A season that began with national championship aspirations is at this point simply trying to be salvaged for Florida State. After dropping the highly-anticipated opener against Alabama, FSU dropped its home opener to N.C. State before rallying at Wake Forest to move to 1-2.
The expectations at this point are almost non-existent as many believe head coach Jimbo Fisher’s group will fight just to be bowl-eligible. As FSU gets focused on rival Miami and play gets underway in October, we decided to look at some of the silver linings from the first month of the season:
1. Alabama has been dominant
A second-half meltdown with turnovers and special teams blunders from FSU allowed the opener between Florida State and Alabama to lose its competitiveness. It is worth noting that to this point that the Seminoles have been the only team to stay remotely competitive with the Crimson Tide. Over the last two weeks, Alabama has beaten SEC foes Vanderbilt and Ole Miss by a final score of 125-3. At this point in the season, FSU is the only team to be within 18 points of Alabama in the second half. With less than two minutes to play in the third quarter, it trailed just 10-7. FSU is also the only team to lead the Crimson Tide this season.
2. Wake Forest is a pretty good team
No one seemed overly thrilled with FSU’s hard-fought 26-19 victory over Wake Forest on Saturday. The Seminoles hardly gave a performance for the ages, but the Demon Deacons are a better team than most think. Sure, they allowed Appalachian State to hang around the week before, but compare Wake’s performance at Boston College to Clemson’s at home against the Eagles. Clemson won 34-7 while Wake won 34-10. With 12:30 to play in Wake’s contest with the Eagles, the Demon Deacons led 31-10. Clemson and Boston College were tied 7-7 at that point in their contest.
3. Special teams has improved since Week 1
Florida State’s effort against Alabama on special teams in Week 1 was one of the more dismal efforts in that phase in school-history. FSU suffered a blocked field goal, blocked punt and fumbled a kickoff return. Since then however, FSU has been pretty good. As a kicker, Ricky Aguayo is 8-for-9 on field goal attempts, which included a 51-yard field goal and the game-tying kick late last week. Punter Logan Tyler has averaged 42.5 yards per punt since a dismal opener in which he has averaged just 31.5 yards on six punts. FSU also hasn’t allowed a kickoff return past its own 25-yard line. An 81-yard kickoff return by Keith Gavin last week helped spark a comeback. Derwin James also returned a kickoff 100 yards for a score in the win, but it was called back by a questionable block in the back call. In the loss to N.C. State, Brian Burns came up with FSU’s first blocked punt since 2010.
4. FSU is still battling
After falling to 0-2, the Seminoles probably could have turned it in last week against Wake Forest after falling behind 19-16 with less than 14 minutes to play. Rather than folding, FSU rallied with the game’s final 10 points. After an Aguayo field goal tied the game with 6:20 to play, the FSU defense forced back-to-back 3-and-outs. With under a minute to play, James Blackman threw the game-winning touchdown to Auden Tate. Had the Seminoles not been able to rally, the season likely would have continued to go downhill. FSU for the time being at least has the chance to finish strong for a second year in a row.
5. FSU is still alive in the ACC race
Few believe that Florida State will beat Miami, Louisville and Clemson, but with Saturday’s win over Wake Forest, winning the ACC is at least an attainable goal — even if it seems unlikely. The Seminoles do need two losses from N.C. State for that to happen, but the Wolfpack do have contests remaining with Louisville and Clemson. It’s worth noting that each of the last two times that FSU lost to N.C. State, it still went on to win the ACC Atlantic.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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