Noles News: Where would you rank FSU after blowout win over LSU?

Recruiting

Florida State Seminoles football 2024 commitments

QUARTERBACK: 4 star Luke Kromenhoek (GA)

RUNNING BACK: 4 star Kam Davis (GA)

RUNNING BACK: 4 star Micahi Danzy (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Camdon Frier (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Lawayne McCoy (FL)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star BJ Gibson (GA)

WIDE RECEIVER: 4 star Elijah Moore (MD)

TIGHT END: 5 star Landen Thomas (GA)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star Jonathan Daniels (FL)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Tye Hylton (FL)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star Manasse Itete (CA)

OFFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Jayden Todd (GA)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 4 star DD Holmes (DC)

DEFENSIVE LINEMAN: 3 star Jamorie Flagg (FL)

LINEBACKER: 3 star Jayden Parrish (FL)

LINEBACKER: 3 star Timir Hickman-Collins (SC)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 5 star KJ Bolden (GA)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 5 star Charles Lester III (FL)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 4 star Ricky Knight III (FL)

DEFENSIVE BACK: 3 star CJ Heard (GA)

KICKER: 3 star Jake Weinberg (FL)

Football

So....how about that win?

In the largest season-opening win in a top ten matchup in school history, Florida State absolutely wiped the floor with the No. 5 LSU Tigers, making a major statement to start off the 2023 season.

For fun, here’s Mike Norvell’s postgame comments...

“I told them at halftime, ‘You will score every drive in the second half if you focus on the little things, force on the details,’

“That second half was a glimpse, a glimpse of what I think this team can do and where I think it can go. The energy in that game had a championship feel to it. I thought it was a great experience for our players.”

....and here are Brian Kelly’s

“This is a total failure from a coaching standpoint and a player standpoint that we have to obviously address and we have to own. I know adversity is always going to strike at some time in this game, and this is our first real piece of adversity that we have to address. I’m confident our guys and our coaches will rally in the manner that they need to.”

‘ve got to get our football team to understand and recognize that you’ve got to play this game for four quarters with a mentality. We just did not, for some reason. We thought we were somebody else. We thought we were the two-time national champion Georgia Bulldogs or something. I don’t know what we thought, but we were mistaken.”

While Jordan Travis had a major night, launching his Heisman campaign in style, the star of the show was Keon Coleman with the receiver snagging three touchdowns in his Florida State debut.

The win represented a major leap in FSU’s chances at making the final four-team College Football Playoff — from ESPN:

Even if the Seminoles lose to Clemson, though, their win against LSU will help them with the committee should they finish as a one-loss ACC champion.

The Seminoles’ win against a ranked SEC nonconference opponent would provide an edge against another playoff contender with a similar record. Teams like Oklahoma, Michigan and Penn State don’t have any nonconference opponents as strong as LSU. That assumes, of course, that LSU goes on to have a respectable season.

Florida State outscored the defending SEC West champions 31-7 in the second half — a convincing performance that will resonate when the committee members watch the cut-ups of the film on their iPads. They’ll see that fourth-and-2 conversion that changed the game; the masterful playcalling by Mike Norvell; the in-your-face, aggressive defense that flustered LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels. It was not a flawless performance — the seven penalties for 64 yards were daggers at particularly inopportune times. But Florida State looked good.

Where do you think voters will be slotting FSU now?

Soccer

FSU football wasn’t the only Seminoles squad to take home a win on Sunday, with the No. 2 FSU soccer team crushing USF 5-1 in Tallahassee:

How much should we take from this game? On one hand it was FSU’s first game in about two weeks and the Noles looked sharp for the most part. Don’t be fooled by USF’s 2-3 record. The Bulls have a win against LSU in Baton Rouge. LSU has a win at top 10 Texas. USF could easily be an NCAA Tournament team and Florida State simply dismantled them today. On the other hand, the Bulls were playing their backup keeper so they weren’t at full strength. However, while she may have been the backup, Leire Herraez Gallach actually played pretty well delivering eight saves.

The bottom line is that FSU would have scored a lot of goals against any keeper today. The Noles proved yet again that they are a really good team that is fully deserving of the top 5 ranking.

All Sports

FSU volleyball dropped a game to the Auburn Tigers in the Seminole Invitational, falling 3-1 on Sunday in Tallahassee:

The Seminoles attacked at a .338 clip led by Khori Louis, who led the team in hitting percentage, an outstanding .812, and added 12 kills. Audrey Koenig led the team in kills with 20, and added 6 digs. This is the second time in her career that Louis has hit above. 800, as well as her second time this season. For Koenig, this is her second career 20-kill match, almost matching her career high of 22.

The offensive effort can also be attributed to Jelli Draskovic and Kenna Phelan, who had 31 and 20 assists, respectively.

The Noles’ defensive efforts were led by Audrey Rothman, who had 12 digs to go along with her 12 kills for a double-double. Kenna Phelan, Kyleene Filimaua and Addi Hultquist also added 7 digs, each.

Auburn’s Akasha Anderson led the Tigers (5-0) with 15 kills, while Jackie Barrett had 11 digs.

The match opened with a very exciting, back-and forth battle which was ultimately decided by the Tigers, 30-28. The Noles then faced a possible sweep after losing the second set, but they managed to battle back and win the third. The fourth and final set was extremely tight, as the two teams were going point for point with one another, before being decided by Auburn to remain undefeated.

FSU is in Birmingham next to take on the Samford Bulldogs in Birmingham on Monday afternoon.

The No. 5-ranked Florida State men’s golf squad begins its fall season this week at the Folds of Honor Collegiate:

The exciting field includes 18 schools, with power five programs involved, three service academies, two Historically Black Colleges & Universities as well as a Division II qualifier and two winners of the Jack Nicklaus Award as National Players of the Year.

The 18-team field in alphabetical order is: Air Force, Arizona, Arkansas, Army, Florida A&M, FSU, Grand Valley State, Howard, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Memphis, Michigan State, Navy, NC State, Notre Dame, Oregon State and South Carolina.

Florida State brings back nearly everyone from a team last year that reached the NCAA National Semifinals, headlined by three All-Americans in Cole Anderson, Brett Roberts and Frederik Kjettrup.

Two prominent sophomores in Jack Bigham and Luke Clanton return for FSU, as Clanton earned All-America honors in 2023 as well as Jack Bigham. FSU returns a starting five of All-Americans.

FSU has the honor of playing in the unique and groundbreaking event for the second straight season, where it finished third last year. Anderson (T8) and Roberts (10) each had Top 10 finishes in the event.

FSU has the goal of getting back to the NCAA Championship final 30 and reaching match play and beyond once again. Both the FSU men’s and women’s teams have each made the last three NCAA Finals, making FSU one of just three schools (Georgia and Texas) to have both its men’s and women’s teams make the final 30 since 2021.