{"id":2523,"date":"2025-10-14T14:25:21","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2523\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T14:25:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T14:25:21","slug":"tony-whites-defense-at-fsu-changed-once-ucla-job-opened-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/2523\/","title":{"rendered":"Tony White’s defense at FSU changed once UCLA job opened up"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FSU defense we witnessed against Alabama in the season opener was what we expected from a Tony White defense. They were fast, physical, and played with an edge, just like his defenses at Nebraska. There were holes we noticed, but that defense had a certain attitude and confidence.<\/p>\n

The same was present against lesser opponents the next two weeks, but things changed once FSU went on the road to face Virginia. Granted, Virginia has a good offense and a veteran quarterback, as we noted in the game analysis. <\/p>\n

What happened shortly before that? UCLA, White\u2019s alma mater, fired its head coach, Deshaun Foster, on September 14th, a few days before FSU played Kent State on September 20th. <\/p>\n

White interviewed for that job before, but UCLA decided to hire Foster, and White\u2019s name was immediately in the mix. He even admitted that he had talked to some folks on a call, and the UCLA job came up, but he dismissed it. <\/p>\n

FSU\u2019s defense traveled to UVA on a Friday night and looked nothing like the defense we saw against Alabama. The FSU offense did them no favors with multiple turnovers early, but they failed to take control of that game in the second half and allowed Virginia to run all over them. The physicality was nowhere to be found. <\/p>\n

Related Story: Former FSU players says talent isn’t the issue at FSU, and he’s RIGHT<\/a><\/p>\n

Fast forward to the Miami game, and FSU played undisciplined football in the secondary. The tackling angles were poor, and FSU again looked nothing like the defense we saw against Alabama when it comes to physicality.<\/p>\n

The offensive turnovers against Virginia and Miami could explain some of the woes in those games. However, White allowed a freshman in his first road start to torch them on the first two drives on Saturday. The defense appeared uncoordinated, and no adjustments were made. Players failed to play their assignments, and physicality was absent once again, minus 3-4 players.<\/p>\n

While ACC offenses are probably more dynamic and have more speed than most in the B1G, White\u2019s defenses only allowed opposing offenses to score over 30 points twice in 2023. One team had a Heisman winner and NFL Draft pick at QB, and the other was against the eventual national champs. We\u2019ll use that year since it was his first year there. <\/p>\n

FSU has allowed 30+ points in two of the last three games against Power Four opponents, and it would have likely been all three if Mario Cristobal had elected to kick a chip-shot field goal instead of going for it on fourth down late in that game. \u00a0<\/p>\n

What changed since the first three games and the last three? FSU isn\u2019t missing a ton of starters on defense or anything. There is blue-chip talent at over half of the lineup, more than what he had at Nebraska. <\/p>\n

Something is off with this defense, and it begins with Tony White. However, ultimately, it\u2019s on Mike Norvell for not holding folks accountable. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FSU defense we witnessed against Alabama in the season opener was what we expected from a Tony…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-2523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}