Tag: Florida State Seminoles

Rising Florida athlete announces scholarship offer from Penn State

Penn State among first offers received by rising Florida-based athlete in Class of 2024.

It was quite an eventful weekend for Florida native Ricky Knight III as his recruiting process begins to pick up the pace. Among the flurry of scholarship offers coming in for the three-star recruit in the Class of 2024 was one from Penn State.

Knight announced the reception of his scholarship offer from Penn State on Twitter on Sunday. The two-way high school standout has started to pick up plenty of attention with his recruiting profile, and momentum is certainly swinging more and more in his favor.

In addition to the offer from Penn State, Knight has also been extended offers from Florida State, Miami and Pitt as well as a couple of FCS programs. Florida State and Miami are expected to be strong contenders for the in-state recruit, but Penn State has good reason to be interested in Knight’s skills.

It may be too early to determine which position Penn State and other schools are most interested in using Knight, be it wide receiver or cornerback. Knight has played both positions in high school, although he has been standing out  at cornerback.

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The 10 best players on LSU’s 2023 schedule

LSU has a tough schedule in 2023 with plenty of stars on the slate.

We never know what a college football roster is going to look like in several months. We don’t even know what it will look like next week.

With the draft and the transfer portal, players can come and go.

That said, we’re going to look at the best ten players LSU will face next season. I’d expect these names to be with their current teams when 2023 kicks off as most are in good situations.

Some of these guys are prime for a breakout year and others announced their presence in 2022. This is not a comprehensive list or a ranking — just 10 names to be on the lookout for when the fall rolls around.

LSU vs. Florida State: Let the anticipation begin for the 2023 season

LSU and Florida State will begin 2023 in style with a top-10 matchup in Orlando.

The 2022 college football season is in the books. For the second year in a row, the Georgia Bulldogs are national champs.

A long offseason awaits us.

It won’t be easy. Saturday’s will feel empty. We’ll yearn to be hanging out at a tailgate and hear the marching band coming through the TV.

But have no fears, because just as we do every year, we’ll make it through. And when we do, LSU will take the field against the Florida State Seminoles in Orlando.

It’s the main event of opening weekend. A game big enough to begin building the hype now. If early top 25s are any indicator, this will be a matchup of two teams ranked in the top seven or eight.

These two programs have been fighting to get back to the top of the sport for the last few years, and both feel they have the guy to lead them there — Florida State with Mike Norvell and LSU with [autotag]Brian Kelly[/autotag].

Florida State will be the odds-on favorite to win the ACC, and LSU is expected to compete again in the SEC.

Again, this game is slated in the Sunday slot. It’ll be a stand-alone game on national television. The entire sport will be watching.

Last year, Florida State won in the final moments, blocking LSU’s extra point that would have sent the game to overtime. If this was a movie franchise, you couldn’t write a better way to lead into the sequel.

It’ll be right back where LSU’s 2022 season ended in Camping World Stadium. It’ll also be the third year in a row Kelly has opened on a Sunday against Norvell and Florida State.

Notre Dame picked up an overtime road win to kickoff 2021.

Tied at 1-1, it’s the rubber match for Kelly and Norvell. If it’s as entertaining as the first two meetings between the two, we’re in for a treat. Except this time, the stakes are higher.

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Florida State EDGE Jared Verse returning to school, won’t enter 2023 NFL draft

One of the top pass rushers in the country is returning to school for another season

One of the top pass rushers in college football isn’t making the early jump to the next level after all.

Florida State’s Jared Verse announced Saturday morning that he’ll be returning to school for the 2023 season, and won’t enter this year’s NFL draft.

A dominant edge defender, Verse was one of this year’s fastest-rising prospects, and widely projected as a first-round lock. Instead, he’ll head back for another year with the Seminoles, with a chance to improve his stock even further heading into the 2024 draft.

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Oklahoma vs. Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl one of CBS Sports’ best of bowl season

The Sooners Cheez-It Bowl loss to Florida State ranked as one of CBS Sports’ best bowl games in 2022.

The Oklahoma Sooners took a loss in their final game of the 2022 regular season, a 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl. If you were an independent observer, the game was an entertaining matchup of two of college football’s best programs.

The game didn’t end like we would have liked it, but it was an entertaining game from start to finish. Oklahoma’s defense was up to the task in the first half, but the Seminoles tall and athletic wide receivers were too much for the Sooners’ secondary to match up with in the second half.

CBS Sports’ Tom Fornelli ranked each of the bowl games this season, and Oklahoma’s loss to Florida State came in at No. 4.

For the Sooners, you can’t spin the 2022 season as anything other than a failure. It’s the first time the Sooners finished with a losing record since going 5-7 in 1998, the season before Bob Stoops was hired. Still, this game showed plenty of signs for how good the Sooners can be next year.

Offseason narratives aside, the game itself was just a lot of fun. It was high-scoring with a lot of exciting plays, and the fourth quarter was nonstop drama. Oklahoma took a 25-18 lead early in the quarter; the Noles responded right away to tie the game at 25-25 and then took a 32-25 lead a few minutes later. It was then Oklahoma’s turn to respond with a 75-yard touchdown drive to tie the game one more time at 32-32. Finally, with the game on the line, Florida State drove into field goal range, and Ryan Fitzgerald kicked the game-winning 32-yarder with 55 seconds left to send the Noles home with all the Cheez-Its. – Fornelli, CBS Sports

For the Sooners, this game was a microcosm of much of the 2022 season. They had a good defensive half but couldn’t sustain that level of play for four quarters. With four offensive linemen missing in action due to NFL draft opt-outs and injury, they couldn’t pass block well enough to give Gabriel the time to make plays down the field.

It ended in another close loss for the Sooners in their first losing season since 1998.

Oklahoma took some positive things out of the game like the play of their true freshmen running backs, Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk. Jalil Farooq continued to display his versatility as a pass catcher and runner on jet sweeps. He looks primed for a breakout 2023 season if Marvin Mims heads to the NFL.

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Florida State coach Mike Norvell gets doused in Cheez-It after bowl win

Florida State coach Mke Norvell wore the Cheez-It quite well

Florida State outlasted Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl on Thursday.

To the victorious coach goes the Cheez-It — yes, the plural remains Cheez-It — and Mike Norvell received a dousing.

 

‘He’s made up of all the right stuff’: Gavin Sawchuk electric in first extended action for Sooners

Getting his first extended opportunity of the season, true freshman running back Gavin Sawchuk impressed for the Oklahoma Sooners.

One of the more intriguing storylines in the buildup to the Oklahoma Sooners [autotag]Cheez-It Bowl[/autotag] matchup with the Florida State Seminoles was how the Sooners would handle their running back rotation without [autotag]Eric Gray[/autotag].

Gray opted out, choosing to prepare for the 2023 NFL draft, and [autotag]Marcus Major[/autotag] was out, still nursing a leg injury that kept him out of action late in the regular season. That left [autotag]Jovantae Barnes[/autotag] as the only runner with significant experience on the depth chart.

But that also created an opportunity to see what fellow true freshman running back [autotag]Gavin Sawchuk[/autotag] brought to the table. The Oklahoma Sooners coaching staff took advantage of the Cheez-It Bowl stage to give the former two-time Colorado Gatorade Player of the Year action. And Sawchuk was a star.

Sawchuk carried the ball 15 times for 100 yards and caught one pass for eight yards, displaying great quickness, agility and speed. He didn’t look like a player with only two collegiate carries on his ledger coming into the game. He was physical and patient. His 15-yard touchdown run early in the fourth quarter helped Oklahoma take a 25-18 lead.

“He has a tremendous future,” head coach [autotag]Brent Venables[/autotag] said after the loss. “He’s made up of the right stuff. Tremendous character, great work ethic, incredibly humble, intelligent, tough. It (would have) been easy for a guy like him to kind of check it in and not get better, but he showed up every day and got better all season long. (Dillon Gabriel and DaShaun White) would attest to that. He’s been a great teammate and he was ready for his opportunity when it presented itself. Really excited for him. Some of his production tonight, outstanding. He’s going to be a lot better going into next year because of it. Kind of like Jaleel (Farooq) in our bowl game a year ago.”

According to Pro Football Focus, Sawchuk averaged four yards per carry after contact in the game. He forced three missed tackles and had two runs of 15 yards or more in the contest, including the touchdown run.

Sawchuk and Barnes combined for 42 carries and 208 yards rushing. Barnes continued to show why he became the backup behind Eric Gray during the season with another strong performance. In his first extended action, Sawchuk was equally impressive. With the two-headed monster at running back, the Sooners have a fantastic 1-2 punch heading into 2023.

The speed that Sawchuk put on display in the Cheez-It Bowl will be a huge weapon for the Sooners in 2023. [autotag]Jeff Lebby[/autotag]’s going to have a great time imagining all the ways he can use his star running backs in the future.

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‘They played physical’: Offensive line provides a lift in the Sooners run game

Oklahoma’s offensive line has a strong showing, helping the Sooners rack up more than 250 yards rushing in the loss to Florida State.

Oklahoma’s matchup with Florida State was going to be a difficult one upfront. The Seminoles came into the Cheez-It Bowl with a top-20 defense and boasted a really good group up front.

With [autotag]Andrew Raym[/autotag] and [autotag]Chris Murray[/autotag] out due to injury and [autotag]Anton Harrison[/autotag] and [autotag]Wanya Morris[/autotag] opting out, the Sooners started several players that were backups for much of the season in their 35-32 loss to the Seminoles.

Making their first starts were [autotag]Jacob Sexton[/autotag] and [autotag]Savion Byrd[/autotag]. [autotag]Aaryn Parks[/autotag] took over for Sexton, who was injured on the first drive of the game, and received his first extended action in a Sooners uniform. [autotag]Tyler Guyton[/autotag] made just the fifth start of his career. [autotag]Robert Congel[/autotag] and [autotag]McKade Mettauer[/autotag] were the only players up front that had started more than Guyton’s five games coming into 2022. Congel, who’d been a backup to Raym for most of the season, was starting his third straight game to close 2022.

It wasn’t always pretty. Oklahoma struggled in pass protection at times, but the Sooners’ offensive line helped OU have a great day on the ground, rushing for more than 250 yards. True freshmen Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk each ran for more than 100 yards. It was the first time since 1985 that the Sooners had a pair of freshmen run for more than 100 yards in a game.

The Seminoles came into the game allowing only 148 rushing yards per game at 3.9 yards per carry. Against a tough Florida State team, the offensive line rose to the occasion.

“The guys up front, they played physical, they played with purpose,” coach Brent Venables said after the loss. “The players played with a tremendous amount of physicality and toughness that we’ve asked from them. Coach (Bill) Bedenbaugh did a great job getting these guys ready. … I love the sense of desperation they played with up front.”

The Sooners received a sneak peek of what the future holds at offensive line in 2023. Certainly, there will be questions about how they performed in pass protection, but their work in the ground game was fantastic.

Take the sacks out of the equation, and the Sooners rushed for 289 yards at 5.9 yards per attempt.

It was a strong showing for guys getting their first extended playing time at the college level. With three starting jobs up for grabs as Harrison, Morris, and Murray head to the NFL, the offensive line’s efforts in the Cheez-It Bowl provided the start to the retooling process upfront.

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Contact/Follow us @SoonersWire on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Oklahoma news, notes, and opinions. Let us know your thoughts, and comment on this story below. Join the conversation today. You can also follow John on Twitter @john9williams.

5 takeaways from Oklahoma’s 35-32 loss to Florida State

Oklahoma loses a nail-biter to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl. Here are five takeaways from the game.

Oklahoma’s season ended on Thursday night with a 35-32 loss to the No. 13 Florida State Seminoles in the Cheez-It Bowl — yet another one-possession loss this season.

While the final result is far from desirable, the performance the Sooners put forth, given the circumstances, was very commendable.

The Sooners started fast, going up 14-3 in the second quarter. Their fast starts have been a consistent theme this season. The Seminoles responded with a strong second-half push. Oklahoma answered after falling behind 32-25 to give themselves a chance, but it couldn’t put anything together on its final drive as it tried to earn a last-second field goal try.

With the loss, Oklahoma finished under .500 for the first time since 1998. Here are five takeaways from the Sooners’ performance.

Social media reacts to the Oklahoma Sooners’ 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl

What did social media have to say following the Oklahoma Sooners’ 35-32 loss to Florida State?

It’s never fun to be on the losing end of a contest. Especially one so hard-fought as the Oklahoma Sooners’ 35-32 loss to Florida State in the Cheez-It Bowl.

There were bright spots. The Sooners’ rushing attack was spearheaded by an offensive line missing four starters and was led by true freshmen running backs Jovantae Barnes and Gavin Sawchuk.

Oklahoma showed toughness against a good Florida State team and had a chance to win a game in which they were double-digit underdogs. It wasn’t perfect and they have work to do to improve from 6-7, the worst record they’ve had since 1998.

But there’s a lot to like about the Sooners’ performance despite the loss. Let’s take a look at how social media reacted to the final game of the 2022 season.