TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Lamarcus Joyner smiled at the question. He grew up in South Florida, played at Fort Lauderdale's St. Thomas Aquinas and now is a senior at Florida State.
The cornerback is 3-0 against the Miami Hurricanes. What would it mean to go 4-0?
"That would be real special," Joyner said.
No. 3 Florida State (7-0) just played a top-5 showdown two weeks ago, knocking off Clemson 51-14 on the road. And now the Seminoles have to do it again, this time at home against intrastate rival No. 6 Miami (7-0).
While the Florida State-Clemson game was billed as one of the biggest in ACC history (if not the biggest), there's always a next game. And when you win, that next game somehow becomes even bigger.
"For this team, just for the bigger picture, this is the most important game that I ever played in," Joyner said. "No disrespect to the tradition and the legacy that this rivalry game carries, it's about the big picture for us. This is a very important game for the team and myself."
A win will keep Florida State's national championship dreams going. What does Florida State need to do to win on Saturday night? Here are three keys to a Seminoles victory:
There's very little secret about what Miami wants to do on Saturday. The Hurricanes do not want to get into a shootout. They do not want to put the pressure on Stephen Morris to air it out.
Miami must run, run often and run effectively against Florida State. Duke Johnson is coming off a 30-carry, 168-yard game in the win over Wake Forest. Johnson and Dallas Crawford may need to accumulate 50 carries between them to not only move the chains but also keep Jameis Winston and the Florida State offense off the field.
Johnson has run for 823 yards and six touchdowns in 2013, averaging 6.7 yards per carry.
"What doesn't he do well?" Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. "We'd have a shorter conversation. He's dynamic. He gets in space. He changes numbers on the scoreboard. He makes you miss. That guy is a competitor and a complete football player. He really is. He is one heck of a football player."
Johnson has struggled in big games, however. In 2012, he had just 19 yards on six caries in a loss at Kansas State. Then he had eight carries for 22 yards in a loss against Notre Dame. And finally nine carries for 27 yards in the home loss to Florida State. This season, at home against Florida, Johnson had 59 yards but also had 21 carries.
Some combination of Johnson and Crawford must pound away at Florida State, which has the nation’s No. 29 rush defense (135.7 yards per game).
Jameis Winston hasn't had more than a few speedbumps so far in what is one of the most impressive seasons ever by a college freshman quarterback. Winston is completing 69.9 percent of his passes for 2,177 yards, 23 touchdowns and just four interceptions.
What makes Florida State tough to beat is the quantity of playmakers around him. Few teams have enough good corners to neutralize receivers Rashad Greene (39 catches), Kenny Shaw (31 catches) and Kelvin Benjamin (23 catches). And they can't forget about tight end Nick O'Leary (17 catches).
But the Seminoles are at their best when they also get the running game rolling. Devonta Freeman has 561 rushing yards and six touchdowns, while Karlos Williams has 349 rushing yards and seven touchdowns.
"We know we can get so much better," Winston said. "The N.C. State game was not my best game individually, that was not our offense's best game, even though we scored 35 points in the first quarter. That was our defense -- they got us the ball fast. We have to get better every single day."
It's hard to imagine Florida State improving on an offense that already averages 553 yards and 52 points per game. If the Seminoles can run and pass effectively, they could win this game decisively.
For all the talk about Florida State's missed kicks in the series against Miami, it's something that fans, former kickers and coach Bobby Bowden won't forget. But for the current Seminoles and freshman kicker Roberto Aguayo, it's not much of an issue.
Aguayo was born in 1994, three years after the initial Wide Right. With all due respect to history, those kicks have little significance to him.
He has made all 58 of his kicks -- 10 field-goal attempts and 48 extra-point attempts in his first seven games. Aguayo has set an FSU record for most consecutive kicks made. And while Aguayo hasn't had to make a pressure kick yet for Florida State, he treats each kick like it is a make-or-break situation.
"Every kick is a game-winning kick, that's how you have to think about it," Aguayo said. "So when you get into that position, you've already kicked it a million times. That's how I take it. Quality kicks instead of quantity. That's how I feel."
Contact Bob Ferrante at bobferrante17@gmail.com
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