The Collapse of the Florida State Seminoles

There isn’t much that gives me more joy than to watch the Florida State Seminoles completely falling apart. Not only did they lose their first two games to open up the season, but they lost to teams that had no business beating them. After being left out of the college football playoff, despite a 12-0 regular season last year, many people were still skeptical of this team because of their blowout bowl game loss to Georgia 63-3. With a new year, they were hoping to get right back into the saddle with Georgia Tech and Boston College first on their schedule. Instead, they got bucked right off the horse and were dominated in prime time.

Let’s first start with the Georgia Tech game. The Seminoles were quick to jump on the board first, but Georgia tech would be quick to respond with a score of their own. There was concern throughout the first half that DJ Uiagalelei wasn’t pushing the ball down the field enough with his average air yards per completion being less than 1 in the first half. Meanwhile, defensively, the Seminoles got run over by GT, allowing 36 rushing attempts for 190 rushing yards for the game. With Georgia Tech hitting a game-winning 44-yard field goal with zeros on the clock, the Seminoles would suffer their second loss in a row dating back to last season's bowl game.

Now as we break down their most recent game against Boston College, there were many of the same problems for the Seminoles. DJ Uiagalelei continued to struggle in this game as he missed a lot of open receivers, including several attempts in the red zone that could have resulted in touchdowns instead of field goals. His ugly interception to open up the second half on 4th and 5, combined with his mediocre 50% completion percentage for the game against a weak Boston College secondary is not a good sign for Florida State moving forward. However, their problems extend well past their quarterback play. For the second week in a row, the Seminoles got run over by the opposing team's rushing attack. Boston College ran the ball a stunning 49 times for 263 yards and 2 TDs! That level of effectiveness and ball control is a head coach's dream. What was even crazier was that BC was able to control the ball for over 14 minutes of the first quarter and only allowed FSU to call 3 plays during that time. This defense got run over and is far from the team that was seen last year.

With the toughest part of the Seminoles schedule still ahead of them, this team might not even make a bowl game this year. Looking back at last year’s team, we cannot underestimate Jordan Tavis's impact on this team. We should be looking at him more highly because he made this team look unstoppable. With DJ Uiagalelei having two ugly losses under his belt, will the Seminoles look to make a quarterback change before their next matchup?