Florida State paid a $1.3 million guarantee to Memphis, Mike Norvell's previous institution.

The Tigers left Tallahassee well-compensated in addition to outmatching FSU in nearly every way on offense, while capitalizing off turnovers to score against the Seminoles' defense.

FSU drops to 0-3, a stunning spiral for a program expected to compete for a spot in the 12-team playoff.

Seth Henigan threw for 272 yards and two touchdowns -- the 40th straight game he has tossed a TD pass -- as Memphis upset Florida State 20-12 on Saturday.

The Seminoles played poorly but can also blame themselves — Roydell Williams fumbled on the first drive of the game and DJ Uiagalelei tossed an interception. Both turnovers led to Memphis points, the first a field goal where the defense held up against a short field, while the interception in part set up a touchdown. Lawayne McCoy also muffed a punt when a Memphis player pushed Quindarrius Jones into McCoy, which is a legal play.

"Extremely disappointed the way we played at time," FSU coach Mike Norvell said. "The things that we work and emphasize throughout the course of the week, you know, pre-season, off-season, things that are critically important to being successful are not showing up as consistent as we need them to be.

"Obviously offensively today very disappointing performance. Never able to really get much going. Second half we were able to move the ball but had a couple explosive plays up still had too many negatives."

The negatives added up early.

Henigan connected with Greg Desrosiers Jr. and Anthony Landphere on touchdown passes as Memphis (3-0) jumped out to a 20-3 lead in the third quarter. The Tigers scored touchdowns on drives of 65 and 75 yards, finishing 7 of 17 on third downs and 2 of 3 on fourth downs in the game.

DJ Uiagalelei completed 16 of 30 passes for 201 yards and an interception, struggling to move the Seminoles (0-3) until a pair of scoring drives in the third quarter. But by then it was too little and too late.

Florida State moved down to the Memphis 39 and then spiked the ball to set up a final play with two seconds left. But Uiagalelei’s Hail Mary was swatted down at the goal line by Memphis’ Julian Barnett.

Ryan Fitzgerald made a 54-yard field-goal attempt, his third kick from 50 or more yards in three games, for the Seminoles. Fitzgerald is now 6 of 6 on field-goal attempts this season.

Malik Benson led Florida State with five catches for 99 yards, both career bests. His 67-yard reception in the third quarter was a career long and the longest play for FSU this season.

Williams scored his second touchdown of the season, a 4-yard run that followed up the Uiagalelei long pass to Benson.

Justin Cryer grabbed his first interception and FSU's first takeaway of 2024.

Four Seminoles made their first career starts: TE Jackson West, TE Brian Courtney, RT Jaylen Early and S K.J. Kirkland.

Florida State played without starting safety Shyheim Brown, starting right tackle Jeremiah Byers and backup linebackers Omar Graham Jr. and Shawn Murphy.

Norvell announced after the game that starting left tackle Darius Washington warmed up with the team but was not able to go.

FSU plays host to California on Saturday at 7 p.m.

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