With North Carolina bringing its high-powered offense to town, Florida State coach Jimbo Fishertook time out from his weekly session with the media to dispel any talk about the job opening that came up this week when LSU fired Les Miles.”I’m not talking about LSU. We’re talking about North Carolina,” said Fisher, an assistant at LSU from 2000 through 2006, adding that he also has not had contact with anyone from LSU nor would he listen if they called him or his agent.”I’m coaching football,” he said. “I don’t listen.”Fisher and his 12th-ranked Seminoles look to have enough on their hands without that distraction when they take on the Tar Heels at 3:30 p.m. ET at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Fla.The Seminoles badly need this one because they are already 0-1 in the ACC and another loss in conference play would all but knock them out of the running for any sort of title in 2016, including the national playoffs.And while none of the current players were around the last time Florida State played North Carolina in 2010, there is one detail about that game that Fisher likely will bring up: the Seminoles lost, 37-35.Finally, there’s this extra bit of clutter for Fisher to try to eliminate this week: He has beaten every team in the ACC at least once since taking over in 2010 except North Carolina, that is.”It doesn’t matter,” Fisher said. “I don’t care what everybody else does, we have to get better at what we’re doing.”The Tar Heels are unranked but have won three in a row since dropping their opener to Georgia.Their quarterback, junior Mitch Trubisky, is shaping up to be one of the best passers that the Seminoles may face all year. He’s averaging 326 yards passing a game and has already thrown 10 touchdowns without an interception.”He’s big, he’s strong and he’s hard to get down in the pocket,” Fisher said. “I like him, but he’s going to be a pain in the tail.”The Tar Heels come into their game buoyed by the confidence of their comeback win over Pitt. Trailing by 13 points with less than eight minutes left in the game, the Heels engineered two touchdown drives, the second of which included three fourth-down conversions. North Carolina also held visiting Pitt to a three-and-out in between.”We found out a lot,” said junior wide receiver Austin Proehl, who had one of the critical fourth-down receptions on the final drive. “We found out who we were as a team.”The Seminoles got a confidence boost of their own in their last outing in running up a 55-35 win at South Florida. Running back Dalvin Cook appears to be just fine.After a hot and cold first three weeks of the season, the junior speedster slashed and dashed for a career-high 267 yards for his first 100-plus-yard rushing performance of the year something noticeably missing from the preseason Heisman hopeful’s resume the first three games.Some reports said Cook has dealing with an undisclosed injury. Others speculated the almost 20 pounds of muscle he added during the offseason were slowing him down.Cook basically laughed off all of it.”I don’t know why it was a question,” he said. “I go out there and play the same football every week,” Cook said. “Whether it’s to run the ball or (catch) the ball, I just did a better job this week.”Cook was also the team’s leading receiver in the game with four catches for 62 yards, and he scored an electrifying touchdown on the Seminoles’ first offensive play a 75-yard gallop untouched into the end zone to tie the game early at 7-7.Now to what needs fixing: Florida State’s defense, which has given up 98 points and 980 yards in its last two outings and gave up an 84-yard pass play on South Florida’s first play last week.”We got to be more physical up front,” Fisher said.
