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While most of the pre-Rose Bowl talk will be focused on Heisman Trophy winner Marcus Mariota and the Oregon Ducks' team speed, powerful running back Royce Freeman has caused opponents plenty of headaches as well.

Freeman, a bruising 6-foot, 229-pounder, leads the Ducks with 1,299 yards on the ground and 16 touchdowns. While he doesn't necessarily have game-breaking speed - his longest run of the season is 38 yards - he averages 5.6 yards per carry and very rarely gets dropped for a loss.

The good news for Florida State is the Seminoles' defense expects to be healthier up the middle than it has been since the first few weeks of the 2014 season. For the first time since FSU played Clemson on Sept. 20, starting defensive tackles Eddie Goldman and Nile Lawrence-Stample should both be in the lineup.

Goldman, who suffered a scare when he went down with an ankle injury early in the ACC Championship Game, returned to practice late last week. And Lawrence-Stample, who has missed the last 10 games with a torn muscle in his chest, appears to be ready to go as well.

"To be able to have Nile and Eddie back on the D-line would be a tremendous help as a linebacker," junior linebacker Terrance Smith said. "That was part of the reason we were able to be so good last year, our defensive line was tremendous. It freed up me and Telvin [Smith] a lot, we could go sideline-to-sideline and just make plays.

"To be able to have two threats up there, plus Mario [Edwards Jr.] and Demarcus [Walker] on the edge, to be able to have people that require double-team blocks and can't get single-blocked … that's a big factor."

At 6-1, 314 pounds, Lawrence-Stample has the size and agility to be a dominant run-stuffer. Junior Derrick Mitchell has played extremely well in his place, but he might not be quite as stout at the point of attack.

FSU's coaches originally feared Lawrence-Stample would be out for the season, but his rehabilitation has gone well and they say he has done a great job of staying attentive in meetings and remaining hopeful for a return. During the last few practices before FSU broke for the holidays on Dec. 22, Lawrence-Stample was getting reps with the first- and second-teamers.

"Excellent. I feel very comfortable with Nile," FSU coach Jimbo Fisher said. "Nile's practicing well. He's been doing good-on-good for the last three days. He's really developing his strength. I like his progress."

Goldman, a 6-4, 320-pounder who earned third-team All-America and first-team All-ACC honors, was held out of the Seminoles' first several bowl practices with a sprained ankle but returned late last week. While most of Goldman's action has come against the scout team and not the starters, Fisher said that's only because the coaches and trainers are being overly cautious.

"He'll be ready to roll," Fisher said. "We wanted to make sure he was really good. When you go back on an ankle, you can tweak it or turn it. He probably could have went a couple days earlier. Like I said, if we had a game, we could have pushed it and he would have been able to do it. … But we're very happy with him being healthy."

The Seminoles also should be healthier at linebacker than they have been since the middle of the season. Smith, who is the second-leading tackler with 85 stops, acknowledged that he hasn't been close to 100 percent since the Notre Dame game in mid-October.

He missed the Louisville game with a neck strain and has been hobbled at times with a nagging knee injury. Getting nearly a month to prepare for Oregon should certainly help.

"It's very important," Smith said. "Right now, it's one of my main focuses to get as healthy as I can before we play Oregon. … I'm staying in the training room, getting as much treatment as possible and trying to get as close to 100 percent as I can."

After taking three days off for the holidays, the Seminoles are expected to fly to California today and conduct their first practice on location on Saturday.

Warchant.com will have complete coverage of FSU's trip to the Rose Bowl, beginning with reports from the Seminoles' first practice on Saturday through the national semifinal game on Jan. 1.