Most anticipate that Saturday’s contest against Samford will bring Florida State its first win of the Willie Taggart era. There is no reason not to, but beware — games like this one have traditionally been trickier than they seem.
On short weeks after highly-anticipated Labor Day contests, the Seminoles have generally had trouble kicking things into high gear. The outlier was two years ago against Charleston Southern when they won 52-8 against a Buccaneers’ squad that had more than 30 players suspended.
Traditionally however, the contests after Labor Day for FSU have been agonizingly painful. The first example was in 2005 following an emotional 10-7 win over Miami. Against an FCS team in The Citadel that would finish just 4-7, the Seminoles trailed 10-3 with just over a minute to play in the first half.
FSU would score 10 points in the final 1:08 of the quarter to take a 13-10 lead into the locker room and the game’s final 59 points in a 62-10 win. For more than a half however, things were far too close for comfort.
The following year, FSU again opened the year with a hard-fought win over Miami, 13-10. The Seminoles trailed Troy 17-10 with less than seven minutes to play the following week. The Seminoles would even things up as Drew Weatherford found Chris Davis for a 15-yard touchdown with 6:12 to play before fullback Joe Surratt scored the game-winner with less than two minutes to play in a 24-17 win.
After falling to Clemson on Labor Day to open the 2007 season, 24-18, the Seminoles looked to be in danger of falling to 0-2 and getting behind to UAB 17-3 in the second quarter. FSU would win the game, 34-24, but didn’t take the lead until the final play of the third when Weatherford hit Richard Goodman for a 50-yard touchdown.
The scariest case however, came in 2009 against FCS Jacksonville State. After a heartbreaking 38-34 loss to Miami to open the year, the Seminoles actually trailed the Gamecocks, 9-7, with less than 40 seconds to play. Running back Ty Jones scored from a yard out with 35 seconds left to put FSU ahead for good before defensive end Kevin McNeil returned a fumble 33 yards to cap the scoring and seal the win with 21 seconds left in a 19-9 victory.
FSU was scheduled to play Miami on Labor Day in 2004, but Hurricane Frances pushed that one back to the Friday after and the Seminoles did not play again for eight days. FSU had 12 days off after topping Pittsburgh on Labor Day to open the 2013 season.
As for the opponent on Saturday, Samford is far from a pushover. The Bulldogs were the preseason favorites to win the Southern Conference and were picked by 20 of 23 media voters to do so. Quarterback Devlin Hodges and defensive end Ahmad Gooden were also selected as the conference’s preseason players of the year.
Samford reached the FCS Playoffs a season ago before falling to Kennesaw State. The Bulldogs fell to Georgia 42-14 in their only game against FBS competition a season ago.
None of this is to say that FSU is on upset alert Saturday, but after Monday’s 24-3 debacle against Virginia Tech, it is a contest that the Seminoles need to leave feeling good about themselves. How head coach Willie Taggart has his team prepared will be one of the big early challenges of his FSU tenure.
Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson
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