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Clark: Clemson trip will show Norvell's Seminoles where they really stand

There has been some real positive growth this last month for the Florida State football team.

The Seminoles proved they could win a game late.

They proved they could play a complete game on the road.

They proved they could dominate an awful opponent.

All of these things matter. They were all tests in their own way. And they were all passed.

Now comes a whole different animal.

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Mike Norvell and the FSU Seminoles are hoping to end Clemson's 31-game home winning streak.
Mike Norvell and the FSU Seminoles are hoping to end Clemson's 31-game home winning streak. (USAToday Sports Images)

I know Clemson isn't the Clemson of the past decade. I know the Tigers have had a disappointing season by their sky-high standards. And I know they're wounded.

But, it's still Clemson. It's still Death Valley. It's still a team that is favored by double-digits, and it's still a program that hasn't lost to Florida State in seven years ... and hasn't lost to anyone at home in five.

Make no mistake: Saturday will be the ultimate test for Mike Norvell's rebuilt program.

"Absolutely," Norvell said. "We need every experience that we can get. We're still our own work in progress. We've seen some positives, we've seen some confidence that's being built. I mean, you know the stat line -- how many ever games it's been there that they've won in a row ... none of that stuff really matters to this team, other than the opportunity."

For the record, the number is 31.

Clemson has won 31 games in a row in that stadium.

If I was writing this column a year ago, I would have said the likelihood that number hits 32 against FSU was about 100 percent. And if I was writing this column a month ago, that number wouldn't have budged at all.

But I'm writing it now. And I'm here to tell you, FSU actually does have a chance on Saturday. With the way the Seminoles are playing, and maybe more importantly the way Clemson is playing, the 'Noles absolutely have the ability to go up there and end that streak.

The question I keep asking myself though is: Are they ready for the moment?

Yeah, they showed a little something, especially riding a four-game losing streak, to go beat Syracuse on a last-minute drive. And they showed even more the next week with that 35-25 win at North Carolina.

But as offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham made sure to point out earlier this week, that stadium was only about 60 percent of capacity because those wine-and-cheese UNC fans aren't about watching football in a light mist (Ok, those were more my words and Sam Cassell's than Dillingham's).

Clemson fans, however, will sell out a game in a literal monsoon.

This is going to be vastly different than any road game these players have ever experienced.

How will they respond to the environment?

That's another step this program has to take on the climb back to relevance.

"We do have another step in front of us," Norvell said. "And it is going to be a great challenge. This opponent we're playing, it has been the standard in this league. For how many ever years they've beat us, or won at home, or all those things, that's there.

"But this is now. So, what do we do with this week? How do we prepare? What are the things that we're going to do throughout the course of a 60-minute contest to continue to play that complementary football, to continue to build on the positives and learn from the negatives?"

This would be such a monumental victory for Norvell and his team if they could grab it.

The last two times Clemson played FSU, it had a 59-3 lead and a 42-0 lead. Those games weren't competitive. They were embarrassments, quite frankly. And last year, if the two teams had played, Dabo could have named his score.

Hey, speaking of Dabo! And last year!

Remember when he brought a player on a team plane that had wound up testing positive for COVID-19, causing the game to be suspended and eventually cancelled? And then spent the better part of a week calling your football team and university a bunch of cowards?

Yeah, that guy will be on the opposing sideline on Saturday.

How sweet would it be, less than a year after he insinuated you were too scared to play his big, bad behemoth of a team, to go up to his home and end his winning streak?

They'd cancel Halloween up there.

And if the upset does happen, I'm not saying Norvell SHOULD tell Dabo after the game: "Man, too bad you didn't break the COVID protocols this year, too. You'd still have your winning streak!" But I'm not saying he shouldn't say that, either.

In reality, though, I'm not expecting FSU to go up there and win. In my mind, there are still too many question marks about how this team plays on the road and performs against elite defenses to pick them to beat the Tigers on Saturday.

But there is a chance. Unlike the last three years, the gap is narrow enough that the Seminoles could very well pull off the upset.

Either way, we all understand this is going to be a great litmus test of just how far this team has come since the start of the season. And since the start of Norvell's tenure.

If you stand toe-to-toe with Clemson, at Clemson, after what that program has done to you for the last half-decade, if you can perform well in that atmosphere, against that defense, and have a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter?

Win or lose, I would consider that to be another passed test.

But hey, if it's all the same though, you might as well go ahead and win the darn thing.

And tell the rest of the conference, and the country, that ol' Florida State might truly be on its way back.

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.

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