Florida State Upset by South Florida, Daniels

With news that starting South Florida QB Matt Grothe, the Big East Conference’s career offense leader, would be sidelined for the rest of the season, Florida State might have started looking ahead of the Bulls. Big mistake.

Backup freshman QB B.J. Daniels stepped in for Grothe and filled in more-than-admirably, leading USF to upset Florida State, 17-7. Daniels threw for 215 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions, while running for 123 more.

Florida State coach Bobby Bowden had talked about not being excited to face USF all week. Maybe he knew what would unfold in front of the largest home crowd Florida State has attracted in four years.

“They whupped us,” said Bowden. “They’re a lot better than I thought.”

The difference in the game, as is often the case in football, was the turnover differential. Bowden’s Seminoles fumbled the ball four times, including a late game fumble by QB Christian Ponder that allowed USF to ice the game.

“The way we got beat up on offense, I didn’t know we could get beat up like that,” Bowden said. “They did everything faster than I thought.”

Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 5:54 pm by bryan

FSU stunned by South Florida, 17-7

Will the real Florida State Seminoles please stand up?

The Seminoles, coming off a road thrashing of highly ranked BYU, laid an egg at home in a 17-7 loss to South Florida.

A team that Bobby Bowden thought was coming of age instead took a major step backward against a team starting it’s backup quarterback.

That’s not a good sign for a program that feel its on the cusp of being a factor once again on a national level.

Now it looks like it is back to the drawing board for the Seminoles, who travel to Boston College next Saturday.

Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 5:51 pm by steve

FSU pummels BYU, 54-28

The Florida State Seminoles showed last week’s close game was a fluke with a 54-28 pounding of No. 15 BYU.

After almost losing to Jacksonville State, Saturday night’s performance on the road was one to remember.

In fact, you almost felt like you were watching those great Seminoles teams from back in the day as they had their way with the Cougars.

It seemed like Florida State scored every time they had the ball, and the defense was relentless with their pressure.

The Seminoles might be on their way back into the top 25 after such a strong performance against a ranked foe.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009 at 4:33 am by steve

FSU barely escapes Jacksonville State

The Florida State Seminoles were supposedly back after last week’s thriller against the Miami Hurricanes.

However, I cautioned at the time that while the two teams might have played a very exciting game, that doesn’t mean they are back.

I think Florida State proved my point this past weekend when they had to rally to slip past Jacksonville State.

The Seminoles trailed 9-7 late in the game, once again proving that their offense is still nowhere close to what it used to be.

Offensive coordinator Jimbo Fisher is going to start to feel the heat if there isn’t any improvement.

Tuesday, September 15, 2009 at 7:18 pm by steve

FSU falls to Miami, 38-34

The No. 18 Florida State Seminoles couldn’t hold serve on their home field in the season opener, falling to the rival Miami Hurricanes, 38-34.

The Seminoles had high hopes coming into the season of regaining national prominence and at least competing for an ACC title and BCS berth.

Those hopes aren’t altogether lost but certainly took a significant blow during the loss to the Hurricanes.

Florida State had a chance to win the game in the final seconds but threw three incomplete passes into the end zone.

If the Seminoles want to make any noise this year, they will have to tighten up the screws defensively.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009 at 5:24 pm by steve

Florida State set for showdown with Hurricanes

It may not have the hype of past years, but Florida State vs. Miami is still a great game that often comes down to the final seconds.

The two teams used to play each other during the middle of the season as out-of-conference foes back when both were national powers.

Now the two schools have started a new tradition, kicking off the ACC season by having the spotlight in primetime on Labor Day.

The reason the two teams play early in the season is so the losing team could recover and potentially still have a shot to play for a national championship.

Unfortunately for these two schools, the goal of a national title has been replaced with just trying to return to national prominence.

Saturday, September 5, 2009 at 8:35 am by steve