The Daily Nole

Bowl Projections: Experts See Shreveport in FSU’s Future

Ken Lanese/FSU athletics

One game will now decide whether Florida State goes to a bowl game for a 36th straight year or not. The Seminoles will look to get the job done at home on Saturday as they play host to Louisiana-Monroe in a contest originally scheduled for Sept. 9.

With FSU being a 27-point favorite over the Warhawks, all eight publications and all nine prognosticators to give bowl projections this week have the Seminoles winning. Here’s where they are believed to end up for bowl season:

Projections
CBS Sports, Nov. 27: Independence Bowl vs. Southern Mississippi (Dec. 27)

SB Nation, Nov. 28: Independence Bowl vs. Southern Mississippi (Dec. 27)

Yahoo Sports, Nov. 29: Independence Bowl vs. Louisiana Tech (Dec. 27)

USA Today, Nov. 28: Independence Bowl vs. Middle Tennessee State (Dec. 27)

Athlon Sports, Nov. 26: Independence Bowl vs. Louisiana Tech (Dec. 27)

ESPN, Nov. 26: Independence Bowl vs. Southern Mississippi (Dec. 27, Kyle Bonagura), Sun Bowl vs. Arizona State (Dec. 29, David Hale)

Sporting News, Nov. 29: Camping World Bowl vs. Oklahoma State (Dec. 28)

Sports Illustrated, Nov. 26: Belk Bowl vs. Kentucky (Dec. 29)

Summary
Six of the nine experts have Florida State bound for the Independence Bowl in Shreveport and the opponent that appears most often is Southern Mississippi. Jerry Palm of CBS Sports, Jason Kirk of SB Nation and Kyle Bonagura of ESPN all have that match-up. It would be the 23rd meeting between the schools, but the first since 1996 when FSU won 54-14 at home. The last time the teams met on a neutral field was 1989 in Jacksonville when a quarterback named Brett Favre led Southern Miss to a stunning 30-26 upset of the Seminoles.

Steve Lassan of Athlon Sports and Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports each have the Seminoles facing Louisiana Tech. It would be the fifth match-up between the schools and first since 1999 when FSU opened its national championship campaign with a 41-7 win over the Bulldogs in Tallahassee.

USA Today’s Erick Smith has the Seminoles squaring off against Middle Tennessee State in Shreveport. It would be just the second meeting with FSU winning 39-10 the first time around in 1991. Interestingly enough, MTSU head coach Rick Stockstill is a former FSU quarterback.

While Bonagura had FSU bound for the Independence Bowl, his co-worker David Hale puts FSU in the Sun Bowl against Arizona State. FSU is 3-1 all-time against the Sun Devils, but the only loss was in the only prior bowl meeting — the Fiesta Bowl at the end of the 1971 season.

Bill Bender of Sporting News still has FSU facing Oklahoma State in Orlando for the Camping World Bowl. Those two teams met in Dallas to kick off the 2014 season with the Seminoles winning 37-31. The last bowl contest between the two was the 1985 Gator Bowl, which FSU won 34-23. Interestingly enough, that was the last time Florida State had a true freshman start at quarterback prior to James Blackman this season.

Sports Illustrated’s Eric Single has FSU heading to Charlotte to face Kentucky in the Belk Bowl. The last between the schools came in the Music City Bowl at the end of the 2007 season. The Wildcats won that one against an FSU team depleted by an academic cheating scandal, 35-28.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson

You must be logged in to post a comment Login

Leave a Reply