miami as, despite losing so many players, the Seminoles should slightly improve while the rest of the league will not. Take the under 9.5 wins at Bodog as the ’noles should be solid this season, but they don’t have enough experience to be really consistent. 9-3 is where they’ll likely end up.