their defense was pretty freaking legit. They held LSU to 28 points. LSU scored like wildfire on. Almost everybody. Comparatively FSU looked better against LSU than ol miss did. Ole Miss got beat like 52 to 14 or something. With Travis and that defense, I don’t put them on the same level as Georgia either but I bet Georgia wouldn’t score 50 points on them and I bet Travis would find a way to get closer to 25 or 30
There’s no question. They play in a week conference but they were still pretty damn good. With Travis, that is
I don’t disagree with anything you wrote. It just doesn’t have anything to do with my point. SWAC wants the world to believe it was “robbed” (actually, saw one of their ilk wearing a t-shirt to that effect in Tampa ). The only way to even have a ghost of an argument to that effect (or to make t-shirts, one would think) is to beat an actual playoff contender. If they actually thought themselves contenders, they would be trying to win and pulling out all stops to keep their team together. Since they know, deep down, that even at 100% strength, including their starting QB, they were facing an assured defeat from Georgia, why not run off your starters and act like you don’t care about the blowout that’s coming? I’m going to enjoy every righteous blow that Georgia lands on SWAC, and I don’t care how many more of their players jump ship to avoid it.
FSU was a good team-with Travis. But as many here have mentioned we really don’t know how good because of the schedule they played. They were also fortunate, until Travis was hurt, to have a little luck with them this season. Clemson could have easily beat them if not for a missed field goal, Duke was leading when their QB went down, 6-6 Boston College came back and nearly beat them. We would have beat them if we weren’t playing without Mertz. Also, other than Travis, I think they dodged the bullet with injuries to MOST, not all, of their key players.
I agree that now they’re trying to play the victim and they really are not. With Travis, I fully believe that they deserve to be playing in the playoff. I give them a legit chance to beat any team in there. Are they favorites? No, but they can beat any of them. There is no super elite team in America this year, and they are all beatable by a legit team with a legit quarterback. I think FSU’s defense may be as good as anybody in the country if they had all their players.
How sad.. 2023 Orange Bowl: Florida State's roster continues to thin ahead of postseason showdown with Georgia
Don’t feel bad for them one bit but this is the fate of college football unless the playoffs expand past 12. Any relevant bowl game will consist of walk-ons and third stringers playing each other.
I only watched snippets of FSU games during the season but it did appear to me their defense improved as the season progressed. They completely dominated Louisville in the ACC championship game but so did Kentucky and Virginia (2nd half). And their defense definitely dominated the last Qtr against us but even though Max Brown showed promise he wasn’t ready for that start. And he did, after all, start the season as our third option. FSU’s pass rush was very very good. I’ll give them that.
I have several questions. Do NIL payments end immediately after a player's last football game or continue throughout the year? If they do continue, shouldn't opt-outs be forced to play in bowl games since they are being paid? Even if NIL payments have stopped, the players have already been paid. Shouldn't they be forced to play? Of course, how could that be done? It would be the definition of "bad optics." I'd like to sign a scholarship, take NIL money, and decide not to play. Sounds like a great deal.
Well technically NIL isn't supposed to be pay for play so they get the money whether they play or not, however it could affect their NIL money for the next year. But we all know the wink wink part that it is actually pay for play.
i would think they are all different- the NIL deals, the terms, timing of payment, etc. since NIL is not being used as intended (paying for name image likeness vs just getting paid)…hard to know. But….regardless of what the NIL terms are, you cannot force anyone to play. You could incentivize someone to play by tying $ that will be paid after the bowl game but that is about it. But you also couldn’t incentivize the players effort (well, not within ncaa rules but they are toothless). if you paid it before the bowl…you are out of luck. Can’t imagine the bad publicity that would happen if some NIl collective sues to get money back because an player opted out. and no chance the collectives want the bogus terms of the deals to be made public in a lawsuit. so my take is no…you cannot force anyone to play in the bowl.
FYI..they were getting thumped pretty good at Boston College with the refs calling BC for 17 first half penalties..and ZERO on FSU..you read that right 17-0 at half in penalties. A decent team doesn’t need the refs going ballistic to keep them in the game against a team which just lost to northern Illinois and was fortunate to get a hail mary against mighty holy cross the week before. Really it’s like watching the Harlem Globetrotters play 121 straight games against the lowly Washington Generals with the intended outcome and then saying they would beat the Bulls in Jordan’s prime.
I wouldn't say fsu dominated us. Not saying they didn't deserve the win, but, we did lead 12-0 almost halfway through the game.
Yes. You are right. We had the opportunity to win that game but couldn’t close it out. I edited my post to reflect my opinion a little better.
