Lawrance Toafili after Georgia Tech loss: 'We're still in a good spot'

The 2024 college football season officially kicked off on Saturday, and the 10th ranked Florida State Seminoles went down in a close one with the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Georgia Tech drilled a game-winning field goal as time expired to prevail 24-21 in Dublin, Ireland.

Following the loss to the Yellow Jackets, FSU running back Lawrance Toafili and his teammates are not panicking about the rest of the 2024 season.

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“I mean I feel like, it’s just like coach was saying, it’s the little details, man. We clean up certain things. Me as well. I gotta be more explosive. Make the plays that need to be made. But for the most part, it’s just cleaning up those little details. I feel like we’re still in a good spot,” Toafili explained.

The star tailback is not worried about the team getting on the right track for the rest of the 2024 season.

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“I mean, I know how we work and I know what the team is about, so I feel like, we’ve just gotta focus on ourselves, basically. You know. We’ve just gotta get better and that’s how we’re gonna go about our business,” Toafili finished.

In the loss, he finished with eight carries for 32 rushing yards and a touchdown. He also had three catches for 25 yards through the air.

Florida State falls to Georgia Tech in season opener

In the final seconds, it was up to Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr, who missed a field goal earlier in the game. His second try was true from 44 yards out, and it gave the Yellow Jackets the victory over the No. 10-ranked Seminoles in the first game of the year.

Florida State struck first after Georgia Tech deferred. Toafili took a 28-yard run into the end zone, and Mike Norvell got creative on the two-point conversion attempt. The swinging gate worked and gave the Seminoles an early 8-0 lead over the Yellow Jackets.

But Georgia Tech didn’t back down. Haynes King led an impressive opening drive of his own and Zach Pyron, out for a red-zone package, used a quarterback draw to get on the board and make it an 8-7 ballgame.

After a 52-yard field goal from Ryan Fitzgerald extended the FSU lead to 11-7, Georgia Tech put together a surgical 7:53 drive capped by a Jamal Haynes touchdown to put the Yellow Jackets out in front 14-11. That score held until Fitzgerald drilled a 59-yard attempt into the half to tie things up.

A missed Georgia Tech field goal got the second half started, and the game stayed tied until the fourth quarter. That’s when, after a 6:22 drive, the Yellow Jackets again found the end zone on Haynes’ second touchdown run of the day to go up 21-14.

Florida State rose to the occasion, though. DJ Uiagalelei made multiple big throws on the ensuing possession, and Roydell Williams brought things back to a 21-21 tie with 6:33 to go. That gave Georgia Tech the ball back, and King led yet another impressive, clock-draining possession.

It ended with Birr’s field goal, sealing the 24-21 victory. In the process, the Yellow Jackets pulled off a major upset in just the first game of the year.

King had a huge day as a dual threat, throwing for 146 passing yards and adding 54 rushing yards on the ground. In addition to his two rushing touchdowns, King added 75 rushing yards to lead a Georgia Tech offense that, in the words of coach Brent Key, chose to “run the ball.”

On the FSU side, Uiagalelei struggled in his debut after transferring from Oregon State. He completed 19 of 27 passes for 193 yards, but had a rough go throwing the ball down the field. Georgia Tech also shut down the Seminoles’ running game, holding them to 98 yards on the ground, led by 38 from Roydell Williams.

On3’s Nick Schultz also contributed to this article.