Jameis Winston says Miami Hurricanes can be the big brother in rivalry

Florida State and Miami are both undefeated entering Saturday’s game between the teams in Tallahassee, but there’s no doubt who’s expected to win. The Seminoles are favored by 21 points, which is the largest spread for two top-10 teams meeting this late in the year since 1980, per pregame.com. Even though FSU is favored by a large margin in the game, Winston is deferring to the Canes’ historical edge in the series in giving them respect.

Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday ahead of the big game, Winston said Miami can be the big brother in the series.

“It’s more of like a brotherly game,” Winston said of the game. “Miami is obviously down south and it’s a big rivalry. But it’s like we’re going to be in the backyard playing against each other and we want to beat our brother. If they want to be the big brother we want to be the little brother. It’s still a friendly competition.”

The ‘Noles have won the last three meetings and six of the last eight between the teams, but Miami leads all time 31-26 and has five national championships compared to FSU’s two. That’s probably why Winston says Miami can be the big brother.

Note: A previous version of this post incorrectly transcribed Winston’s words as “beat the little brother” when he said “be the little brother,” which is the complete opposite. Winston was respecting Miami’s history in the rivalry rather than disrespecting it. We apologize for the error and creating the perception that Winston slighted Miami when he didn’t.