Friedlander: Florida State starts the season with a taste of karma … but don’t write off the ‘Noles yet
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The celebration began in Dublin, Ireland about the time Aidan Birr’s game-winning field split the uprights.
But the euphoria produced by Georgia Tech’s Week 0 upset of Florida State quickly spread like a tsunami from the pitch of a soccer stadium on the Emerald Isle across the Atlantic to the land in which proper football, the kind that uses an oblong ball, is normally played.
Other than those in Tallahassee, everyone has reason to be happy about the Yellow Jackets’ 24-21 victory Saturday.
And not just because it kicked off the new football season with an entertaining bang.
The haters who have spent the past 7 months trashing the ACC and telling everyone who would listen that the Seminoles had no business being in last year’s College Football Playoff didn’t have to wait long for a result to prove their point.
As for those who actually care about the ACC – you know, those associated with at least 1 of the other 16 football-playing schools – they’re smiling from ear-to-ear over the karma the Seminoles have brought upon themselves.
If you’re going to sue your conference because you think you’re too good for it and want to get out, it’s probably not a good PR move to lose your first conference game with the entire country watching.
To a team picked to finish 9th in the preseason poll.
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Make no mistake. The piling on FSU that’s so gleefully happening on social media as a result of Saturday’s loss is well deserved.
At the same time, though, it might be wise to bookmark it for future use if you’re one of the few, the proud, who aren’t celebrating right now.
Because as the time-worn cliché reminds us, the season is a marathon not a sprint. And at least in the numerical sense, the 2024 season doesn’t actually begin until next week.
Although there were a multitude of warning signs, including a big one that might not be fixable, it would be unwise to write the Seminoles off as an ACC and national championship contender based on this small sample size.
Let’s start with the specifics of this game.
It’s an upset you should have seen coming like a hurricane brewing in the Caribbean. The only thing missing was the forecast map with all the spaghetti-like lines on it showing us where the storm was going to hit.
The dynamic was almost identical to the one that preceded Duke’s takedown of preseason conference favorite Clemson 51 weeks ago.
Veteran team with a difference-maker at quarterback and a defense coordinated by Tyler Santucci vs. a talented brand-name opponent playing its first game with a virtually new lineup. In a non-intimidating environment to the double-digit underdog.
Throw in the fact that Tech came into the game 4-0 against ranked ACC opponents under Brent Key, with only 1 of those games at home, and you have the recipe for the Irish stew the Seminoles got served at Aviva Stadium.
Needless to say, Mike Norvell and his staff have a lot to work on between now and Monday, Sept. 2, when they try to avoid an 0-2 start in the conference against Boston College.
Their primary focus should be up front on the offensive and defensive lines. Considering all the new pieces that have to learn how to work and play together, those are the two areas Norvell figured would be the least of his worries during the early going.
But here we are.
Although the Yellow Jackets were only able to sack quarterback DJ Uiagalelei once, FSU’s offensive line had trouble keeping the Yellow Jackets out of his backfield all day. It was even more of a liability in the ground game. The Seminoles gained only 115 yards on 31 carries. And 60 of those came on the game’s opening drive.
Their opponent had no such trouble running the ball. With quarterback Haynes King and running backs Jamal Haynes and Chad Alexander taking turns doing the damage, Tech averaged better than 5 yards per carry while churning out 190 yards against Patrick Payton and a defensive line touted to be one of the nation’s best.
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At least those issues are fixable. The one that might not be is at the most important position on the field.
It’s a given that Uiagalelei is no Jordan Travis. If he was, he wouldn’t have been run out of Clemson. This is not to say he can’t be an effective quarterback. He’s had success, particularly last season at Oregon State.
But he is who he is.
FSU is going to have to deal with the reality that for all the precision passes he throws – like the 2 4th-down lasers that kept a key late touchdown drive alive – he’s going to have just as many if not more errant throws that sail over open receivers’ heads. Or leads them out of bounds.
"man this kid can rip it" I think to myself as DJ Uiagalalei sails a pass five yards over his receiver's head out of bounds for the fifth time today
— Matt Hinton (@MattRHinton) August 24, 2024
That’s an inconsistency the Seminoles are going to have to live with and game plan around as they negotiate their way through the next 11 games on the regular-season schedule. It’s a journey that could still lead to the top of the conference standings when all is said and done.
But it won’t be as easy as they made it look last season.
Because as Georgia Tech showed on Saturday, the ACC is better and deeper than some want to believe. Either that or the haters are right.
Either way, somebody’s going to be celebrating.
Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.
