Greg McElroy believes Florida State’s game vs. LSU is the ‘most important’ of Mike Norvell era

Florida State kick-started their 2022 campaign with a chaotic victory over LSU in New Orleans in a matchup of two teams that came out of nowhere to produce breakthrough double-digit win seasons, with the Tigers making the SEC title game in Brian Kelly’s inaugural year, while FSU finished with their first 10-win season since Jimbo Fisher was head coach.

The Tigers and Seminoles are set to once again open the season against one another, this time in Orlando and with neither team being sneaky contenders. Instead, this is one of the premier non-conference matchups in the country between two clubs who will expect to be in the playoff discussion. They have returning stars at QB and in the defensive front, with other stars littered throughout the rosters. It may not get better in Week 1 than this contest.

So that’s why ESPN analyst Greg McElroy considers this game the biggest of the year for Florida State. While answering mailbag questions on a recent edition of his podcast, one fan asked if the Clemson or LSU game was more important. To which McElroy responded in great detail explaining why the LSU matchup earlier on in the season is such an important tone-setter for the year for both sides.

Check out his full answer on why LSU is the game with a big red circle on the FSU calendar:

“Without trying to sound like a prisoner of the moment, just understand where I’m coming from here, okay. The LSU game has absolutely nothing to do with the Clemson game. Do not connect the dots, two very different situations. To win the conference championship, to ultimately get to the College Football Playoff, I think you have to win at least one of the two, but if they play poorly against LSU it’s not going to make me feel really badly about their matchup with Clemson a couple weeks later. We’ll start with that.

“Here’s where I stand on the Florida State-LSU game: This is the most important game in Mike Norvell’s tenure up to this point. ‘Greg it’s week one like how can you be such a prisoner of the moment? How can you put this game on such a pedestal?’ Here’s why: there has been tremendous moment created for Florida State this entire offseason. They’ve done a great job in the portal, they’re doing a great job as it relates to high school recruiting, everything seems to be going in the direction that FSU is going to be back. I believe they are.

“If they lose the game against LSU in what I think is a pseudo home game right there in Orlando, it could disrupt some of the momentum that has been created already. Not going to say all of a sudden that Mike Norvell is going to be in job security turmoil or he’s going to be on the hot seat. No not at all, because they can still, even if they lose that game, they can accomplish everything they need to accomplish.

“I don’t need to go back all the way to 2014, but y’all remember when Ohio State lost to Virginia Tech in week two. Everyone said ‘Ohio State’s done, they have no chance, this JT Barrett guy is not Braxton Miller. Like, they’re not going to be able to run the table.’ Well they did. They won 13 in a row and won the National Championship, so it doesn’t mean that Florida State can’t still accomplish all their goals. They can.

“Mike Norvell has been in a full sprint since they won the bowl game last year and they played beautifully. They really have. They played beautifully last year at times. But if you can’t beat LSU, a program that — look, Florida State ultimately wants to win national championships. Brian Kelly is in year number two at LSU. If they’re already ahead of Florida State, that’s going to cause a little bit of a bad taste in Florida State Seminoles fans mouths for the entire season.

“So I think that’s a massive one, not just for Florida State, but for the ACC as well. People have said the SEC is the end-all be-all and the SEC West is a ridiculously deep league. Well, Florida State goes and gets a win in week one, think about how much that’s going to prop up and make it a reality that Florida State is back. It won’t be about talk anymore, it’ll be about the result.

“So I think that is the most important game of the Mike Norvell tenure. If they can get it done, it’ll go a long way in altering the perception of where Florida state is and where they’re ultimately going.”