Noles News: Football set for ACC play, soccer wins 5-0 again

FLORIDA STATE — The Florida State Seminoles are headed into Louisville week after a much-needed victory against LSU last weekend and, perhaps, an even more needed bye-week before going on the road to face the Cardinals in Kentucky.

The softball team celebrated the start of fall, women’s soccer handed Rice a goose egg, beach volleyball earns All-American honors, and more.

Football

The Seminoles will take to the skies to travel up to Louisville, KY for their first “official” road game of the season and to kick off ACC play under the Friday night lights. The team is coming off a hard-fought 23-24 victory against the LSU tigers earlier this month and had their first bye-week of the season last week.

Vegas had the game against the Cardinals dead even at the start of the week — it’s now moved to a two-point FSU pick and it should swing more towards FSU being favored as game day inches closer.

• FSU favored in ACC opener vs. Louisville
• FSU to debut all-white uniforms vs. Louisville

The latest coaches and AP polls were released on Sunday and although the Noles didn't manage to crack the top 25 of either, a victory this weekend should push them into being ranked for the first time since pre-season 2018 in which they were 19 in both before dropping out entirely.

If you didn’t catch all the mayhem happening around the CFB world during FSU’s bye-week, head on over to the Bye week watch thread: Stream, game info, discussion and relive the upsets and laugh at gator fans all in one place.

“Bowl eligible” has not been a term used to describe the Seminoles these past few years and according to FPI, FSU has a 94.2% chance to get there for the first time since 2019.

A win this weekend would do wonders for the program that would like to go into Boston College and Wake Forest undefeated.

Former FSU defensive end Jermaine Johnson II made his debut on Sunday and got the first sack of his career as a New York Jet. Johnson was able to finish Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson on a 2nd and 10.

Jameis Winston did Jameis Winston things rallying a 2014-esque comeback win in the 4th quarter against the Atlanta Falcons.

After a detailed anatomy lesson earlier in the week, Winston gave us a detailed description of what he was going through in the 4th quarter. I wonder how well he does with the 1-10 pain scale at the doctor's office.

Recruiting

If you want to get all the latest on recruit visits, which recruits are visiting this weekend, and how the ones went in New Orleans, the recruiting guys at Tomahawk Nation are doing great work with their podcasts and updates which you can read and listen over at Florida State Football: OFFICIAL Tribe ‘23 Recruiting and Portal Thread #9. Recruiting thread #8 can be found here.

All Sports

Women’s soccer faced Rice on Sunday afternoon and got their third straight 5-0 victory of the season in Houston. The #8 Noles will be back on the road again this Friday when they head to Massachusetts to take on the Boston College Eagles at 4 p.m. Onyi Echegini (1), Jenna Nighswonger (2), and Maria Alagoa (2) accounted for the five scores of the game.

The softball team started practice last week and held a dinner for the team to commemorate the fall. Tomahawk Nation’s Gwyn Rhodes put together the team’s top moments from 2022 earlier last month which can be seen in FSU softball’s top five moments from 2022.

Two beach volleyball players were given All-American honors. Carra Sassack, Alexis Durish, along with Arden Besecker, and Chloe Charles (honorable mentions) made the cut.

From Seminoles.com:

Two Florida State Seminoles were named to the AVCA Junior All-American First-Team on September 8, 2022. FSU tied with UCLA at second with four athletes earning spots on the All-American squad. Freshmen Carra Sassack and Alexis Durish earned the First-Team honors after stellar senior seasons. Arden Besecker and Chloe Charles earned Honorable Mention All-American honors as well.

Men’s golf broke two program records over the weekend scoring their lowest round of 261 in round two of the Maui Jim Intercollegiate. The Noles ended up placing third in the event on Sunday.