There are times when one could argue that Florida fans too often settle for low-hanging fruit when poking fun at FSU. Backup school and little brother jokes are some of the classics as old as time. And we promised we didn’t wake up today with the intention of even thinking about FSU, especially after Florida’s weekend and the fact that the Gators will have bigger fish to fry than whatever is going on in Tallahassee.
But sometimes, the jokes just write themselves, and Florida fans had a field day after FSU once again made an embarrassment of themselves on a national stage.
Florida fans can only laugh as FSU can’t turn the lights on
FSU was set for a primetime game against SMU on Monday, except there was one small problem:
FSU couldn’t turn their lights on.
The game was delayed for almost two hours, and when it finally did kick off around 9:15, the Seminoles were competitve with SMU before falling on a last second field goal.
The game itself was secondary to the optics disaster from Tallahassee. Think of it this way: if prior to the weekend you had told people that a Power Four school would have to delay its game because it couldn’t turn its lights on, not many people would have been shocked if you told them that school was FSU.
When the game was delayed, Florida fans in unison all had a version of “FSU is so broke they forgot to pay their power bill.”
As Florida offensive line coach Phil Trautwein took to social media to point out as well, when The Swamp turned out its lights, it was to sing along to “Won’t Back Down.” The lights also came back on.
These lights were off so the 90,000+ fans in attendance could enjoy the amazing halftime drone show. 🐊🐊 https://t.co/Uj3pYUeIlS
— Phil Trautwein (@CoachTrautFB) September 8, 2026
And beyond FSU, this was an optics disaster for the ACC as a whole. As a brand, FSU is still a top-five brand within the ACC (Miami, Clemson, UNC, and Duke being the other four). It would be one thing if this happened at a school like Wake Forest or Cal. But FSU is supposed to be a banner institution for the conference, and yet no one was shocked that this happened to them.
It’s also a great time to point out that FSU and Clemson have tried desperately to tag-team their way out of the ACC, only to be the two biggest embarrassments for the conference this weekend.
But this is where Florida fans also lose their sympathy. As we have pointed out this offseason, there are genuine FSU fans who are frustrated with the state of things and are trying to get things to not opperate like a Mickey Mouse opperation. On the other hand, this is the fanbase as a whole that will rush the field after beating a 6-6 team and threw a pity party when they got left out of the playoffs.
If nothing else, what Monday night proved is that the Mike Norvell Era will soon be coming to an end in Tallahassee, and for FSU fans there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
That is if they can afford to turn that light on.
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