At the risk of undoing months of coping therapy and reopening old scars all over the Florida Panhandle, it’s worth taking a moment to remember just how badly Florida State got jobbed at the end of last season. In the space of just a few weeks, Florida State went from undefeated to humiliated to annihilated. As their 2024 season begins in Dublin Saturday against Georgia Tech, the Seminoles are trying their best to put that crushing disappointment behind them.
“I like this team. I like how this team has come together,” Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said earlier this week. “I really do respect these young men for who they are and what they’re all about. It’s just like I told them, you do all the work and you build it up. … It’s so few games, but now you get to go put it on display.”
This will be the first look anyone outside Tallahassee has gotten at the Seminoles since they were a garnet-and-gold grease stain on the cleats of the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl in January. That 63-3 defeat, combined with the Seminoles’ humbling exclusion from the College Football Playoff, put a serious dent in Florida State’s aim to reclaim the glory of the Bobby Bowden-era national championship days.
A team has two ways to move on from this kind of ego-shattering, reputation-staining defeat: look to the future or accept the past. Norvell is wise enough to know that he can’t keep playing the “poor us” card. For one thing, an enormous and significant chunk of his team — starting with new quarterback DJ Uiagalelei — wasn’t even in a Florida State uniform at the Orange Bowl. Plus, focusing on the negative is a mindset that leads to further negativity … right?
“Our objective this year is to go get better,” Norvell said at ACC’s media day in July. “Coming off what was a 13-0 regular…
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Author : Yahoo Sports
Publish date : 2024-08-22 15:51:36
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