North Carolina @ Florida State preview

Last Meeting ( Oct 22, 2009 ) Florida State 30, North Carolina 27

Football coaches are fond of talking about the dangers of letting one loss become two, and Jimbo Fisher is no exception.

The first-year Florida State coach has implored his team to forget about last week’s gut-wrenching loss at North Carolina State. Making sure North Carolina has the Seminoles’ undivided attention when it visits Doak Campbell Stadium is what Fisher has in mind if Florida State (6-2, 4-1 ACC) is to get over that 28-24 defeat and continue on its mission of winning the ACC championship.

The 24th-ranked Seminoles, who still boast a half-game lead over Maryland and N.C. State in the conference’s Atlantic Division, can still do just that if they bounce back as they did from their early season loss at Oklahoma. After the loss to the Sooners in the second week of the season, Florida State won five straight.

North Carolina (5-3, 2-2), which has never won in Tallahassee, had to rally back from a 10-point, fourth-quarter deficit to beat William & Mary 21-17 last week, but did enough down the stretch to win for the fifth time in six outings since an 0-2 start to the season.

The Tar Heels, who still cling to hopes of catching Virginia Tech and winning the ACC’s Coastal Division, will again turn their fates over to senior tailback Johnny White and senior quarterback T.J. Yates. White rushed for a career-high 164 yards last week to help his team avoid what would have been a disastrous loss. The converted receiver and defensive back now ranks as the ACC’s second-leading rusher with 713 yards.

The Heels held the Tribe to just 51 yards rushing on 26 carries, but the Seminoles’ potent running game will test them. Florida State ranks third in the conference in rushing offense at better than 207 yards per game.

Depth continues to be a problem for North Carolina as it struggles with player suspensions from the ongoing academic and agent-related scandals. Coach Butch Davis had just 66 scholarship players at his disposal last weekend, well shy of the 85 allowed by the NCAA. Of those 66, three were backup quarterbacks and eight others were players Davis still hopes to redshirt. Two more players – center Alan Pelc and linebacker Quan Sturdivant – were injured, but technically cleared to play if needed.

It won’t help things for North Carolina that reserve defensive back Terry Shankle is done for the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee last week. The freshman cornerback had been a part of the Tar Heels’ dime package for obvious passing situations.

North Carolina is 0-7 all-time in Tallahassee since the Seminoles joined the ACC in 1992.