The Florida State Seminoles are loaded at many positions, but will they be good enough at the sport’s most important position to make a run at the national title? This is going to be a very interesting and dramatic season in Tallahassee, where the Seminoles will try to repeat the kind of history they created in 2013, a season in which they won the national championship. What is that repeat? It’s not just about winning another national title, but the way in which the Seminoles could pull it off.
Biggest Team Weakness
It is true that in 2013, Florida State had a freshman quarterback, and that no one expected that quarterback – Jameis Winston – to win the Heisman Trophy and gain such an immediate understanding of what it took to win football games. Winston left after his second season, but he made the point that a freshman can certainly thrive in college football if he’s good enough, and if he has quality coaching. Jimbo Fisher definitely provides that and makes Florida State what it is as a program. There is precedent for Florida State winning it all with a freshman quarterback.
However, that can’t be assumed. It can’t be treated as a normal pattern, as something to be expected. That just doesn’t happen often enough to warrant excessive confidence. It is very hard to ask freshman quarterback Deondre Francois to do the very thing Winston did in 2013, leading the Florida State Seminoles to the national championship. He is a mysterious figure at this point, and against a tough SEC team – Ole Miss – in the season opener on Labor Day night, Francois could certainly buckle under not just the pressure, but the newness of his experience. It will take just one bad game from Francois for Florida State to lose its footing in the chase for a College Football Playoff spot. The rest of the team has to support Francois this season, especially in the first few games.
Biggest Team Strength
The back seven of Florida State’s defense is going to be very hard for other teams to confront. Derwin James is as good as it gets as a safety, and Matthew Thomas should be poised for a strong final season at linebacker. Florida State, it should be remembered, played great defense against Deshaun Watson and Clemson last season, containing the Tigers and continuously giving their sputtering offense a chance to win late. If that standard can merely be maintained this season, the Florida State Seminoles will have reason to think well of their efforts.
Schedule
The Seminoles have a challenging but not back-breaking schedule to deal with in 2016. They are going to get a tough test right out of the gate against an Ole Miss team that’s No. 11 in the country. The good news is that that game will be played on a neutral site. Interestingly enough, Chad Kelly is now the starting quarterback at Ole Miss and he’s a good one. You might recall that he formerly played for Florida State’s biggest rival, Clemson.
Two weeks after that game, the Seminoles will have to go to Louisville and that won’t be easy. Louisville is up and coming, and is the No. 19 team in the country. Two weeks after that, they’ll host No. 22 North Carolina and then visit Miami the following week. That’s a bit of a challenging stretch, but manageable since the Florida State Seminoles have what many consider to be the best defense in the ACC.
From there, the big game of the year will be the Florida State-Clemson game. However, Florida State gets to host, which is a huge advantage. And lastly, Florida State also gets to host its annual showdown with Florida, which is a big deal. The Gators enter the year ranked No. 25.
As mentioned, the schedule does includes a game against North Carolina, but the bigger deal is that the Clemson game – likely for the Atlantic Division and ACC titles – is at home in Tallahassee. That’s huge.
Outlook
Playing Clemson at home, not on the road, will make the difference between second place and an ACC title. The Florida State Seminoles should be at the head of the class with their defense.
Projection: 1st In ACC Atlantic
