Winston, FSU crush Pitt

Redshirt freshman quarterback Jameis Winston receives a snap in the shotgun formation, with Florida State leading Pitt by 11 points just before halftime. Winston senses pressure — a rare feeling in a game in which he was sacked just twice and had ample time to pinpoint throws — and cuts up the field before fleeting sharply.

In one fluid motion, Winston plants his left foot and hops back a couple feet to rifle a pass to junior receiver Rashad Greene. The throw splits two Panthers defenders and pegs Greene in between the eight and the zero on the front of his jersey before he heads upfield to complete a 36-yard gem of a play. 

That play was a microcosm of Florida State’s night, a 41-13 walloping of the Panthers, and likely even the remainder of its season. 

Winston led the Seminoles to five touchdowns in five red-zone trips, moved the chains on seven of 11 third-down plays and torched the Panthers for 390 yards of total offense — all in front of a sellout crowd at Heinz Field.

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher, the guy who’s had the pleasure of watching Winston all spring, downplayed the quarterback’s performance. Fisher said, “It was one ballgame, guys. That’s it. He did a great job. As long as he keeps the process in mind and working with great habits, he will be fine.” 

None of these stats should be particularly impressive in such a highly touted debut, yet Pitt head coach Paul Chryst said otherwise. 

“I wasn’t surprised by him because we’d never seen him play before,” Chryst said after the game. “I was certainly impressed with him. He did a good job of making plays and extending plays.” 

Sure, Winston was elusive — tough to bring down on the few chances Pitt had at stopping him in the backfield. But extending plays is easy when he has teammates like Greene, a four-star recruit in 2011 who racked up 126 yards receiving with a touchdown against the Panthers. 

It’s easy when there are players like junior tight end Nick O’Leary — a fellow former four-star recruit who was the recipient of three Winston touchdown passes — or right tackle Bobby Hart — a junior who was ESPN’s fourth-best offensive tackle in the 2011 recruiting class. 

The point is the Seminoles are stacked on offense, a lineup of former high school stars and recruits with remarkable pedigrees — but the defense is no different. Look at Lamarcus Joyner and his nine tackles, two sacks and one pass break-up. Back in 2010, Joyner was a five-star recruit out of a Miami, Fla. high school and the top prep cornerback in the country.

Meanwhile, the Panthers played 12 true freshmen in the loss to Florida State. The Seminoles are the superior team, evidenced by their 2012 ACC title and No. 11 pre-season ranking, but the difference is that, of the dozen first-year Panthers to see action, just one was a four-star recruit. 

That jewel of the class, wide receiver Tyler Boyd, was the lone bright spot Monday. Boyd led the team in rushing — again, he’s a wide-out — with 54 yards on just three carries, and provided a spark on kick returns, where he compiled 71 yards on three attempts. 

“I think I did everything I can do. I can make more plays, but I made just enough plays to do right, do good,” he said after his first college game. 

Even Boyd, a prized youth, himself, knew he was stacked up against a star-studded defense, one loaded with former top-recruits. And though he didn’t say as much, he knew the blcoking line ahead of him that he would need to dodge — an area that spelled out the clear advantage in recruiting and performance between the two squads. 

“I thought it was going to be really tough [to run],” Boyd said. “But I expected too much, I guess.”