This may or may not go down as the most disappointing season in Florida State football history. It may or may not end up being the program’s worst campaign in decades.
Those evaluations will have to wait, following the Seminoles’ 27-24 victory against Syracuse on Saturday at Doak Campbell Stadium. That’s how important this victory was for the Seminoles.
If they had lost this one, their chances of reaching a postseason bowl game would have all but evaporated under the unseasonably warm November sun. So, too, would likely their string of 40 consecutive winning seasons.
For a few tense moments late Saturday afternoon, things looked bleak. Despite leading for the entire game, FSU coach Jimbo Fisher sent his defense out onto the field in the final 83 seconds to preserve the win. It was a spot in which he had seen that group fail before. On this same field. Repeatedly.
But after failing to come up with late-game stops against N.C. State, Miami and Louisville, the Seminoles finally came through with one on Saturday … kinda sorta.
Yes, they let Syracuse drive from its own 18-yard line to the FSU 25. Yes, that whole scenario looked remarkably similar to the one that ended in disaster against Miami. Yes, they needed the Orange to miss a 42-yard field goal that would have sent the game into overtime.
But at the end of the day, for the first time in three weeks and the first time at home all season, Fisher and his players were able to scribble a W instead of an L on their schedule. They improved to 3-5 on the season, and that's a lot better than 2-6.
“There’s been a lot of disappointment this year,” FSU junior safety Derwin James said. “A couple of embarrassing performances. But this one was finally a good team win.”
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Perhaps because of how difficult this season has been, and how long it’s been between postgame celebrations, the Seminoles really seemed to cherish this victory.
James called it a “great win.”
Defensive tackle Derrick Nnadi described the postgame locker room as being “like a big party.”
Defensive back Levonta Taylor said it shows that, despite the adversity, the Seminoles “are finding ourselves right now and we can be a very dangerous team.”
Some will read those comments and roll their eyes. They’ll say this was a team ranked No. 3 in the preseason; it shouldn’t be this excited about beating a 4-4 Syracuse team at home. They’ll point out that we're now in November, and FSU is just now earning its first victory inside Doak Campbell Stadium.
But one place where I agree with Jimbo Fisher 100 percent is that teams never have to apologize for being happy about winning. Doesn’t matter if the margin of victory is narrow or convincing, if the outcome was lucky or not. These guys only get to play 40 or 50 college football games in their careers. They work incredibly hard to prepare for them.
They should definitely enjoy the wins. Every single one of them.
At the same time, they need to be realistic about their successes and failures inside each game. They need to honestly evaluate the areas in which they’ve grown and also the ones that still need improvement.
And from that viewpoint, it’s difficult to say that we learned a great deal from Saturday’s game. Or that there’s any reason for FSU fans to be more optimistic about this Saturday’s trip to Clemson.
Charles Kelly’s defense did come up with some big plays against Syracuse, but that unit also surrendered 463 yards of offense and gave up some head-scratching third-down conversions.
Fisher’s offense showed some impressive quick-strike ability, with Cam Akers breaking off a pair of long touchdown runs and Nyqwan Murray hauling in a 51-yard touchdown pass. At the same time, it must be noted that those three plays accounted for 168 yards, while the Seminoles’ other 53 snaps generated just 175. The 'Noles were forced to punt nine times Saturday, and quarterback James Blackman has passed for a total of 238 yards in his last two games. Combined.
FSU's special-teams unit was mostly a strength against Syracuse, with punter Logan Tyler and placekicker Ricky Aguayo both playing important roles. But freshman D.J. Matthews, who shows great promise as FSU’s new punt returner, also fumbled one at the Seminoles’ 11-yard line.
That’s kind of what this team has been all season. Some good, some bad, some in-between. Which is why almost every game seems to go down to the wire. Other than the season opener against Alabama and last week’s debacle against Boston College, every one of FSU’s other six games has been decided on the final drive.
They’ve essentially been coin flips. Fittingly, the Seminoles have won three of them and lost three of them.
What Fisher seemed most pleased with on Saturday was his team’s effort. He started his postgame press conference by professing how proud he was of his players, saying they, “competed with heart. A lot of heart and soul.”
He then sounded defiant when making at least two references to the media questioning the Seminoles’ effort in their 35-3 loss to Boston College.
“People question whether they’re going to play hard and what they’re going to do … don’t question that,” Fisher said. “Those kids play hard.”
When another reporter asked Fisher if he could tell early in Saturday’s game that the team was competing at a high level, he said he expected nothing less.
“I didn’t ever doubt it,” he said. “Never doubted it in practice when we went back to practice this week. All y’all did.”
Fisher’s tone seemed a little surprising, in all honesty. This wasn’t exactly a new topic. I asked him after the game at Boston College whether he saw signs of the team packing it in. He said no.
The words from his players in the following days, however, seemed to be suggest otherwise.
On Monday, senior linebacker Jacob Pugh criticized the team’s lack of leadership and focus. He said players seemed to be affected by outside distractions, such as the looming NFL Draft, and that the team’s mindset isn’t what it needs to be. He said that was one big drop-off compared to when he was a freshman four years ago.
"We had a lot of older guys that demanded respect and demanded us to play hard and fight for one another," Pugh said. "It's not like that now."
One day later, junior receiver Auden Tate essentially said the Seminoles didn’t show up physically or mentally. “We just did not throw no counter-punches, no nothing,” Tate said. “We kind of just took a beating.”
After hearing those comments, I asked Fisher again after Thursday’s practice whether he thought the team was focused and mentally sharp going into the B.C. game. He said yes. He said the problem was that they didn’t respond well when adversity struck. After all of their struggles this season, once they fell behind and then made some crucial mistakes on the road, many of the players had a look of, “Here we go again.”
But they didn’t quit, he said. They were just frustrated and anxious.
That’s probably a subtle distinction, since the end result was essentially the same, but I think it’s a fair one. I don’t believe this team has stopped trying overall. Some players are competing extremely hard. And I’m quite positive they all go into games wanting to play well.
But at the end of the day, this team simply hasn’t responded well to adversity all season.
They crumbled when things started going south in the second half against Alabama. They have failed to get late defensive stops in several games. And they never even really challenged Boston College after falling behind early.
Is that quitting? Is that succumbing to frustration? Is it a lack of confidence or conviction?
I suppose it depends upon your point of view. We know where Fisher stands.
“I am very irritated,” he said Saturday, when I asked if he was still bothered by the media and others suggesting his team gave up at Boston College. “They didn’t quit. … That’s something you’re never gonna see us do. And you can write that.”
Fair enough.
But the reality is that overcoming adversity is one more area where Saturday’s game didn’t tell us a great deal. The Seminoles’ athletic talent on offense was too much for Syracuse to handle early on. FSU scored on three plays of 50-plus yards in the first half and never trailed.
Fisher would point to that as a symbol of his team’s improving resilience. Instead of getting down because of the recent losses, the Seminoles came out strong and built a 21-7 lead in the second quarter.
That, indeed, is a promising sign. What will really tell us how far this team has come, however, will be the way it responds when major adversity strikes again during a game. When they don’t have a substantial advantage in size, speed and strength -- the way they have in wins against Syracuse, Duke and Wake Forest -- and things start going wrong.
Will they power through and throw those counter-punches that were missing at Boston College? Will they believe in themselves and their teammates and trust their coaches? Or will they succumb to the frustrations of the season once again?
Something tells me we’ll get a chance to find out this Saturday.
Contact Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com and follow @IraSchoffel on Twitter.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council
