College Football

FSU Football: Top 5 Players To Look For In Wake Forest Game

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 8:11 p.m. ET

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Sep 12, 2015; Tallahassee, FL, USA; South Florida Bulls quarterback Quinton Flowers (9) looks for a receiver while being pressured by Florida State Seminoles defensive end Josh Sweat (9) at Doak Campbell Stadium. Florida State won 34-14. Mandatory Credit: Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports

The FSU football team will welcome Wake Forest to Tallahassee on Saturday. Can the ‘Noles finally play a complete game in all three phases?

FSU football playing a complete game for 60 minutes is something Coach Fisher has stressed this season. It’s surprising since the expectations for this team were so high in the preseason.

The ‘Noles finally gave effort for 60 minutes against Miami, but played far from a complete game on Saturday.

Wake Forest coming to town would be the perfect game to make that happen as the ‘Noles have a bye week coming up, and Clemson coming to town after the bye week.

There will be some changes to the lineup this week as the Miami game was very physical. Starting safety Nate Andrews was lost for the year, and Derwin James is still out with his knee injury.

Linebacker Matthew Thomas will miss the first half due to the ejection penalty he received in the Miami game last week for targeting Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya.

Let’s take a look at the five players to watch in the game.

Sep 24, 2016; Bloomington, IN, USA; Wake Forest Demon Deacons quarterback John Wolford (10) runs the ball in for a touchdown against the Indiana Hoosiers during the second half of the game at Memorial Stadium. Wake Forest defeated Indiana 33-28. Mandatory Credit: Marc Lebryk-USA TODAY Sports

Wake Forest QB John Wolford

John Wolford has taken over for the injured Tyler Hinton the past few games and performed pretty well. Wake Forest tends to run a little more zone read with Hinton and attack down field more.

However, Wolford is a capable runner as he averages 5.21 yards per carry. Hinton probably has more “wiggle” to make defenders miss, but Hinton averages 9.2 yards per pass compared to 6 yards per pass for Wolford.

Wake Forest is a run first offense, with 264 of their 426 total plays coming on the ground while averaging 4.88 yards per play.

The Wake Forest offense will go as Wolford goes on Saturday. If the ‘Noles are able to stop the run game, it should be doable to defend their limited air attack.

Sep 10, 2016; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Charleston Southern Buccaneers running back Kelan Fraise (42) delivers a stiff arm to Florida State Seminoles linebacker Dontavious Jackson (5) in the second half at Doak Campbell Stadium. The Florida State Seminoles defeat the Charleston Southern Buccaneers 52-8. Mandatory Credit: Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports

FSU Linebacker Dontavious Jackson

True freshman Dontavious Jackson will make his first start at linebacker for FSU football on Saturday. He’ll replace junior linebacker Matthew Thomas who’ll serve a first half suspension.

Jackson has gotten increased playing time over the past few games and played OK. He has seen action in five games total with nine tackles on the season, and two of those tackles going for a loss.

Jackson has shown that he isn’t afraid to aggressive and attacks downhill violently, in fact, he made a huge tackle against UNC right before halftime.

However, he’s prone to freshmen mistakes at times, like filling the wrong gap or getting lost in coverage at times.

It’ll be interesting to see how he fares and will be vital in attacking the zone read offense of Wake Forest.

Nov 7, 2015; Clemson, SC, USA; Florida State Seminoles wide receiver Ermon Lane (1) prior to the game against the Clemson Tigers at Clemson Memorial Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Joshua S. Kelly-USA TODAY Sports

FSU Safety Ermon Lane (Lane wears No. 7 now)

What a pleasant surprise on Saturday night against Miami. At first, I was like who is No. 7 on defense since I didn’t recognize the number.

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However, when I realized it was Ermon Lane, I immediately was surprised, nervous and frankly on the edge of my seat.

Lane had just switched from wide receiver to safety a couple of weeks beforehand, and was forced into action once Nate Andrews had to come out of the game with an injury.

However, Lane made a couple of nice plays and finished the game with four tackles. He was in position to make a play on a critical third down play later in the game as well which forced Miami to kick a field goal.

Lane will likely seeing playing time on Saturday along with AJ Westbrook since Nate Andrews is out the rest of the season with a torn pectoral muscle.

How will Lane look when playing against a team that likes to run the zone read? Will he hesitate to come down and defend against the run, or will he be too aggressive and give up a big gain because he’s not in position?

Oct 10, 2015; Tallahassee, FL, USA; Florida State defensive end Josh Sweat pressures Miami quarterback Brad Kaaya (15) as Florida State beats Miami 29-24 at Doak Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Glenn Beil-USA TODAY Sports

FSU Defensive End Josh Sweat

Sophomore defensive end Josh Sweat finally played hard for the whole game on Saturday against the Miami Hurricanes. The only question is was it just for that one game?

Sweat has been hobbled by. a knee injury since the Louisville game and probably isn’t playing at 100 percent.

However, he does not give maximum effort every play. A game against a team like Wake Forest will be a great way of determining what FSU football will get from Sweat the rest of the season.

Will he be a player that only gets up for the “big” games on the schedule? Or will he completely buy-in to doing his job all the time no matter what jersey is lined up across from him?

We’ll have to tune in on Saturday to see.

Oct 8, 2016; Winston-Salem, NC, USA; Wake Forest Demon Deacons linebacker Marquel Lee (8) stands on the field during a timeout in the first quarter against the Syracuse Orange at BB&T Field. Wake defeated Syracuse 28-9. Mandatory Credit: Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

Wake Forest Linebacker Marquel Lee

Senior linebacker Marquel Lee will be the key for Wake Forest on defense Saturday afternoon. He is second on the team in tackles and averages seven tackles per game.

More impressively, nine of those tackles have gone for a loss and he has three sacks on the season. He also has two quarterback hurries and a forced fumble to his credit.

He’s a huge linebacker at 6’3 and 240 pounds. Lee was named ACC Defensive Player of the Week for his performance against Syracuse. He finished that game with two sacks, 15 tackles (12 solo) and 5.5 tackles for a loss.

Look for Lee to be all over the field and pad his stat sheet as the Wake Forest defense could be on the field quite a bit Saturday afternoon.