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Сентябрь
2023

It’s official! FSU is BACK after finally beating Clemson | Commentary

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Finally.

At long last.

They’re back.

The Florida State Seminoes are officially back.

Really.

Truly.

Thankfully.

I say thankfully because after FSU finally beat Clemson in a 31-24 overtime thriller on Saturday, maybe now those long-memoried Tiger fans will stop tweeting at me every fall about this time; reminding me, ridiculing me and linking to a column I wrote on Nov. 7, 2015.

That was the day Clemson had just beaten FSU to end the Seminoles’ three-year reign as ACC champions, and the headline on top of the column read: “Enjoy it, Clemson, because FSU will soon be back on top.”

Of course, I’ve looked like an idiot for the better part of a decade because FSU hadn’t beaten Clemson since — until Saturday, when the Seminoles ended a seven-game losing streak to the Tigers and regained control of the conference they once dominated. Who knew the Seminoles would need to go through three coaches and eight seasons before finally beating Clemson again?

“This was a hard-earned win; something we’ve been working toward for four years,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said afterward. “I’m so proud to see our team come on the road and get this win in a hostile environment. … We’ve been knocked down, but we always get back up. And now, we continue our climb.”

Technically, Norvell is right in saying this victory is something he and his staff have been working toward since coming to Tallahassee four years ago, but for Seminole Nation, it’s been a much longer, more arduous journey.

Clemson has won seven ACC championships, played for four national titles and won two of them since that November day in 2015 when the Tigers vanquished FSU from atop its conference perch. The Seminoles, meanwhile, have been wandering through the college football wilderness trying to find their way back to national relevance.

It had been so long since FSU beat Clemson, the Seminoles have watched one-time coach Jimbo Fisher feud with the school’s boosters, bail on the program and take over at Texas A&M — where he is now on the hot seat. FSU then mistakenly hired Willie Taggart from Oregon, bought him out for $20 million not even two full seasons into his tenure and have since watched Taggart get hired and fired by FAU.

Then came two losing seasons under Norvell and the requisite fan grumbling after the Seminoles lost to lower-division Jacksonville State in Norvell’s second year. In Year 3, Norvell’s Seminoles finally turned the corner with 10 wins last season and now they are 4-0, ranked No. 4 in the country and the odds-on favorite to win the ACC.

No doubt, this win over Clemson was mega-huge but — call me picky if you want — the Seminoles are going to need to play better if they expect to be a College Football Playoff participant. Before the season, I picked FSU to win the national title and felt really good about that prediction after the Seminoles dismantled LSU 45-24 in their opener at Camping World Stadium. However, they’ve been far from dominant in their last two games.

They blew a 31-10 second-half lead to a weak Boston College team and barely held on to win 31-29. Against Clemson on Saturday, the Tigers outgained the Seminoles 429 yards to 311 and might have beaten FSU in regulation if kicker Jonathan Weitz — a graduate student who left the team before the season only to return after the Tigers had issues in the kicking game this week — hadn’t missed a 29-yarder with under two minutes remaining. FSU’s only second-half TD before regulation came when linebacker Kalen DeLoach forced a fumble by QB Cade Klubnik, then scooped and scored on a 56-yard return to tie the game at 24.

Still, FSU beat Clemson.

And that’s all that matters.

After all, this wasn’t just a battle of rival programs; this was a battle of coaching philosophies. Norvell has built his team largely through the transfer portal while Clemson’s Dabo Swinney has been more stubborn than an Android user who won’t switch to an iPhone when it comes to utilizing the portal.

After the season-opening 28-7 loss to Duke, the Dabo doubters came out in full force with their assessments that the game had passed him by. Clemson, after all, has just one transfer on its depth chart, and that’s a reserve quarterback.

Meanwhile, all you had to do was watch the game on Saturday to realize the impact transfers have had for the Seminoles. The winning 24-yard touchdown pass to start overtime went from Louisville transfer Jordan Travis into the hands of Michigan State transfer Keon Coleman.

Florida State had four players voted to the Preseason All-ACC Team and all of them are transfers. And that doesn’t even count Travis, who finished second in the Preseason Player of the Year voting to North Carolina quarterback Drake Maye.

Mike Norvell is the future of the ACC.

Dabo Swinney is the past.

Hopefully, that statement won’t come back to haunt me over the next decade.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on X (formerly Twitter) @BianchiWrites and listen to my Open Mike radio show every weekday from 6 to 9:30 a.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and HD 101.1-2




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