Greg McElroy believes FSU's reaction to CFP snub has carried over into 'lifeless' 2024 start
A season removed from winning the ACC and getting left out of the College Football Playoff, Florida State is 0-3. The Seminoles are the first team to follow up an undefeated regular season with three losses to start the next year’s slate since Arizona State in 1976.
Week in and week out, FSU is making history for all the wrong reasons.
ESPN analyst Greg McElroy believes the way the program responded to its CFP snub has had a “carryover effect” into 2024. At the end of last season, the Seminoles got steamrolled, 63-3, by Georgia in the Orange Bowl, a New Year’s Six contest that more than 20 FSU players opted out of.
In three games so far this season, the Seminoles have been outscored, 72-46. They’ve yet to score more than 21 points in a game, and they’ve put up 13 or fewer back-to-back weeks.
The latest blow? A 20-12 loss to Memphis, which FSU paid $1.3 million to come to Tallahassee, according to terms of a contract obtained by the USA TODAY Network. Of course, Mike Norvell left Memphis to become FSU’s head coach ahead of the 2020 season. So last weekend’s loss at Doak Campbell Stadium hurt in all sorts of ways for the Seminoles, who McElroy was understandably hard on Sunday.
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“A lot of people are just treating Florida State as America’s punching bag because of their antics and ridiculousness in December of last year and how they’ve been challenging the ACC grant of rights [deal],” McElroy said on his show.
“Everybody loves to hate Florida State, and that’s fine. Florida State’s just not a good football team [this year]. I know people will point to, ‘No, it’s completely different. No, it’s a different team, different personnel.’ I agree, it’s different personnel. D.J. Uiagalelei so far has not been good, frankly, just not been good. The offensive line’s been terrible based on the amount of expectations that we had coming into the season. The running game has been way too hit or miss, and the receivers are a disappointment.”
McElroy added: “It’s hard for me to point to a position group on Florida State’s roster and tell you that they’re actually solid. Pretty much across the board, they are not what we thought they were at all.”
McElroy admitted he thought FSU would bounce back against Memphis in Week 3. Instead, the Seminoles found themselves trailing their AAC foe, 20-3, in the third quarter. Uiagalelei finished 16-of-30 for 201 yards and an interception. Although he led two scoring drives in the second half, his Hail Mary in the final seconds was batted down at the goal line.
To McElroy’s point, the Seminoles’ offensive line struggled mightily. FSU averaged just 1.5 yards per carry in the defeat. Uiagalelei was pressured on 20 of his 37 dropbacks, according to Pro Football Focus. Plus, the Seminoles’ receivers added three more drops — they now have nine of those on the season, per PFF.
McElroy shouted out Memphis quarterback Seth Henigan, who threw for 272 yards and a pair of scores in the upset. As a whole, the Tigers outplayed FSU.
“Along both lines of scrimmage, they won the game, and their receivers, I think, are better than Florida State’s receivers, and their quarterback is better than Florida State’s quarterback,” McElroy said. “So they deserved to win the game.
“But I still believe that because Florida State made themselves into a victim last year after being snubbed by the College Football Playoff, they decided to boycott the Orange Bowl and got embarrassed in the Orange Bowl — that has a carryover effect. That has a carryover effect into this year’s season, and they are playing lifeless football as a result.”
McElroy went on: “So you can tell me it’s a different world. I think when their players all decided to opt out against Georgia, and they got destroyed by Georgia, and a lot of the guys that were playing in that game against Georgia are now expected to be starters in this game, I think it’s created a really, really bad situation. It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better there in Tallahassee.”