Noles News: FSU ranked No. 14 in preseason ESPN FPI, has 4.4% chance at making playoffs

Recruiting

According to the 247Sports composite rankings, Florida State currently has the No. 5 class in college football an average rating of 90.42 and a class score of 192.17 with 11 commits.

They sit behind the LSU Tigers at No. 4 (average rating: 89.74, class score: 194.76, 12 commits), Michigan Wolverines at No. 3 (average rating: 91.55, class score: 211.81, 12 commits), Georgia Bulldogs at No. 2 (average rating: 94.22, class score: 226.59, 11 commits), and Ohio State Buckeyes at No. 1 (average rating: 93.36, class score: 230.23, 12 commits).

You can catch up on all the latest Florida State football recruiting news and pick the brains of our recruiting staff in the latest edition of our recruiting thread.

RUNNING BACK: 4 star Kam Davis (GA)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Camdon Frier (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Tawaski “TJ” Abrams (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Lawayne McCoy (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star BJ Gibson (GA)

TIGHT END: 5 star Landen Thomas (GA)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Jamorie Flagg (FL)

LINEBACKER: 3 star Jayden Parrish (FL)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 4 star CJ Heard (GA)

KICKER: 3 star Jake Weinberg (FL)

Football

FSU saw another player enter into the transfer portal — this time, Class of 2022 signee defensive lineman Antavious Woody, who came to the Seminoles as a blue-chip prospect.

ESPN released the first preseason edition of its FPI rankings and projections, which have Florida State at 14th in the country.

No. 1: Ohio State Buckeyes

No. 2: Alabama Crimson Tide

No. 3: Georgia Bulldogs

No. 4: LSU Tigers

No. 5: Texas Longhorns

No. 6: Michigan Wolverines

No. 7: USC Trojans

No. 8: Clemson Tigers

No. 9: Notre Dame Fighting Irish

No. 10: Penn State Nittany Lions

No. 11: Oklahoma Sooners

No. 12: Tennessee Volunteers

No. 13: Oregon Ducks

No. 14: Florida State Seminoles

No. 15: Utah Utes

No. 16: Ole Miss Rebels

No. 17: TCU Horned Frogs

No. 18: Florida Gators

No. 19: Texas A&M Aggies

No. 20: Wisconsin Badgers

No. 21: Washington Huskies

No. 22: Texas Tech Red Raiders

No. 23: Baylor Bears

No. 24: Oregon State Beavers

No. 25: North Carolina Tar Heels

From ESPN:

What is FPI, and how do we project the season and College Football Playoff race?

FPI is our season-long ratings and projections system. In the preseason it relies on past performance on offense and defense, returning and transfer production and past recruiting data for players on the roster to form a rating. We then use those ratings to simulate the season 20,000 times, resulting in our projections.

In addition, the Allstate Playoff Predictor uses those simulations to forecast the playoff committee’s selection process, based on the committee’s past behavior. All of which combined allows us to forecast a team’s projected win total, chance to win its conference, reach the CFP and win the national championship.

After finishing 10-3 with strong quarterback play from Jordan Travis (QBR: 85.3, which ranked seventh), the Seminoles are getting some heavy buzz. FPI likes Florida State ... but maybe not as much as everyone else. The Seminoles rank 14th in FPI, though they are just two-tenths of a point away from 12th.

The model is mostly buying the offense (rank: No. 10) but is less confident in the defense, which it ranks 26th. In general, Florida State has lower talent rankings (based on the recruiting ranks of players on the roster) than the teams above it in FPI. The Seminoles rank 17th in offensive talent and 24th in defensive talent. There’s a lot to like here — just not quite as a top-10 team yet.

It’s in part due to the talent gap that FPI still likes Clemson (FPI rank: eighth) more in the ACC. The Tigers, who have higher talent ratings on both sides of the ball, have a 45% chance to win the ACC, while the model gives Florida State just a 17% chance.

Other notable projections from the release:

• FSU has a 17% chance of winning the ACC, with Clemson sitting at 44.5% and UNC at 13.9% (Miami is at 6.3%).
• FPI currently projects Florida State’s win-loss record at 8.7-3.5.
• Florida State is considered to have a 4.4% chance at making the playoffs, 1% at making the national championship and 0.2% at winning the title.

According to DraftKings, Florida State has the 7th best odds to win the 2023 national championship (+1800), behind Georgia (+230), Alabama (+500), Ohio State (+700), Michigan (+900), USC (+1400) and LSU (+1600).

Quarterback Jordan Travis (+1000) has the second-best odds to win the 2023 Heisman Trophy (behind Caleb Williams at +500). Per FSU Sports Info, he enters the season as one of only four active players with at least 5,500 career passing yards and at least 1,700 career rushing yards.

He loves to get creative in goal line situations, but let’s see how his short game really is — FSU head coach Mike Norvell will compete in the 16th annual Southern Company Peach Bowl Challenge charity golf tournament held April 30 – May 2, facing off against the following current and former coaches for a share of a $300,000 charity purse:

COACH | CURRENT OR FORMER FBS SCHOOL(S)| CHARITY

Dino Babers | Syracuse Orange | Dick Tomey Legacy Fund- Positive Coaching Alliance

Shane Beamer | South Carolina Gamecocks | The Beamer Family Foundation

Eliah Drinkwitz | Missouri Tigers | CarePortal

Randy Edsall | Maryland Terrapins, UConn Huskies | Edsall Family Foundation

Chan Gailey | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | Fellowship of Christian Athletes- Georgia Region

Jim Grobe | Ohio Bobcats, Wake Forest Demon Deacons, Baylor Bears | Fisher DeBerry Foundation

Bobby Johnson | Vanderbilt Commodores | Sea Island Habitat for Humanity

Paul Johnson | Navy Midshipmen, Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | Paul and Susan Johnson Family Foundation

Brent Key | Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets | TBD

Urban Meyer | Bowling Green Falcons, Utah Utes, Florida Gators, Ohio State Buckeyes | Urban And Shelley Meyer Family Foundation

Jeff Monken | Army Black Knights | Legacies Alive

Dan Mullen | Mississippi State Bulldogs, Florida Gators | Mullen Family 36 Foundation

Pat Narduzzi | Pittsburgh Panthers | UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh

Rick Neuheisel | Colorado Buffaloes, Washington Huskies, UCLA Bruins | Wedgewood Charity

Mike Norvell | Florida State Seminoles | Keep Climbing Family Foundation

Houston Nutt | Boise State Broncos, Arkansas Razorbacks, Ole Miss Rebels | Chickasaw Foundation

Tom O’Brien | Boston College Eagles, NC State Wolfpack | National Medal of Honor Leadership & Education Center

Kirby Smart | Georgia Bulldogs | The Kirby Smart Family Foundation

Steve Spurrier | Duke Blue Devils, Florida Gators, South Carolina Gamecocks | HBC Foundation

Dabo Swinney | Clemson Tigers | All In Team Foundation

Basketball

Baseball

FSU baseball will look to get some sort of positive momentum going as it heads on the road for another midweek in-state matchup, this time vs. the UNF Ospreys. First pitch is set for 6:05 p.m. ET and the game is scheduled to be broadcast on ESPN+.

Softball

No. 5 Florida State softball racked up another win on Tuesday, taking down the Stetson Hatters 7-2 to advance to 36-8 (13-2 ACC) on the season.

Next up for the Seminoles: a road trip to Blacksburg to face off against the Virginia Tech Hokies, with the series set to begin on Thursday.

All Sports

No. 18 Florida State men’s tennis (17-7, 8-3 ACC) is in Cary, North Carolina for the 2023 ACC Men’s Tennis Championships:

The Seminoles qualified as a the No.5 seed and will face the winner of 12th-seeded Clemson and No.13 Boston College in the second round on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.

Florida State played both Boston College and Clemson in the regular season, posting a 2-0 record, sweeping Boston College 7-0, and defeating No. 55 Clemson by a 4-0 margin. Florida State heads into Thursday’s match with 26 wins all-time in the ACC tournament.

Florida State is led by No. 6-ranked Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc, who obtained the highest men’s singles ranking in program history on February 21, 2023, where he listed at No. 2. Cornut-Chauvinc totaled 15 wins this spring, with 10 wins over nationally-ranked-opponents, including a win over former No. 1 Ethan Quinn of Georgia.

Florida State women’s tennis team (15-9, 7-6 ACC) will also head Cary for its own run at an ACC Championship beginning Thursday:

The Seminoles enter this week ranked 25th in the national team rankings and are the No. 6 seed in the ACC Tournament. Florida State has a 35-29 record in the ACC Championship and has made three finals appearances.

The Seminoles look to keep up their excellent play as they have won five straight matches, including two top-25 victories.

Senior Vic Allen leads the team with 14 wins in the spring and is ranked No. 79 in the nation. Anna Arkadianou is coming off a big 6-2, 6-2 win against the 24th-ranked Kylie Bilchev of Georgia Tech. Arkadianou is ranked 59th in singles and 55th in doubles with freshman Millie Bissett.

Ellie Schoppe is ranked No. 123 in singles and has three wins against nationally-ranked opponents this spring.

Alice Amendola has been dominant in singles lately. Amendola has won eight of her last nine matches, which includes a current five-match win streak.

Florida State will play the winner of the No. 11 seed Boston College and No. 14 seed Louisville. The Seminoles defeated both Boston College and Louisville earlier this season, winning 5-2 against the Eagles and 4-0 against the Cardinals.

Florida State track and field athletes Jeremiah Davis and Caisa-Marie Lindfors earned ACC Men’s and Women’s Co-Field Performers of the Week, respectively:

Florida State’s Davis posted a nation-leading mark for the current season in the long jump with his mark of 18.19 meters (26-10.5) in the Invitational Division at the Tom Jones Memorial. The Lehigh Acres, Florida senior, who was competing in his first outdoor meet of the season, led an elite field of competitors with the third-longest long jump in program history.

An All-American in 2021, FSU’s Lindfors has battled injuries, but the Swedish thrower is now a full go and won the Invitational Division of the Tom Jones Memorial women’s discus with a mark of 59.81 meters (196-3) to rank fourth in the nation.

Florida State University Associate Professor of Psychology Caterina Gratton is part of a multi-institution team that’s received a five-year, $3 million National Institutes of Health Research Project Grant to “o produce reliable and detailed measures of an individual person’s brain networks — representations of how brain regions communicate together — to identify how specific differences in brain networks affect symptoms and progression of Parkinson’s, a disease that affects nearly 1 million people in the U.S.”

Brain networks can be thought of like any other complex, multi-node system, such as transportation networks. If bad weather affects flights in one part of the country, this can impact flights throughout the U.S., and the effects can spread depending on the pattern of flights between airports.

Similar cascading disruption happens when neurodegeneration affects certain brain regions that connect to many others — neurodegenerative diseases impact not just discrete brain regions but the whole system of communication between brain regions.

Using MRI technology, Gratton, co-collaborator Meghan Campbell, an associate professor in the Departments of Neurology and Radiology at the Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine, and their team will apply a novel precision-mapping approach to determine individual differences and similarities in the neurodegeneration of brain networks in people affected by Parkinson’s disease.

As study participants sit quietly and allow their thoughts to wander, the team will use MRI scans to track changes in blood flow to different brain areas over time and determine which regions of the brain are communicating and sharing information. These connections, which remain even while the individual is asleep, can then be defined, characterized, and studied to improve understanding of underlying neurobiological processes accompanying Parkinson’s disease and contributing to symptoms.

A team led by Florida State University chemists has developed a new test for detecting biological markers related to several types of cancer:

The sensing platform is made of a gold nanoparticle and molecules called peptides that are labeled with a dye. The components are connected by chemical bonds, and the gold nanoparticle keeps the dye from glowing in the presence of UV light. When a patient sample containing the enzyme MMP-14 — a biomarker for various types of cancers, but most commonly for breast cancer — is added, it breaks bonds in the peptides, separating a fragment with the dye from the gold. Without the gold to absorb the energy from the dye, the sample begins to glow.

The light glowing from the sample depends on the concentration of the enzyme and interaction time. By measuring that light, researchers can generate data that inform them if a cancer marker is present in a sample and in what levels.