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Florida State scores social media touchdown with creative schedule release videos

On3 imageby:Ira Schoffel•01/31/23•

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Florida State WR Johnny Wilson pretends to ride a Harley-Davidson in one of Florida State's schedule release videos.

Florida State’s Seminole Sports Cinema department, which received widespread acclaim for its cinematic “The CLIMB” videos after each week of the 2022 football season, came through with another big winner on Monday night when the ACC announced league schedules for 2023.

As the conference revealed each weekly slate on a live ACC Network show, FSU’s Sports Information department posted videos from the Seminole Sports Cinema team on Twitter. Every video featured Florida State football players taking part in clever little vignettes with themes (and music) related to that week’s opponent.

For the season opener in Orlando against LSU, for example, there is Disney’s, “When You Wish Upon a Star” playing in the background as quarterback Jordan Travis receives his commemorative T-Shirt from the 2022 Cheez-It Bowl — which also was played in Orlando. Travis takes the shirt to his locker, looks at it and says, “Oh, this is awesome.” Then dismissively throws it in a pile, as if to say the Seminoles are now looking ahead to 2023.

For Game 2 against Southern Miss, which is the Seminoles’ home opener, Florida State defensive backs Akeem Dent, Jarrian Jones and Omarion “Duke” Cooper are featured inside Doak Campbell Stadium talking about their excitement for this coming season. In the background, you can hear 1970s rock song, “Mississippi Queen,” by Mountain.

For the road trip to Boston College in Game 3, running back Trey Benson is shown walking into the Florida State weight room, popping in his AirPods and pulling up the song, “I’m shipping up to Boston,” by Dropkick Murphys.

The funniest of all the videos is for Florida State’s trip to Clemson in Game 4. Travis is shown again, this time in a quarterback meeting room, and he’s watching a video of Jameis Winston’s, “We ain’t leaving without a victory” speech before the 2013 Clemson game. The punch line comes when Travis and the other quarterbacks squint to see a projection screen with the date of this year’s Clemson game, paying homage to Winston’s squinting during his time at FSU. “Eye of the Tiger” is blaring in the background.

The production team even did a quick video for the bye week on Sept. 30, showing a “Closed” sign hanging from head coach Mike Norvell’s office door. The sign also says, “Will Return” with a clock that has hands pointing to the 10 and the 7 in reference to the next game on Oct. 7. (We told you they were clever!) And the entire theme is borrowed from a meme from The Eric Andre show on Cartoon Network’s Adult Swim. (At least that’s what our friends at Google tell us!).

For Game 5 vs. Virginia Tech, linebackers Kalen DeLoach and DJ Lundy walk into the Florida State trophy room to admire the Seminoles’ 1999 national championship trophy. And they then magically see highlights of that year’s national title win over the Hokies projected into the crystal ball. Metallica’s “Enter Sandman,” a staple of Virginia Tech home games, plays in the background.

The video for Game 6 against Syracuse starts with defensive ends Derrick McLendon and Patrick Payton walking into the FSU academic offices to meet with an adviser about a homework assignment. “Empire State of Mind” by Jay-Z and Alicia Keys plays in the background as the pass-rushers satisfy their appetites with some tasty oranges.

The Seminoles’ top two trash-talkers, receiver Mycah Pittman and defensive end Jared Verse, are featured in the video for Game 7 against Duke. With Shorty Long’s “Devil with the Blue Dress On” playing in the background, the two Florida State players do battle in a series of games in the Seminoles’ players’ lounge. Verse and Pittman compete in air hockey, table tennis and … since it’s Duke … they finish up with basketball. The final score reveals the date of that game.

The video for Game 8 against Wake Forest gives fans a light-hearted look at the personality of star receiver Johnny Wilson. The 6-foot-7 wideout hops on a Harley-Davidson in the stadium parking lot, slides on some slick shades and acts like he’s going for a ride. As it turns out, it’s not his motorcycle at all. But it’s a nice tribute to Wake Forest’s Demon Deacon mascot, who often rides a motorcycle onto the field in Winston-Salem. The accompanying music is the fitting, “Highway to Hell,” from AC/DC.

Senior defensive tackle Fabien Lovett stars in the video for the Pitt game, and he portrays a steel worker forging one of the sledgehammers that Florida State’s players use to “break the rock” after wins and another accomplishments. At one point, Lovett flips up his welder’s mask and delivers a message to the Panthers: “It’s been 10 years, Steel City. We’re coming back.” Wiz Khalifa’s “Black and Yellow,” which is about growing up in Pittsburgh, plays in the background. There also is an image of the Pittsburgh skyline and a T-shirt that reads, “Just a kid from the 412,” in reference to the city’s main area code.

The video for the 10th game against rival Miami shows linebacker Tatum Bethune, who hails from that city, walking into Doak Campbell Stadium and receiving a “Hurricane Warning” alert on his phone. As he looks up at the sky and sees the sun shining brightly, Bethune shakes his head and keeps walking as Tallahassee native T-Pain sings his part of the remix for “2 Step” by DJ Unk.

For the 11th game against North Alabama, it’s another fun video featuring QB Jordan Travis. In this one, he gets on an elevator at the Moore Athletics Center, and he’s surrounded by five veteran offensive linemen forming a pocket — tackles Bless Harris and Robert Scott, guards D’Mitri Emmanuel and Darius Washington, and center Maurice Smith. When the elevator reaches the second floor, Travis gets off and leaves the pocket, while the five linemen stay behind. The musical choice is, “Local Forecast – Elevator,” by Kevin McLeod.

And the video for the regular-season finale against rival Florida is short and sweet; it shows Travis walking past FSU’s Bobby Bowden statue as the Marching Chiefs play the warchant in the background.

*ALSO SEE: Instant Reaction: First big takeaways about the 2023 Florida State football schedule

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

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