Phil Steele calls Florida State a 'legitimate contender'

Every summer, college football fans look forward to Phil Steele’s preview magazine that extensively looks ahead at the college football season.

In an effort to promote his magazine, Steele made an appearance on McElroy and Cubelic in the Morning, where the topic of Florida State came up. One of the most highly anticipated teams this upcoming season, Steele thinks that Florida State is going to be a legitimate contender.

“As far as Florida State goes, in my mind, they will be the preseason pick to win the ACC by the media, and I think they are a legitimate contender,” Steele said. “You go across Florida State last year, they were probably the best team in the ACC. They outgained ACC foes by 165 yards per game.”

Steele admitted that he also has a high opinion of Clemson, meaning the two will likely battle for the ACC crown in his mind. However, he’s sure that Florida State was the best team in the ACC last year, regardless of record.

“They had three close losses during the course of the year, could easily have turned that into a better number. My power ratings had them as the best team in the ACC at the beginning of the year and when you look at them this year, they not only have the bulk of the team back, they added some dynamic transfers.”

Florida State has a ton of talent. The question now is whether or not the Seminoles can put it all together.

“So, they rank in the top-15 in seven of my eight units in front of the magazine, and that’s pretty rare for any team to be that high in all the units. The only unit they don’t rank in the top-15 is special teams, where they’re number 34. I think as long as Jordan Travis stays healthy, he’s a guy that can hurt you both running and passing. They’ve got the running backs with [Trey] Benson and [Lawrance] Toafili. The offensive line, which has always been a problem for Florida State heading up to last year, they showed a lot of improvement last year. This year, Cole, I have them as my number three offensive line in the country,” Steele said.

“But I do think Florida State is a legitimate national title contender this year.”

Jordan Travis on Florida State’s mindset as it gets more attention

One thing is clear, there is more attention on Florida State now than there has been in a long time. As quarterback Jordan Travis explained, the team’s mindset with this added pressure is important.

“I feel like we just can’t have that mindset. We’ve been down in the dumps for years. We’ve just gotta have the same mindset going into every year. Take it day by day. Win the game in front of us. Win the play in front of us. Can’t get too far ahead. Obviously, the accolades are amazing and it’s cool to be talked about in the preseason, but we want to be talked about in the postseason,” Travis said.

“I think we always have a chip on our shoulder no matter what because we know where we were last year, two years ago and three years ago. We’ve been down pretty bad. We all felt that and there’s a lot of guys still on the team that — what were we? 5-7? — a lot of guys were there on that team so we know how it feels. I go out every day with a chip on my shoulder. We work like that. We work with a chip on our shoulder. Obviously, summer workouts are tough and you don’t see any guys complaining. Just all about the work.”