Clark column: No excuses for FSU's brutal 59-10 loss to Clemson
Box Score: Clemson 59, Florida State 10
It started ominously with maybe the worst spear-plant in Doak Campbell history.
Osceola's attempt fell to the side, appeared to get pushed over by Renegade and almost caught the midfield logo on fire.
Things got worse from there.
There isn't much to take away from Florida State's 59-10 loss to No. 2 Clemson on Saturday. Well, nothing positive anyway.
It will go down as the worst loss in Doak Campbell Stadium history, surpassing the Seminoles' 58-14 defeat to Southern Miss in 1981. It will tie FSU's 49-0 loss to Florida in 1973 for the worst loss in school history.
Not only that, but two of the Seminoles' players -- receiver Nyqwan Murray and linebacker Zaquandre White -- were ejected for throwing punches.
It was as ugly a performance as a Florida State team has ever delivered.
We knew going in the Tigers were better. We knew they had another star at quarterback. And we knew all about that defensive line -- they were as good as advertised.
But still. Florida State was very much in the game after the first quarter. The Seminoles played toe to toe with the Tigers. Made them punt on their first three possessions and then even forced a field goal attempt on the fourth -- and that's when the game changed.
Because that's when the Seminoles started vomiting all over themselves.
Asante Samuel, who I think is going to be a heck of a football player, inexplicably dove into the Clemson kicker and roughed him. What was so bothersome about that is FSU had already won the possession. Forcing Clemson into a field goal right there was a victory for the defense.
And yet he came flying around the corner right into the kicker. He didn't block it. He just knocked him off his feet.
Why?
I know the kid wasn't trying to make a mistake. I know he was playing hard. But why, in that spot, is he so blindly flying toward the holder? Time, place and score. It was the second quarter. In a 0-0 game. This wasn't the fourth quarter of a two-point game.
I know he's a freshman. So coach him up. Make him understand that a play like that is absolutely inexcusable and certainly not worth the risk.
That's not how you beat Clemson. That's how you get embarrassed.
I'm concentrating so much on that one play because it completely altered the game.
Look, I'm pretty sure Clemson was going to win this one anyway. We can all see the difference in these two teams. But it was such a silly mistake ... one of many ... by a team that isn't good enough to overcome silly mistakes.
The Seminoles had a nice drive going in the first quarter -- until Alec Eberle snapped another ball to the moon. And Cam Akers, who had a game to forget, picked up an unsportsmanlike penalty afterward. Meaning Florida State went from having a scoring opportunity to facing a second-and-43.
That's not how you beat Clemson. That's how you get embarrassed.
Keith Gavin, Nyqwan Murray and Cam Akers all dropped passes in the first half. They might not have led to touchdowns but almost certainly would have extended drives.
That's not how you beat Clemson. That's how you get embarrassed.
Florida State had 65 total yards in the first half. And 64 penalty yards. The Seminoles gave up two long punt returns in the first half and then muffed a punt in the second half, giving Clemson the ball at the FSU 7.
Again. This is not how you beat Clemson. It's how you get embarrassed.
We can point to the mess Jimbo Fisher left at the end of last season. That can't be ignored. It was a bad football team and an even worse locker room. Willie Taggart and his coaching staff have a lot to fix.
That was obvious before Saturday's debacle.
But that doesn't excuse what we saw. Nothing could.
The special teams were a disaster. An abject failure. It started with the opening kickoff when Anthony Grant decided to bring it out and got all the way to the 14 --- even with the help of an illegal block -- meaning FSU started its first drive at is own 7.
And the ineptitude was only beginning. Two illegal blocks on kickoff returns. A timeout before a punt return. The roughing the kicker, the long punt returns, the muffed punt -- it was a complete cluster. (And I took out a word at the end of cluster that would be much more fitting ... one that I'm sure most of you were screaming throughout the afternoon.)
Willie Taggart has an actual coach who is devoted full-time to special teams. He needs to figure out what in the world is going wrong there. And fix it. Because Saturday was embarrassing.
It all was.
We know the reasons why Florida State is struggling in 2018. The Seminoles weren't good last year. They have a new system. Horrible offensive line. And a roster full of players who don't know how to win.
They saw a team up close on Saturday that only knows how to win.
Clemson didn't turn the ball over. Clemson didn't rough kickers. Clemson didn't commit a gazillion penalties.
I was genuinely impressed with how Florida State played the last two weeks. I thought they controlled the game at Miami, other than a five-minute stretch. And then the Seminoles played by far their best game of the year last week against Wake.
But Saturday was a big ol' step in the wrong direction.
It's not just that they lost. Or lost by a big amount. It's that after one roughing-the-kicker call, they devolved into a chaotic mess. That's on this coaching staff. It's not their fault they inherited this roster. But it is their fault that they still play like this after eight games. They still make dumb mistakes -- more than ever, you could argue. They still let one bad play turn into 10.
They still can't make any adjustments to have this offense move the ball -- like at all -- against a good defense. They still give up WAY too many big plays on defense. They are still an embarrassment on special teams.
One loss, even a face-melting one like this, isn't a referendum on Willie Taggart and his era at Florida State. Remember, Dabo's team got 51 hung on it a few years ago in this rivalry, and things have worked out pretty well for the Tigers.
But that's getting way ahead of ourselves, isn't it?
This pummeling was downright frightening. I certainly understand why you'd be worried. Concerned. Even scared.
Because we've never seen anything like what we saw on Saturday.
And Willie Taggart better hope we never see anything like it again.
Contact senior write Corey Clark at corey@warchant.com and follow @Corey_Clark on Twitter.
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