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    • College Football Week 0 Winners and Losers: Florida State Flops
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    College Football Week 0 Winners and Losers: Florida State Flops

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    Florida State went all the way to Ireland only to lose to Georgia Tech on a last-second kick. The Seminoles could have done this in Atlanta! That transatlantic flight to Tallahassee should be fun.

    The worst part about these season-opening vacations to exotic locales is that the festivities end with a football game, something the Seminoles seemed to forget to include in their itinerary. With about eight months to prepare for the 2024 season, FSU seemed unprepared for an opponent that would finish ninth in the preseason ACC poll.

    After opening with a touchdown drive and subsequent two-point conversion to take an 8-0 lead with about five minutes to play, the Seminoles were hampered by an offense that couldn’t establish the run or deliver the ball downfield. Offense problems that occur in Week 0 often last into November.

    The Seminoles’ woes begin with a chicken-and-egg debate involving new quarterback DJ Uiagalelei: Was FSU unable to stretch the field because an unproven receiver corps struggled to generate separation or because Uiagalelei simply isn’t comfortable throwing five yards beyond the line of scrimmage? Defensively, FSU struggled against an experienced offensive line, allowing nearly 200 rushing yards and three touchdowns.

    There is good news in the form of the 12-team College Football Playoff, which gives potential contenders a bit more wiggle room than in previous postseason formats. FSU, for example, could lose again and still make the playoff as an at-large bid, depending on how things pan 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. Are the Seminoles’ 2024 playoff chances doomed upon arrival, a year after narrowly missing out on a top-four finish?

    Florida State and Georgia Tech top the short list of Week 0 winners and losers:

    Winners

    Georgia technology

    Tech may have been picked ninth in the preseason conference poll, but it did receive one first-place vote, so at least one person saw Saturday coming. Looking back at last season, the Yellow Jackets have scored multiple touchdowns in eight of their last nine games; building things up front takes the pressure off quarterback Haynes King and has become a hallmark of the program under coach Brent Key. Just as the loss changes the national perspective on FSU, a win should land Tech in next week’s USA TODAY Sports US LBM Coaches Poll and triple the size of the Jackets’ caravan.

    Brent key

    Tech promoted Key from 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 cemented the program’s identity and transformed the Jackets into an ACC contender once again. One of the biggest areas of improvement has been on the offensive front, which has dictated the scoring for the Seminoles’ revamped front seven and should be a force in the league all season. If it can go on a seven-win preseason stretch, a win against FSU would vault Tech into the early top third of the league.

    SMU

    Avoiding what would have been a tough, tough loss at Nevada, given the new members of the ACC, may make SMU the winner of the night, no matter what it took to get to 29-24. Trailing 24-13 in the fourth quarter, the Mustangs closed with a 16-0 run, powered by junior tight end RJ Maryland, who had the go-ahead touchdown score with 1:18 left and finished with 162 yards on nine catches. Nevada was picked last in the Mountain West preseason poll, which seems a mile off after a week. At least that’s what SMU is saying.

    Losers

    State of Florida

    This kind of performance (and loss) comes straight out of the first two years of the Mike Norvell era. Even as massive player movements created uncertainty in the Power Four, the Seminoles seemed to be establishing themselves as a major contender for a national title and one of the three or four teams atop the ACC. At the very least, the loss in Dublin recalibrates the hype surrounding FSU and resets expectations to somewhere closer to eight wins rather than 10 or more.

    DJ Uiagalelei

    You get serviceable, occasionally strong, relatively flawless, incredibly cautious quarterback play when Uiagalelei is under center, and if you expect anything more than that, you’re going to be 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 a big bonus; that he can be a weapon on the ground is another, though he was used lightly as a runner in the opener. Maybe Uiagalelei, after three years at Clemson and one game at FSU, just isn’t cut out for the ACC.

    Nevada

    There are things to build on for new coach Jeff Choate and Nevada, which has gone 4-20 over the past two seasons. Pushing SMU to its limits is a sign of progress, even if the Mustangs aren’t the cream of the crop in the Power Four. Can the same formula be used to find some success in the Mountain West? While it was fun to compete, there’s also a sense of missed opportunity for the Wolf Pack. Pulling off an upset could mean the difference between five wins and a bowl bid, if Nevada lives up to its potential after Saturday night.

    New Mexico

    New Mexico, playing as a nearly two-touchdown underdog against heavyweight Montana State in the Championship Subdivision, appeared to be on its way to a win in coach Bronco Mendenhall’s debut, but collapsed in the fourth quarter, losing 35-31. The Lobos built their lead largely on a pair of defensive touchdowns, the second of which made it 31-14 two minutes into the second half. But the Bobcats scored on touchdown drives of 80, 93 and 89 yards in the fourth quarter, 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.

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