Michigan Football: How To March On Florida State
Florida State has played some good football since the start of November, but Michigan football can still march on the Seminoles in the Orange Bowl.
If you take a look at Michigan football‘s schedule as compared to Florida State’s, you’ll see two teams that finished the regular season on very different notes.
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For the Wolverines, it was a 1-2 finish that included an awful performance against Iowa, a forgettable game against Indiana, and then the heartbreaker to Ohio State. But for the Seminoles, they won their last four games and scored at least 31 points in their last three.
You could argue these teams are trending in different directions, but with the Orange Bowl being just over a month removed from the last game either of them played, it’s probably not a safe bet to assume those trends will manifest themselves.
As we saw last year in Michigan’s blowout win over Florida in the Citrus Bowl, the Wolverines apparently do a heck of a job getting ready for games under Jim Harbaugh, especially when there’s plenty of time to do it.
There’s no reason to think Michigan will be less than fully prepared to take on Florida State on Dec. 30. There’s also no reason to think that in itself is going to lay the Seminoles down on their death bed.
The numbers predict a pretty sizable clash between the Wolverines and Seminoles, no matter who has the ball and no matter if the ball is going through the air or on the ground. That’s except for when Michigan is throwing; Florida State is allowing 226 passing yards per game, while the Wolverines throw for 217.
Other than that, it’s basically going to be an offense going up against a defense that doesn’t allow too much success—or at least as much success as the offense is used to.
So where does Michigan find an advantage and use it? One possibility is turnovers.
Florida State has turned the ball over 18 times this season, which isn’t a particularly bad mark. But Michigan has only coughed the ball up 11 times, and three of them were against Ohio State.
In a game like this, where it looks like it’ll be a struggle to score for most of the night, winning the turnover battle will be absolutely critical, and Michigan has the advantage. As was demonstrated for a good chunk of the game against the Buckeyes, Michigan is a pretty good football team when it can control the ball and keep its defense fresh.
The only part of the turnover battle that isn’t encouraging for the Wolverines is that Florida State is more prone to fumbles than it is to interceptions. Only five of Michigan’s 17 takeaways have come by way of a fumble.
There is a silver lining to this, though. Florida State quarterback Deondre Francois has accounted for more fumbles (8) than any other Seminoles player this season, and he’s lost four of them (so has running back Dalvin Cook). Francois has fumbled the ball in more games (7) than not (5).
If there’s one thing Michigan’s defense excels at, it’s getting after the quarterback. That could make a huge difference in this game.
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Michigan is on the verge of a successful season with an Orange Bowl win, and even though the Seminoles ended the season on a better streak than Michigan, this game is happening a month later, and the Wolverines have the advantage.