I was surprised to see the College Football Playoff Committee set a matchup between Florida State and Oregon, and I must confess I was—as many covering Florida State—a bit disappointed to have to make the trek across the country rather than the shorter trip to New Orleans.

That said, this is a much better matchup for Florida State than Alabama would have been, as it gives FSU more time to prepare for Oregon’s brand of football and an opponent whose strengths feed into Florida State’s strengths.

Whereas Alabama’s has huge lines and more traditional power personnel would likely force Florida State out of its 3-3-5/4-2-5 base defensive personnel for significant portions of that game, FSU’s base personnel allows them to match up well with Oregon’s spread offense.

Perhaps even more importantly, the Seminoles will likely have the edge on both lines in this game. Contrary to common belief, the Ducks are not a small, finesse defense and actually have a very large defensive front, checking in at a total of 1862 pounds (266 avg.) across their front seven, with their three starting defensive linemen all tipping the scales above 290 pounds.

But Florida State’s offensive line (which averages over 330 pounds per man) has been dominant since the move of Cam Erving to center, with FSU’s running backs tallying 599 yards on 97 attempts (6.2 YPC) since the move, and will certainly be the biggest and best offensive line the Ducks have seen this season.

FSU’s Defensive Size

But the bigger edge looks to be on the other side of the ball, where Florida State brings the best defensive line into this game that Oregon will have seen all season. The last time the Ducks faced a defensive line comparable to this year’s Florida State group, they were held to 20 points in an overtime loss to Stanford in 2013. (Stanford lost three defensive linemen from the 2013 group—Josh Mauro, Trent Murphy, and Ben Gardner—replacing them with smaller defensive ends in 2014. The difference showed.)

Florida State has by far the biggest defensive line across the board the Ducks will have faced in 2014, averaging 294.5 pounds per player (1177 total) across the front four in their 4-2-5 base personnel. By comparison, Michigan State’s defensive line was over 20 pounds per player smaller, averaging 273.8. Stanford’s main four was 275.5, as the Cardinals play a 3-4 base with a much smaller Buck linebacker than they have fielded the past two seasons.

The only defensive line Oregon has faced with an average weight anywhere close to FSU’s is Oregon State’s, which actually weighs half a pound more per player—but that figure is skewed by the Beavers’ 350 pound nose tackle, while the other players are all significantly smaller than their FSU counterparts. The weights of the defensive fronts Oregon has played (and the Ducks' own weights) are below:

MSU

WSU

Ariz

UCLA

Wash

Cal

Stan

Utah

Col

OSU

Arizona

FSU

Oregon

DE

257

295

262

305

255

265

260

266

240

259

262

295

290

DT

289

299

287

305

290

270

295

310

270

296

247

315

290

NT

294

286

277

268

339

295

303

275

325

350

277

295

310

DE/OLB

255

227

265

225

235

275

244

255

230

275

242

273

250

LB

228

208

246

230

235

220

254

227

225

233

246

220

247

LB

252

224

230

228

235

225

234

237

210

230

230

222

240

LB

230

224

216

240

230

238

215

233

260

235

Nickel

194

178

194

205

Front Four

1095

1107

1091

1103

1119

1105

1102

1106

1065

1180

1028

1177

1140

Avg:

273.8

276.8

272.8

275.8

279.5

276.3

275.5

276.5

266.3

295.0

257.0

294.5

285.0

Front Six

1575

1468

1305

1472

1574

1515

1533

1304

1475

1617

1242

1585

1572

Avg:

262.5

244.7

217.5

245.3

262.3

252.5

255.5

217.3

245.8

269.5

207.0

264.2

262.0

Front Seven

1805

1763

1567

1777

1829

1780

1828

1570

1715

1876

1504

1879

1862

Avg:

257.9

251.9

223.9

253.9

261.3

254.3

261.1

224.3

245.0

268.0

214.9

268.4

266.0

FSU’s group actually gets significantly bigger when the Seminoles go to their 3-4 personnel, particularly when 315-pound freshman nose tackle Derrick Nnadi joins the group, pushing 295 pound Mario Edwards, Jr. to the Buck linebacker spot in FSU’s massive 3-4 personnel (that set is well over 1900 pounds).

FSU’s size is especially notable at the ends, where Edwards and Demarcus Walker (273) or Chris Casher (265) are the biggest pair of ends Oregon will have faced.

It’s also worth noting that FSU’s group is not just big, they’re probably the most athletic group the Ducks will have faced as well. In many respects, FSU’s front most resembles the 2012 Stanford front that featured the very athletic Gardner (262), Mauro (280), and Murphy (250) as edge players flanking 300 pounders on the inside. That same group returned for 2013 minus Gardner, who missed the Oregon game with a pectoral tear.

That size and athleticism on the defensive front is critical to slowing down the prolific Duck offense, as Oregon’s spread depends on being able to create space on the interior. As we’ll discuss more in the next few weeks, Oregon’s offense is in many respects similar to Georgia Tech’s option attack, and it’s important for the defense to be able to defend it inside-out. If a defense can occupy all five offensive linemen with four players and keep the linebackers clean, it puts the numbers back in favor of the defense.

Another factor to consider is that while Marcus Mariota is a terrific quarterback and has earned his accolades, he has struggled in his career against the few defenses that have been able to compress the pocket and reduce the space directly in front of him: Stanford in 2012 and 2013, Arizona in 2013 and their first matchup this season. But these Ducks have not faced a front anywhere near as good as those from the past two years until now. It will be interesting to see if they fare better against Florida State’s group than they did against the Cardinal.

Smashing Stereotypes: Oregon’s Defense is Big, Too

One other thing you may notice in the table above: Oregon’s defensive front is just as big as Florida State’s base front (though not quite as big as FSU’s jumbo 3-4). The Ducks’ backups on the defensive line are also huge. This game is sure to be billed as “speed vs. strength,” but that is really not the case. Oregon has the biggest defense on the West Coast, and the Seminoles are every bit as fast as the Ducks.

This isn’t a “speed vs. strength” matchup. It’s two really good football teams with both speed and strength playing against one another. The real difference is that while FSU has faced other teams with comparable size and athleticism to Oregon, the Ducks have yet to face another team with comparable size and athleticism to FSU.

It will certainly be interesting to see how that dynamic plays out a few weeks from now.

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