Florida Football: In the end, FSU didn’t earn the right for anything

It wasn’t a great year for Florida football. The Gators went 5-7, lost five in a row, had Graham Mertz break his collarbone, and have watched as its once monster recruiting class slowly falls apart.

And yet, Florida Gator fans are probably in a much better mood right now than what FSU fans are feeling.

If only the Seminoles had listened to the warnings we had all been sending out all season long.

Florida Football: Know your enemy

FSU was kept out of the College Football Playoffs and became the first undefeated Power Five team to be left out of the playoffs in the ten-year existence of the four-team format.

The primary rationale to keep FSU out seems to be the injury to Jordan Travis. We’ll get back to him in a second, but let’s take a peek at how the Seminoles were doing with Travis:

• Beat 6-6 Boston College by two points after the Eagles took 18 penalties, the last of which was a facemask on a third down stop that would have given BC a chance to drive a kick a field goal to win the game.
• Beat 8-4 Clemson in overtime after the Tigers missed a 29-yard field goal at the end of the game from a backup kicker who was supposed to be working a desk job but was called up as a walk-on for the week.
• Was trailing 7-5 Duke in the fourth quarter before Blue Devils starting QB Riley Leonard left the game with an injury.
• Was only up three points at halftime to 3-9 Pitt
• Beat 7-5 Miami by seven points, where the Hurricanes had a chance on their final drive to tie it up before stalling out at midfield.
• Fell behind North Alabama 13-0 prior to Travis getting injured.

Had FSU been steamrolling teams all season despite the weak schedule, similar to Michigan, one could have looked past the injury to Travis. But it was a minor miracle that FSU was undefeated despite having the 55th-ranked strength of schedule.

Careful what you say

Think of every awful thing your resident FSU fan has said about Florida football this season. Think of every name they have called Billy Napier. Think of every meme, gif, and crying face emoji Seminole fans have used when pointing out that the Gators were 5-7 this season.

Now ask yourself why the CFP committee would be impressed that FSU was trailing that trash team heading into the 4th quarter.

Why would the committee be impressed that FSU had three points midway through the third quarter against Louisville, the same squad that gave up 38 points the week before to Kentucky?

It is true that Alabama had to pull out a miracle against Auburn and had to survive USF, Texas A&M, and Arkansas.

It is also true that FSU’s golden goose win against LSU was Alabama’s third-best win (Ole Miss and Georgia).

FSU was not one of the four best teams in America, with or without Jordan Travis. One can’t call everyone trash and then sleepwalk against those teams week after week without pushback.

In 2023, FSU was the student who earned an A- in a remedial math class and thought it made them superior to the student who earned a B in an AP Calculus class.