Week One was certainly interesting, to say the least, for Florida State fans nationwide. It wasn’t quite the debut that most anticipated, myself included. Fate had a different plan, and in retrospect, our fan base (and I) should of given more respect to Virginia Tech and that Bud Foster defense.
The good news: I definitely do not believe that Florida State played nearly as bad in retrospect as the final score lead us to believe come end game. I believe that, despite a one-loss start to the season, there is still much to look forward to this season. Fans calling for Willie to be fired after one loss do not and cannot appreciate the implementation of an entirely alien offensive scheme. They also do not appreciate the massive cultural shift between the Jimbo Fisher Era and the Willie Taggart era. This is not a one-season fix. I’d expect growing pains this season.
It is clear to me now: my anticipated final record for Florida State at 8-4, while seemingly conservative at the time, appears to be a far more accurate assessment of this Seminoles squad than even I could of anticipated. I still have Florida State going 8-4, with a second best guess of 7-5, this season. I also would argue that anything less than 8-4 this season, despite my defense of Willie moments ago, would have to be considered a disappointment with the framework of last season and the off-season in mind.
Samford is one opponent that, for our team to make the adjustments we need to grow into our system, we must convincingly defeat for myself and Seminole nation to have confidence in the outlook of the Seminole’s season. To my understanding of Samford, they are the elite of the FCS, having made the FCS playoffs. Samford is undefeated in their season so far, having blown out their previous foe 66-9. Samford also has one incredible quarterback in Devlin Hodges, who is on track to set the FCS quarterback record for total offensive yards. This game should NOT be considered by Florida State fans to be a walk in the park, although we should consider this game to be a cupcake and an easy win. Samford will make us work for it though, our defense must perform as they did against Virginia Tech.
Final Verdict
This should be a win for Florida State, and as I indicated above, I do not believe the loss to Virginia Tech was as bad as it seemed at the time. I can completely see the vision that Willie has for our offense, it is purely a matter of execution and implementation (including getting the right players installed in the system). The Offensive Line is, in my opinion, our weakness. We see improvement here in week two, and Florida State can still have a solid season. If we witness a tighter game here due to offensive ineptitude on part of the Offensive Line displaying too much weakness against FCS competition, then the Seminole’s season could be an interesting one to say the least.
Florida State isn’t that bad (in fact, they’re still pretty good), and should pull away from Samford after a tight back-and-forth in the first quarter and a half.
Samford: 20
Florida State: 52
