After ‘frustrating’ start, Florida State using bye week to get rushing attack cranked back up

There’s no disputing that the Florida State rushing attack isn’t off to the start the Seminoles were expecting in 2023.

After finishing the 2022 regular season with seven straight games of 200 yards rushing, the FSU offense has managed to eclipse that number just once so far through four games in 2023. And that was in a 66-13 win over Southern Miss.

Against the three Power 5 teams they’ve played so far, the Seminoles have managed 135 yards rushing against LSU, 128 against Boston College and then just a measly 22 yards against Clemson on Saturday.

Florida State still won those games, and scored at least 31 points in each, but the players and coaches know they absolutely need to produce more on the ground the rest of the way.

“We’ve got a lot of room to improve,” Florida State running back Trey Benson said after Wednesday’s practice. “We’ve got to get into a rhythm. We’ve been passing the ball well, so these next couple of games we’ll get the running game going for sure.”

Benson, who was just 10 yards short of 1,000 a season ago, was asked if it has been a frustrating start to the 2023 season. Despite the 4-0 record.

“It’s for sure frustrating,” he said. “Because we’ve missed a lot of those big runs out there this season. But we’ve got room to improve.”

Nobody is denying that.

After ranking 13th nationally in rushing offense a season ago, with 214.1 yards per game, the Seminoles currently rank 75th in the country in that department with an average of 147.8 yards per game.

Now, part of that, of course, is that they’ve played two talented defensive fronts in LSU and Clemson. The ACC’s Tigers, specifically, possess one of the best rushing defenses in the United States.

But part of it, too, is that the Seminoles have just not found their footing in the ground game yet.

Aside from the 300-plus-yard effort against Southern Miss, the ‘Noles have had a hard time sustaining much of anything in the rushing attack. And the last two weeks have been especially difficult with quarterback Jordan Travis, an enormous threat with his legs, not being close to 100 percent physically.

It also didn’t help that the offensive line has been banged up. Starter Robert Scott has missed multiple games at left tackle and starting center Maurice Smith had to miss extensive time as well.

“We’ve just got to improve in the little things,” Smith said Wednesday. “It’s not too much of a difference (from last year). We got a lot of rushing yards last year, but we’ve got to work on the little things, like I said, to improve.”

How that happens? We’ll see.

If Scott comes back, maybe that shakes up the starting lineup. The Seminoles do have a bye this week to figure out what exactly has gone wrong with the rushing attack and decide how and if they can correct it.

The good news is they are still 4-0 and ranked in the Top 5 in the country.

It’s also fair to point out that last year, through six games, Benson had just 203 yards rushing. That’s an average of 33.8 yards per game. Right now, through four games, he has 189 yards — an average of 47.3 yards per game.

So, it’s not like he and this offense haven’t proven they can get going on the ground as the season wears on. But, they would all agree, it needs to start soon.

“These next couple of games, there are going to be some good ones,” Benson said with a smile.

Said head coach Mike Norvell: “We’ve got to be better. We’ve got to be better fundamentally. We’ve got to execute better. There were some poor steps we took at times, you know, against a great interior. It’s going to show up and put you in challenging situations.

“But our guys fought. They responded.”

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.

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