FSU Seminoles

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- This spring, Lonnie Pryor went to Jimbo Fisher and asked for a chance to carry the football more. Fisher responded by making his fullback a regular contributor on offense.

But while Pryor's role had increased during the first eight games of the season, there's a chance he'll see an even bigger slice of the carries moving forward as Florida State adjusts to life without Chris Thompson.

"Lonnie is doing a great job carrying the ball," Fisher said. "It has been (a split situation). We’ll keep guys rotating and keep Lonnie in the mix with what we do."

For the season, Pryor has already set career highs with 163 rushing yards and six rushing touchdowns. He's averaging 6.8 yards per carry overall, which makes him an interesting weapon to mix with James Wilder Jr. and Devonta Freeman.

"If they need me to go in, I'm ready," Pryor said. "It's a chance that if something happens, I can go in and play tailback. I'm ready for whatever happens."

Of course, Pryor's role as fullback has also been a crucial asset in the FSU offense. Particularly with the veteran Thompson out for the rest of the season, Pryor's ability to pick up blitzes and open running lanes will be essential.

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With two-thirds of the season finished, the opportunities for Florida State players to showcase themselves for postseason awards are diminishing. Last week's win over Miami provided only small steps forward for a handful of Seminoles stars. Here's how the awards races stack up through eight games.

RISING
DE Cornellius Carradine, Sr. (Bednarik)
Carradine recorded his first sack in three weeks and added seven tackles in the win over Miami. For the season, Carradine leads all FSU tacklers with 48, and only Miami's Shayon Green has more among ACC defensive linemen.

K Dustin Hopkins, Sr. (Groza)
Hopkins connected on four of five field goal tries Saturday, with his lone miss coming by mere inches. Two of his kicks were from 40 yards or more, and he's now third in the nation -- and tops among BCS automatic qualifier schools -- in field goals for the season with 16.

QB EJ Manuel, Sr. (Heisman, Maxwell, O’Brien, Unitas)
Saturday was a relatively mundane performance by Manuel's standards -- 211-of-31 passing for 229 yards and no touchdowns -- but he wasn't asked to do much. Three potentially big passes were called back due to offensive pass interference calls, and he did connect with Kelvin Benjamin on a 39-yard bomb that set up a game-securing touchdown. He was named one of 16 finalists for the O'Brien Award this week.

CB Xavier Rhodes, Jr. (Bednarik, Nagurski, Thorpe)
Despite being in significant pain with an ankle injury he continued to reaggravate, Rhodes turned in a stellar performance against Miami, helping out in the run game and finishing with two tackles, including one for a loss, and a pass break-up.

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- The ACC issued a letter of reprimand and suspended an official from Saturday's Florida State win over Miami because of a flubbed call at the end of the first half, but Jimbo Fisher believes that was just the tip of the iceberg in a poorly officiated game.

Crew chief David Epperley was suspended Monday for ruling the first half over following an FSU offensive penalty, which would normally result in a 10-second run-off, but Fisher still had a timeout remaining, which would have negated the run-off.

As Miami's players dashed off the field, Fisher pleaded with officials to reconsider the call, which they eventually did. Dustin Hopkins then drilled a 46-yard field goal with 3 seconds remaining to give Florida State a 13-10 halftime lead.

"Luckily they got it right, and they listened," Fisher said.

But while the officials belatedly corrected that call, Fisher remains disgruntled about a number of other calls. Florida State was flagged for penalties 16 times in Saturday's game, though four were either offset or declined. Three of the penalties were for offensive pass interference, including one that negated a touchdown to Kelvin Benjamin.

Fisher said the contact on the play came as a result of Miami's defender jamming Benjamin, and he lamented that another flag was thrown on FSU cornerback Nick Waisome later in the game for similar contact.

"It made it hard to get in the rhythm of a game," Fisher said. "All of a sudden you're hitting plays and you're moving. Some calls, there were penalties there. But you hit things and -- it makes it hard to coach, because how do you tell your players how to play? What's a penalty and what's not a penalty?"

At one point in the game, Florida State had 12 penalties compared with just one for Miami, though those numbers evened some by game's end. In all, 23 flags were thrown.

Florida State's 53 enforced penalties this season are the third-most in the ACC, behind North Carolina and Virginia.

"I don't want to be an official," Fisher said. "They've got a tough job. But they have to do their job."

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- After Saturday's game, Florida State's players sang "Happy Birthday" to Chris Thompson. It wasn't emotional, Jimbo Fisher said. It was celebratory.

"He was laughing," Fisher said. "But we didn't know the MRI by then."

Thompson's birthday ended on crutches, and Monday it was announced that he'd torn the ACL in his left knee and would miss the remainder of the season.

The injury is an enormous blow for the Florida State offense, which had leaned heavily on Thompson and the running game this season. For Thompson, however, it's simply the latest setback in a career beset by injuries.

Early in Florida State's Week 5 loss to Wake Forest last year, Thompson ran into a tackler head-first, breaking two bones in his back. He missed the final eight games of the season and required nine months of rehab to get back into football shape for this season.

More rehab awaits Thompson once again, but his future remains uncertain.

Fisher said Florida State will appeal to the NCAA in hopes of getting a medical redshirt for Thompson based on his extensive injury history, which by year's end will have included 13 games missed in the past two seasons.

"We'll explore with the NCAA if there's anything that can happen from that," Fisher said. "We'll explore every avenue we can."

NCAA rules generally prohibit a medical redshirt from being issued for a player who appears in more than 30 percent of his team's games. Thompson would not fit that criteria, but Fisher said he'll continue to investigate options.

"We'll see if there's anything with two major injuries," he said. "It's nothing the kid's doing, and he's never been redshirted. We'll see."

If the knee injury does mark the end of Thompson's Florida State career, he finishes as one of the school's most dynamic runners, having averaged 6.3 yards per carry during his career. He racked up a school-record five touchdown runs of at least 70 yards, including two against Wake Forest earlier this season.

Thompson figured to be selected in next year's NFL draft, although his smaller stature -- 55-foot-8, 187 pounds -- would likely have made him a later-round pick.

That remains a possibility, Fisher said, offering comparisons between Thompson and Minnesota Vikings running back Adrian Peterson, who returned to action following an ACL tear in just seven months.

"He'll heal," Fisher said. "Those knees come back. I think he'll come back from this very well."

No date for surgery has been set, but Fisher said Thompson experienced only minor swelling.

On Sunday, Thompson posted a message on his Facebook page offering optimism for concerned fans.

"Just wanna let everyone know I'm ok," he wrote. "I'm living, we just beat Miami for the third year in a row. What more can I ask for. God allows everything to happen for a reason. No reason for me to be down about it because ‘there's a blessing in every lesson.’ C4 gets knocked down but i live to play another day. Never forget that."

News spread throughout the Florida State locker room on Sunday, and quarterback EJ Manuel said he exchanged text messages with Thompson that night.

"It's tough," Manuel said. "I feel bad for him. He's like a brother to me. His locker's across from mine, and we talk every day. I texted him last night just letting him know I love him. It's his senior year, he's come back from an injury to have a fabulous season, and for it to be cut short like that, it's tough to see.

"But knowing Chris, he's going to be resilient. He'll rehab, do what he has to do to get healthy and have a great career."

This one goes much deeper than Florida State's running game, or how many yards the Noles will lose without Chris Thompson in the lineup.

This one is personal.

Last year, Thompson was in a hospital bed with two broken vertebrae in his back after an injury he sustained against Wake Forest. He didn't know if he would walk again, let alone play football. Thompson made a remarkable comeback this year as the team's leading rusher only to be knocked out of the game again on Saturday, this time with a season-ending torn ACL in his left knee.

"He's what's right about college football," coach Jimbo Fisher said, "but this game takes no prisoners."

It's a devastating injury to Florida State's offense as the Seminoles try to finish the season with only one loss, but it's even more discouraging news considering Thompson's injury history. Thompson is a leader on the team and he'll be tough to replace in the lineup, but this is the type of injury that can actually wind up inspiring others -- especially as Thompson encourages them from the sideline. It happend against Miami on Saturday, when Devonta Freeman rose to the occasion and had 70 yards and two touchdowns in a 33-20 win.

"I knew I had to step up, when Chris Thompson went down," Freeman told ESPN.com Saturday night. "I knew I had to step up and do everything that he did."

The Noles are confident in their super sophs, Freeman and James Wilder Jr. Florida State's running game will survive, as Freeman was the team's leading rusher a year ago and has had 140 yards and two touchdowns in his past two games. Wilder ranks third in the ACC with seven rushing touchdowns. FSU will continue to use both.

"Chris is a tough back, he's one of the smaller guys, it's hard for him to take all the reps so that's why we all get the same amount of reps in practice just to make sure we're all prepared," said Wilder Jr after the game. "... We have the depth at running back that we are able to do that, so we were prepared [to step up]."

They've got no other choice now.

 

MIAMI -- They were warned. All week they were warned.

Forget about what you think you know about Miami, the coaches said. Forget about what you think you see on tape when you watch Miami. Forget it all. Because come Saturday night, you will see the real Miami.

So yes, Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher and his staff tried as hard as they could to make their players truly understand they were going to get a feisty team, a physical team, a team dead-set on pulling the upset and knocking the Seminoles right out of the ACC championship race.

They got that Miami right out of the gate, and, well, it sent Florida State reeling. The No. 14 Seminoles looked sluggish, and started to make untimely mistakes. Nick O'Leary made like an Olympic hurdler and fumbled on the Seminoles' first possession. Miami capitalized and scored its first touchdown. The fumbles were contagious, and soon Florida State was losing the football, losing its grip and facing a 10-0 deficit.

Then the next bit of adversity hit: Florida State saw star running back Chris Thompson go down.

Then more: a mountain of yellow flags piled up, some of them highly questionable -- certainly enough for young men to lose their composure.

Florida State could have easily crumbled, the way we have seen in the past. But this was a test this team needed, a test the Seminoles had to face head-on, with eyes unblinking. This was their first bit of adversity since the fourth quarter against NC State, and everybody on this team needed to see how their teammates would respond.

"When we got back in the locker room at halftime, we said, 'Look, another 30 minutes. We’re not letting up. Let’s play like it’s 0-0. Let’s play like it’s the national championship," safety Xavier Rhodes said. "We learned our lesson from that loss. It paid off this game here."

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