The back contributed after leaving the backfield
Ousmane Kromah carried nineteen times for 88 yards at Louisville on October 9. He also caught four passes for 43 yards, matching his career high in receptions. Florida State lost 44–20, but that second line offers a useful offensive question before Saturday’s trip to Miami.
Kromah has reached eighty rushing yards in each of the Seminoles’ first six games. Defenses already have a reason to account for him at the handoff. His receiving contribution adds a different obligation: recognize when the player expected to run becomes someone the quarterback can throw to instead.
Make the same personnel ask a different question
A back’s release can put a linebacker in conflict. Moving quickly toward the quarterback or the apparent run can create room for a short pass. Waiting to cover that release can leave fewer immediate defenders around the handoff. Florida State does not need a new personnel group to ask those questions if Kromah is already on the field.
The Louisville game supplied a concrete example late: a 79-yard touchdown drive included a seventeen-yard Kromah reception and a twenty-two-yard catch by Landen Thomas. Those gains came through different targets and different distances. The lesson is not to turn every possession into a sequence of checkdowns. It is to preserve a useful outlet without abandoning the intermediate and deeper throws that make the outlet harder to crowd.
A release should help Daniels choose
Ashton Daniels completed 21 of 37 passes for 209 yards and two touchdowns against Louisville, while adding 45 rushing yards and a score. Asking him to manufacture the ground-game escape on every difficult passing snap would waste the options supplied by the players around him.
Florida State enters October 17 at 3–3 overall and 1–2 in the ACC. No. 3 Miami is 5–0, and kickoff is 7 p.m. Eastern on ESPN. The next sign of progress should be an offense that knows where its next answer is when Miami closes the first one. Kromah has already demonstrated that his contribution can continue after the defense recognizes him as a runner. The Seminoles should make that recognition part of the problem they present.
Sources & reporting
- Florida State Athletics: Louisville recap, October 9 ↗
- Florida State Athletics: Miami kickoff announcement, October 5 ↗
This article adds independent analysis to publicly available reporting. We did not conduct the interviews or report the game firsthand. Report a factual error.