Florida State went all the way to Ireland to lose to Georgia Tech on a last-second kick. The Seminoles could’ve done this in Atlanta! That transatlantic flight home to Tallahassee should be a fun one.
The worst part about these season-opening vacations to exotic locales is that there’s a football game at the end of the festivities, something the Seminoles seemed to forget to include on their itinerary. Given about eight months to get ready for the 2024 season, FSU seemed unprepared for an opponent picked to finish ninth in the preseason ACC poll.
After getting started with a touchdown drive and ensuing two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead after about five minutes, the Seminoles were hampered by an offense that couldn’t establish the run or deliver the ball downfield. Issues on offense that arise in Week 0 often last through November.
The Seminoles’ problems begin with a chicken-or-egg argument involving new quarterback DJ Uiagalelei: Was FSU unable to stretch the field because an unproven receiver corps struggled to get separation or because Uiagalelei simply isn’t comfortable throwing five yards past the line of scrimmage? Defensively, FSU struggled against a veteran offensive line and allowed almost 200 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
There is good news in the form of the 12-team College Football Playoff, which will give would-be contenders a little more wiggle room than under previous postseason formats. FSU, for example, might be able to lose again and still make the playoff as an at-large bid depending on how things shake out in the ACC.
But the team that flopped against Georgia Tech can’t and won’t go far. Still to come: Memphis, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Notre Dame. One year after coming up just shy of the top four, are the Seminoles’ playoff hopes for 2024 dead on arrival?
Florida State and Georgia Tech top the short list of winners and losers from Week 0:
Winners
Georgia Tech
Tech might’ve been picked ninth in the preseason conference poll but did get one first-place vote, so at least one person saw Saturday coming. Going back to last season, the Yellow Jackets have run for multiple touchdowns in eight of their past nine games; establishing things up front takes pressure off quarterback Haynes King and has become the hallmark of the program under coach Brent Key. Just as the loss changes the national perspective on FSU, the win should get Tech into next week’s USA TODAY Sports US LBM Coaches Poll and triple the size of the Jackets’ bandwagon.
Brent Key
Tech promoted Key from within Geoff Collins’ staff early in the 2022 season and never looked back. After going 4-4 in his interim season and 7-6 a year ago, the former Tech offensive lineman has established the program’s identity and transformed the Jackets back into an ACC contender. One of the biggest areas of improvement has been on the offensive front, which dictated the score to the Seminoles’ reimagined front seven and should be a season-long strength in conference play. If on a seven-win trajectory in the preseason, the win against FSU vaults Tech into the early top third of the conference.
SMU
Avoiding what would’ve been a rough, rough loss at Nevada as new members of the ACC makes SMU maybe the winner of the night, regardless of what to took to get to 29-24. Down 24-13 entering the fourth quarter, the Mustangs closed on a 16-0 run by leaning on junior tight end RJ Maryland, who had the go-ahead touchdown score with 1:18 and finished with 162 yards on 9 catches. Nevada was picked last in the Mountain West preseason poll, which seems a mile off the mark through one week. That’s what SMU is saying, at least.
Losers
Florida State
This sort of performance (and loss) is straight from the first two years of the Mike Norvell era. Even as massive player movement has triggered uncertainty across the Power Four, the Seminoles were seemingly established as a major player for the national title and one of three or four teams at the top of the ACC. At a minimum, the loss in Dublin recalibrates the hype around FSU and resets the expectations at somewhere closer to eight wins instead of 10 or more.
DJ Uiagalelei
You will get serviceable, sometimes strong, relatively error-free, unbelievably cautious quarterback play when Uiagalelei is under center, and expecting more than that will leave you disappointed. The question for Norvell is whether the Seminoles need more than that to win another ACC title — and after one game, the answer is a resounding yes. But there are things you can do to build around Uiagalelei, as Oregon State and former coach Jonathan Smith did last season. That he’ll protect the football is one big bonus; that he can be a weapon on the ground is another, though he was lightly used as a runner in the opener. Maybe, after three years at Clemson and one game at FSU, Uiagalelei just isn’t made for the ACC.
Nevada
There are things to build on for new coach Jeff Choate and Nevada, which went 4-20 the past two seasons. It’s a sign of progress to take SMU to the wire, even if the Mustangs aren’t the cream of the crop in the Power Four. Can this same formula be used to any success in the Mountain West? While competing was nice, there’s also a feeling of a missed opportunity for the Wolf Pack. Pulling off the upset could end up the difference between five wins and a bowl bid, if Nevada plays up to its potential after Saturday night.
New Mexico
Playing as almost two-touchdown underdogs against Championship Subdivision heavyweight Montana State, New Mexico seemed on its way to scoring a win in coach Bronco Mendenhall’s debut but melted down in the fourth quarter to lose 35-31. The Lobos built their lead thanks in large part to a pair of defensive touchdowns, the second making it 31-14 less than two minutes into the second half. But the Bobcats scored on fourth-quarter touchdown drives of 80, 93 and 89 yards, capped by a short touchdown run with 10 seconds left to steal the win. UNM will eventually get back on track under Mendenhall, a proven winner who previously held the same positions at Brigham Young and Virginia.