The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

AFTER being shut out against Wake Forest in week seven, Mavin Saunders was back on the stat sheet for the Florida State Seminoles last weekend in yet another tough loss for the programme.

Saunders finished with one catch for 19 yards in the No.12 Seminoles’ 37-34 loss to the No.3 Clemson Tigers Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida.

He provided the first completion of the game for Seminoles quarterback Deondre Francois on the very first offensive possession for FSU.

Clemson’s Heisman candidate quarterback Deshaun Watson led Clemson with 430 yards of total offence, including a 34-yard touchdown pass to Jordan Leggett for the game-winning score.

“That game was a heavyweight fight. They’re going to throw haymakers, we’re going to throw haymakers,” FSU head coach Jimbo Fisher said. “We kept going at each other. We had an opportunity to seal it back up or win it at the end and we didn’t get it done. Guys battled. They played hard, left their guts on the line. They played very hard, but we’ve got to play better.”

FSU dropped to 5-3 overall, and 2-3 within the Atlantic Coast Conference. They will travel next week to visit the North Carolina State Wolfpack in another ACC matchup.

On the season, the sophomore tight end has six receptions for 116 yards, equalling his career high of six receptions set as a freshman last year.

He leads the team with an average of 19.3 yards per reception.

After seeing action sparingly in the first three games of the season, Saunders saw increased minutes against USF when he caught his first pass of the season, a 12-yard reception.

In the following game Saunders finished with three catches for 74 yards, both career highs, in the Seminoles’ 37-35 loss to the unranked North Carolina Tar Heels.

He caught one pass for 11 yards the following week against Miami which marked his third consecutive game with a reception and saw that streak come to an end against Wake Forest.

He remains second to Ryan Izzo among numbers for tight ends with 13 catches for 155 yards and a touchdown.

Earlier this season, Fisher said he expects the redshirt sophomore and Bimini native to become an even greater part of the game plan as FSU implements more double tight end sets.

“Mavin is getting better and better. He’s really grinding, he’s getting better and better and doing better. He has a chance to be a really good player, he just needs to keep working. I hope the light came on for him and a lot of them. When you start to have success and realise what you can do then you have a lot of plays in the game,” Fisher said. “Mavin [because of his] athleticism, as he learns to be a really good football player, Mavin can do anything that he wants to.”