Florida State has been trying to recover from losses throughout most of the first half of the season.Now Duke comes in off its first defeat.The teams meet in a Friday night Atlantic Coast Conference game at Durham, N.C.Duke (5-1, 1-1 ACC) hasn’t played since falling 24-14 at Georgia Tech on Oct. 5. The Blue Devils are winless against Florida State in 22 all-time meetings.Duke coach Manny Diaz said the break in the schedule came at a good time for his team to regroup.”Our players were able to refresh themselves as much as you can midway through October,” Diaz said.Florida State (1-5, 1-4), which has lost its past two games, has had the same gap of time between games as the Blue Devils. This will be the Seminoles’ second true road game, having fallen 42-16 at SMU on Sept. 28.”It’s definitely always good just to re-set,” Seminoles safety K.J. Kirkland said. “It also gave us a better opportunity to scout our opponent.”Kirkland and his teammates got a good look at Duke quarterback Maalik Murphy, who has thrown for 1,431 yards and 14 touchdowns with just five interceptions this season.”That quarterback is pretty good,” Kirkland said. “He has got a big arm on him. They can run the ball. They do a lot of good things.”Florida State’s offense needs a jolt. The Seminoles haven’t scored more than 16 points in a game since a season-opening 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech in Dublin.
