2015 Florida State football season preview

The last time Duke shared a field with Florida State, it was not much of a contest. Riding high with a 10-2 record, the upstart Blue Devils clashed with the undefeated No. 1 Seminoles in the ACC Championship game in December 2013 and held the game scoreless for the first quarter before Heisman Trophy winner Jameis Winston kicked his offense into gear en route to a 45-7 win.

Florida State is not on Duke’s regular-season slate this year, so if they meet in 2015 it will once again be in the conference championship. Winston is now gone after being selected first in the NFL draft, but the cupboard is far from bare in Tallahassee. Head coach Jimbo Fisher has quickly rebuilt the Seminoles into a national football power, with a 58-11 ledger that makes him the winningest Power Five coach ever in his first five seasons.

Following an undefeated regular season that ended in a blowout loss to Oregon in the Rose Bowl, Florida State garnered the No. 10 spot in this year’s preseason poll. The Seminoles’ four selections on the All-ACC preseason team were tied for the most in the conference, and they were one of only two teams—the Blue Devils being the other—with a representative from all three phases of the game.

Former Notre Dame signal-caller Everett Golson will assume the starting role and try to follow in Winston’s footsteps, and sophomore Dalvin Cook will look to top his 1,008-yard freshman campaign in the backfield. Despite the graduation of All-American receiver Rashad Greene, the biggest change on offense could be on the line, where four new starters must replace a unit that was one of the strongest in the country during the past few seasons.

Defensively, the Seminoles will lean on an experienced secondary paced by All-American Jalen Ramsey. Tyler Hunter and Nate Andrews also return as starting safeties for a group that forced 32 turnovers last season. Florida State will also have an advantage against most opponents in the kicking game, thanks to Robert Aguayo, who led the country in field goal percentage in 2014 as an encore to his national-scoring-record 2013 campaign.