Corey Clark: A Week Zero to forget from FSU in 2024 season opener

DUBLIN, Ireland — When you lose a Week Zero game in another country, does it even count?

Florida State is still undefeated in the United States! And if that stays true for the rest of the 2024 season, then the Seminoles will be dancing right into the College Football Playoff, baby.

But let’s be real: If the Seminoles don’t get real better real quick, then this year could be a whole lot of what we just saw. Ugly.

I do want to point out, because I’m me, that we ARE still in August. And this team, I do believe, WILL get better. One loss, especially one in Week Zero, does not define a football team.

But here’s the issue we have as we sit here in Dublin, after the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets kicked a last-second field goal to knock off the reigning ACC champs, 24-21: What exactly did we figure out about this football team?

That offensive line? The one that we thought was going to be so much better, and was going up against a team that was 128th in the country against the run? Well, other than that opening drive, it looked a whole lot like last year’s offensive line. The Seminoles rushed for a grand total of 98 yards. On 31 carries. That’s just not close to good enough. And it’s downright worrisome.

Because we thought the strength of this team was going to be its big, mature, physical offensive line. And other than a 28-yard TD run by Lawrance Toafili on the opening possession, Florida State managed just 70 yards on the other 30 carries. Gross.

“We had a couple of explosive runs there in that first drive, and obviously were not able to replicate that as the game went on,” Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said. “They did a good job with some of the adjustments they made … we have to be better.

He then added: “We’ll continue to re-evaluate.”

If this season is going to be anything of note, anything resembling successful by the new standard, that just has to get better.

I didn’t think the running backs were especially impressive. The big quarterback had a first-down run but certainly didn’t help the running game in any meaningful way. And the O-Line, even when Tech wasn’t throwing eight bodies at the line of scrimmage, didn’t exactly assert itself.

“Offensively, we have to be more explosive,” Norvell said. “I thought we had some missed opportunities there. … They definitely gave us a challenge with certain fits in the run game.

“I’ve got to do a better job.”

He certainly does. Because that offensive effort, against what I think is going to be a mediocre defense at best, wasn’t very good. At all.

Norvell brought up how limited the possessions were. And he’s not wrong. Florida State had seven possessions the entire game. Seven. And only one in the fourth quarter.

So, to score on four of seven drives isn’t anything to sneeze at, right? Not terrible.

Though, I will add: You’re allowed to speed it up, Mike! Get some more plays in!

But I mean, let’s add some context. DJ Uiagalelei was sacked on third down on one of those field goal drives, but Georgia Tech’s defensive end grabbed his facemask.

Then, the last drive before the half, ended with a 59-yard field goal. That was a great moment for Ryan Fitzgerald. A great, great kick. But, it’s hard to count that as a “scoring drive.”

The Seminoles had two of those, really. The first possession of the game, and their last of the game. In the middle was not crisp, sharp or exciting at all.

Norvell lamented the lack of explosive plays, but he did note how big it was for Uiagalelei to hit those fourth-down throws on the last possession.

Malik Benson and Ja’Khi Douglas also made some big-time catches. But until that drive, the passing game was way too conservative, in my opinion. Hardly any deep shots. No big plays.

Against a defense that is crashing the line of scrimmage, you needed to exploit it more with the passing game — especially if you’re not going to dominate the front. That didn’t happen until the one fourth quarter possession.

I do think the offense is going to be better than this. I have confidence that it WILL be more explosive. I just thought everything was tentative, everything seemed a click off. Which might not be too surprising considering how little these skill guys have played with each other.

And on the other side, there was VERY little tentative about the Georgia Tech offense. Which, again, wasn’t too surprising considering how much experience that group returned. And it was a good unit a season ago.

I know I’ve written like 1,000 words already and haven’t really ripped the defense, but I just don’t think this game was lost because of that side of the ball. It certainly didn’t help! Not like that group was special at all. That defensive line, as vaunted as it is, looked pretty darn pedestrian on Saturday.

And that unit also couldn’t get off the field in the fourth quarter when the game was in the balance. Part of that was because Georgia Tech has a good quarterback. And he made some big-time plays down the stretch — most notably a 15-yard throw on third down while being hit by both Patrick Payton and Marvin Jones Jr. The Jackets scored a touchdown a few moments later.

But in the end, Georgia Tech scored 24 points. Before the game, I thought that would have been a recipe for a win for the Seminoles. Maybe a comfortable one.

Instead, because of the offense’s inability to sustain anything of substance on those five drives in between the TDs, the Yellow Jackets were celebrating at Aviva Stadium. And the 20,000-plus Florida State fans that made the trek over here were left to drown their sorrows in a Guinness or two. Or 12.

I would again, though, like to stress patience. Don’t make up your mind about this team in August.

There is a whole lot of football left. Including three straight games in Doak. A season-opening loss isn’t a killer. I promise. As long as the team shows some serious improvement as the season goes on.

Now, that’s an “if” at this point. There are a lot of serious questions that need to be answered. From the play-calling to the quarterback, the running game, the front-seven on defense, there was nothing special about this team on Saturday. Except for the kicker.

But this is the first regular season loss for this football program in almost two full years. I think this coach, and this staff, have earned the benefit of the doubt.

You know Norvell is going to do everything he can to figure it out.

“It’s about where our response goes from here,” Norvell said. “We’ve got to take a step as a football team and not let this one game define what our season will be.

“We’ve got to go get better.”

Contact senior writer Corey Clark at [email protected].

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.