Before I sat down to write this, I already had what I thought was a solid opening line in mind. It was about this being such a forgettable FSU football season in a year that we all would prefer forgetting anyway. (OK, so maybe it wasn't that solid. Give me a break, it's been a long season!)
But then I thought about it some more and decided that wasn't the message I was aiming for with this season-ending column. Because, as bad as it was, as many head-shakes and eye-rolls and "what-the-(blank)-was-that" arm flails you might have had throughout the nine games, I think we all should take a brief moment to acknowledge how appreciative we are that there were actually games to watch in the first place.
Back in the summer, we published our yearly Top 40 list here at Warchant. That's the 40 players we think will have the biggest impact on the team heading into the fall.
Of those top 40 players, 12 had either opted out or been kicked off the team before the Duke game, including the Top 3 of Marvin Wilson, Tamorrion Terry and Asante Samuel. Another half-dozen were sidelined with injuries.
Think about that: Of the 40 best players on the roster when preseason practice began, almost half were no longer available by December. And it wasn't an incredibly talented roster to begin with. Certainly not by FSU standards.
So, as much as it might have pained some of you or frustrated you that the season finale at Wake Forest was canceled, nothing of great significance was going to be accomplished in that 60 minutes against another depleted roster anyway.
Maybe you win, maybe you lose. But you weren't going to learn much about this team -- or more importantly next year's team -- from four more quarters of football. Especially not with the current roster.
Florida State played 44 scholarship athletes on offense and defense in that 56-35 win over Duke. Three of those players -- Ontaria Wilson, Emmett Rice and Fabien Lovett -- got injured and might not have been available for the Wake game. So you're down to maybe 41 or 42? Maybe somewhere in the neighborhood of 45 at max.
It probably wasn't a great idea to play even with those numbers. But then when a COVID case hit on Friday morning, along with subsequent contact tracing, there was no chance. So they canceled the game and ended the season. And the Seminoles can ride off into the sunset with that 21-point victory over Duke!
What a finish!
In all seriousness, I genuinely feel bad for the guys who stuck around and practiced every morning, got tested, passed those tests, and continued to invest in a season that was derailed from the opening game and never really got on track.
These current players practiced for the last six weeks and got to play a grand total of ONE game. They were practicing again Friday morning while administrators were going through the contact tracing and trying to figure out if the game could be played.
So, as upset as you might feel about getting robbed of one last Florida State football game to watch, imagine how those kids who actually put in the work feel.
And don't lose sight of the fact that those guys WANTED to be here. You can't overstate that. This wasn't quite the "Junction Boys" back in the day, where Bear Bryant tortured his Texas A&M team out in the desert to the point where, I believe, they had to eat Gila monsters to survive ... and the only liquid they were allowed to drink was their own sweat. But this was a great test nonetheless.
All of us have been challenged in our own ways during this year from hell, and we all have stories of pain and grief and frustration and sacrifice. But for the purposes of this column, we'll just stick with the FSU football team -- a team that has seen a steady stream of players announce they want to finish their college careers elsewhere.
Some announced their transfers to other ACC schools this week.
None were exceptionally big losses. And frankly, if they don't want to be here, then you're better off without them. The guys who were on that practice field on Friday -- that's who you're building around.
The guys who kept battling, kept studying, kept practicing, kept improving, kept trying. Those are the guys Mike Norvell and his staff know they can count on heading into 2021. Those are the guys who set the tone for next season, at least from a work and preparation standpoint.
In my mind, that's just about the only positive takeaway from this year. There was very little redeeming about this season from a football standpoint.
The defense was an absurd mess. The offense was decent when Jordan Travis was making plays, but awful when he wasn't. The receivers were basically no-shows for an entire year.
The offensive line did show some improvement, and I do like the running backs-- Jashaun Corbin and Lawrance Toafili both have a little something to them. And Travis was a revelation as a running quarterback. He was easily the best playmaker on the team, but he's also now going to be sharing the QB room with a guy that has accounted for 92 total touchdowns in his college career. So we'll see how all that pans out.
And trust me, we'll discuss FSU's needs and wants and hopes in future columns as we look ahead to 2021. For right now, though, let's focus on 2020.
We can complain about how overmatched the defense was in virtually every game (to the point where you are right to wonder if the defensive coordinator should be invited back). We can complain about how the big-name players coming into the year made almost no impact plays at all during the year.
Those are all justifiable.
In the end though, on the day when this treacherous season officially came to an end, I'd like to applaud the players who stuck it out. The ones who tried to give us a season. Who tried to give us one more game this weekend and one more win to celebrate.
Even as more than a dozen of their teammates were either preparing for the NFL Draft or signing with other schools, they still kept at it. Trying to play that one last game.
They practiced football for the last 22 weeks. They stuck it out and stuck with it, only rarely getting to see family and friends while trying to follow COVID safety protocols.
And they got to play a grand total of nine total games, winning just three.
I know we want to forget this season. I know we want to forget this entire year. But let's not forget the sacrifices the remaining players made over these last five months.
That's something worth remembering. Even during a season you'd rather never think about again.
Contact senior writer Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council
