This week’s Film Focus is shorter than the previous iterations, largely because we wanted to focus on one player and make him the centerpiece of the analysis. Kermit Whitfield has had quite the journey at Florida State so far, stealing the hearts of Seminole fans with a kickoff return for a touchdown that helped propel FSU to the 2013 national championship.
Whitfield had a very quiet 2014 season before emerging this year as the team’s leading receiver at the season’s midway point. He had without a doubt the best performance of his career Saturday in a 41-21 win over Louisville, going for 172 yards receiving and a touchdown on nine receptions.
Broadcast angles are a tricky thing and this is definitely a situation where some plays won’t be fully visible for the review. Despite this limitation, we will attempt to examine how Whitfield got his yards and pinpoint what exactly he did so well against the Cardinals. Depending on the view, he might have been even better than given credit for.
1st Quarter
6:30 – Florida State has three players lined up on the left for this third down. Whitfield is the one going the deepest on a post route, with Travis Rudolph running out to the left and Ermon Lane running a short slant. Whitfield cuts right in front of his cornerback and Golson gets the ball out before the safety comes up to help. Well executed play by everyone for a 12-yard gain.
:28 – Whitfield’s first screen of the game comes on a 3rd-and-26 with FSU just trying to get better field position for a punt. He’s able to sprint down the sideline and get about 14 yards, but a facemask at the end of the play gives the Seminoles a first down to extend the drive.
:11 – Another screen to Whitfield goes for about six yards. Travis Rudolph had a good block that allowed Whitfield to maneuver his way to the side, and Ermon Lane pushed his man all the way out of the screen. Head coach Jimbo Fisher was clearly trying to spread out the Louisville defense and force it to respect the outside. This would help out running back Dalvin Cook who started getting more touches in the second half.
First Quarter Summary: Quarterback Everett Golson went to Whitfield often and early, looking to get a rhythm going for the rest of the game. A total of 32 yards in one quarter, with 20 of those coming on the screen passes that would appear throughout the entire contest.
2nd Quarter
15:00 – Whitfield gets a third consecutive reception, with this one being a simple out route designed to pick up the four yards needed for a first down. Golson seems to have finally found his “go-to guy” in No. 8, considering that he has been getting more targets each game. He now has nine receptions in back-to-back contests and is proving himself to be a reliable player for the future.
13:20 – It’s hard to see how this play developed in the secondary with the two angles given. On one hand, it looks like Golson was a little late with the throw and if he had gotten it out sooner, Whitfield may have had a touchdown. But the cornerback was running slightly in front of Whitfield and the linebacker was prowling over the middle. So Golson may have thrown it a little behind the receiver to try and get it past both of the defenders. Either way, it’s a tough throw and an even tougher catch. Incomplete.
Second Quarter Summary: Don’t make the mistake of assuming that it was only Whitfield who went quiet in the second quarter. The entire Florida State offense struggled mightily against what was probably the second best defense its faced this year. The Seminoles entered halftime down 7-6, but Whitfield would help erase the deficit early in the second half.
3rd Quarter
14:54 – Here is where we get to see some of the renowned acceleration from Whitfield. He gets the smoke screen pass and has two defenders sprinting towards him before he even catches the ball. Despite this, he’s able to run to the outside and pick up a full eight yards before being tackled. FSU will keep doing what is working and Louisville showed no signs of sniffing out the simple screen plays.
8:17 – The formation is very similar to the play where Whitfield got his first reception, with trips on one side of the ball for a third down. Initially, the play breaks down and Golson has to scramble to the right. He finds a streaking Whitfield coming across the middle and darts it right in between two defenders with room for him to run. From there it’s a foot race, and Whitfield will win those every time. Even with a good angle, the safety is unable to catch him and he walks into the end zone for a crucial touchdown that puts FSU ahead for good. The play was made possible by Whitfield recognizing what was going on back at the line of scrimmage and finding the gap in coverage.
4:51 – FSU tries a reverse, but Louisville is all over it. Whitfield gets the ball on the pitch from Dalvin Cook, but he has nowhere to go. Thankfully, he’s able to find his way back to the line of scrimmage and minimize the loss to just one yard.
Third Quarter Summary: Whitfield’s touchdown reception gave FSU the lead and started a streak of 21 unanswered points. Not only was it crucial for the game itself, but it’s incredibly refreshing to see him use his speed in a tangible way as a receiver. There’s not a single area where Whitfield hasn’t improved over the past year.
4th Quarter
13:18 – Yet another screen to Whitfield goes for about six yards. At this point, it seems like the Cardinals are afraid of him beating the secondary like he did on his touchdown reception. They aren’t pressing, and that means FSU can continually run the screen all day and see success with it.
7:20 – The fifth screen pass goes for almost 14 yards after some beautiful moves to evade the defenders. It’s a bit high from Golson, but Whitfield is able to recover and makes a hard cut to put the safety on roller skates. He bursts through the opening with the help of a blocking Travis Rudolph for another first down.
5:01 – Florida State hits Whitfield on the screen again during a 3rd-and-11. Same play, but an even better result: Kermit recovers after a bit of a slip and starts sprinting down the sideline for a near touchdown. He nearly avoids going out of bounds, but reaches the Louisville 2-yard-line.
Fourth Quarter Summary: Whitfield sees three screen passes in this quarter, but they went for a combined 58 yards, almost solely because of his shiftiness. It wasn’t that Louisville didn’t have the personnel to stop it. Often times, it had at least three defenders running over to stop the play, but Whitfield was able to speed past them for some nice gains.
Overall
Some will look at the amount of identical screen plays and conclude that Whitfield’s day was a bit of “fool’s gold” so to speak. This was more of a case of FSU playing to his strengths and allowing him to move the ball on a good Louisville defense. Whitfield not only has good straight line speed, but very good moves out in space. He is a true home run threat that forces defenses to respect him as a receiver. In fact, Whitfield was more instrumental to the offense than it appears. Four of his receptions went for first downs, including three on third down.
The Seminoles kept going back to what was working, and there is nothing wrong with that. Whitfield got about 85 — or nearly half — of his yards on screens, which is something that regular players usually do not do, but that is because they typically have different skill-sets. If No. 8 can keep progressing and stay healthy for the rest of the year, he could start to receive some national recognition.
Photo courtesy of wlpearce.com/Florida State athletics
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