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Clark: Just another sad Saturday night for Florida State football

WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- There was a moment midway through the fourth quarter on Saturday night that will always stay with me.

The rain was pouring down. Florida State's defense was trying to hold onto a slim one-point lead over Wake Forest. And there were maybe -- maybe! -- 10,000 people still left in the stands (and barely any on Snuggie Hill).

I leaned over to the great Ira Schoffel, who was still diligently watching every aspect he could with his binoculars, and lamented: "Our lives weren't supposed to turn out this way, man."

He laughed. Because he understood exactly what I meant.

This isn't what Florida State is supposed to be.

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James Blackman gets sacked in the Seminoles' 22-20 loss at Wake Forest on Saturday night.
James Blackman gets sacked in the Seminoles' 22-20 loss at Wake Forest on Saturday night. (AP)

Wake Forest gave up 62 points last week. It started a backup QB against the Seminoles. He didn't even play all that well. Yet Wake Forest still won 22-20. Or maybe more accurately, Florida State still found a way to lose.

Because, more often than not, that's just what Florida State does these days.

"This one hurts," FSU head coach Willie Taggart said. "I thought our football team played better in certain areas. But again, turnovers and penalties hurt us, especially in critical situations. We didn’t find a way to win this ball game. Like I said, I thought our guys did some good things throughout the game, but when we talk about winning plays, those penalties and turnovers, it's just hard to win ball games when you do those things."

It's also hard to win ball games when your head coach continually makes stupefying decisions at the end of games, but we'll get to that momentarily.

Taggart is now 8-11 in 19 games as Florida State's head coach. Last year, all of his losses were blowouts except one. This year, all of his losses have been close except one.

But the end result is still the same: A loss.

I do think this team is better than last year's. I do.

Results matter, though. That's all that matters, really. And the results are pretty simple after the Seminoles snatched another loss from the jaws of victory: They're 8-11 overall and 3-4 this season.

That's not good enough. None of this is anywhere close to good enough.

This isn't what Florida State is supposed to be.

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