There’s still a long season ahead in college football with most teams only having played one game but Florida State couldn’t have gotten off to a worse start. The Noles, who began the season ranked No. 10, are 0-2 with losses to two unranked opponents.
The team has struggled despite the Noles making a big investment in their defensive line this year with almost $2 million going to their starting front in what is an NIL team budget of around $12 million, a source briefed on FSU’s NIL strategy told The Athletic this week.
On Monday night, FSU got blown out at home by Boston College, 28-13. The Eagles ran all over FSU, outrushing them 263 to 21 yards.
Meanwhile in 2023, the Noles ran through the ACC, going 13-0 and claiming the conference before being left out of the Playoff. Since then, though, it’s been a nightmare for FSU.
Georgia whupped a depleted Noles team, 63-3, that had 20 players opt out of the Orange Bowl in 2023. Florida State coach Mike Norvell dipped heavily into the transfer portal again, signing 17 players in hopes of replacing 10 draft picks. Norvell previously did a superb job mining the portal, but this year, it’s had dreadful results.
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One of the headliners of the new-look Seminoles was former Clemson and Oregon State quarterback DJ Uiagalelei, who transferred in after FSU was unable to land Washington State transfer Cam Ward, who chose Miami.
Uiagalelei is off to a very shaky start for FSU with the former five-star recruit throwing just one touchdown and completing 58 percent of his passes for a 6.7 yard-per-attempt average. A team that averaged 35 points a game last year scored just 34 in its first two games.
However, the more surprising issue is a defense that was gashed in both games. Boston College had 10 runs of at least 10 yards against FSU.
The Noles rank No. 124 in the country in run defense, allowing 227 yards per game on the ground. FSU was No. 4 in the country in sacks in 2023 with 46 and has just three in two games this season. The program did have to replace two top-40 draft picks in Jared Verse and Braden Fiske, but the expectation was it was still loaded up front with transfers Darrell Jackson, a 328-pound defensive tackle, who was brought in along with Georgia transfer defensive end Marvin Jones Jr. to go with Patrick Payton and Joshua Farmer.
FSU’s issues have been on both sides of the ball. The Seminoles rank last in the ACC among 17 teams in third-down defense, giving up conversions 56 percent of the time. The Noles were No. 2 in the ACC last year, allowing first downs less than 29 percent of the time. On offense, they’re only No. 14 in the ACC in third-down conversions and their No. 14 in red zone touchdown percentage.
Norvell’s team has this weekend off to try and sort out some of its problems before Memphis visits Tallahassee on Sept. 14.
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