Florida State's defensive line has finally started to play to its potential this season, according to Bud Elliott of SB Nation's Florida State blog, Tomahawk Nation.
The unit, which boasts nine defensive tackles who were four-or-five star recruits coming out of high school, has grown up this season and it showed in a dominant performance against Wake Forest last week:
Florida State's defensive front tallied 11 (yes, 11) tackles for loss. Wake ran only 59 total plays. 19-percent of Wake's offensive snaps went for loss. And that does not even count the plays that went for no gain, of which there were 21 (14 passes, 7 runs).
Wake Forest only had two plays of more than 10 yards -- a run for 34 yards that occurred when junior linebacker Telvin Smith appeared to get out of his gap, and a contested catch down the sideline of 41 yards. On the day, Wake managed just 2.1 yards/play, and were held under 2 before garbage time.
With a matchup against a run-heavy Clemson offense set for Saturday, the Seminoles will face a barometer test for just how good their defensive line can be this season.
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