Florida state fresh off of an undefeated regular season an ACC Championship and a snub out of the college football playoff out to prove the doubters wrong and Georgia Tech takes down number 10 FSU in Ireland to start the college football season with a bang with a walkoff game winning field goal 24-21 you have to think that Florida state was coming into this season with a bit of a chip on their shoulders you know they were great last season they went 12-0 in the regular season they had a perfect regular season they even beat that jayen Daniels and Malik neighbors LSU team but Jordan Travis suffered a season ending injury on November 18th against North Alabama Florida State still turned around and beat Florida and number 14 louville in the ACC Championship they were 13 and0 had just won a power Conference Championship and beaten an SEC School the week before they got left out of the college football playoff because of Jordan Travis's injury granted they did then lose to Georgia 63 to3 in the Orange Bowl but that was a weird game with a lot of op outs which can always make it really hard to evaluate it was an unprecedented situation and was very very scrutinized for the committee to leave out an undefeated power conference Champion the good news is that Florida State definitely has a good chance to make it into the playoff this season since it's now 12 teams and not just four you can bet the SEC bias will still be there but if they just win the ACC again they're going to be in barring something insane as a hokei I can definitely tell you I hope they don't and I hope instead it's Virginia Tech and Pat McAfee seems to think that'll be the case but yeah I mean coming into the season FSU was the clear front runner for the conference title and I think anybody who said otherwise might have been lying to you FSU does look very different this season compared to last season they put an absolute clinic on at the NFL draft and they lost a ton of fantastic players from 2023 obviously Jordan Travis is the big one because he was your starting quarterback and as always you know that's going to be super important they also had Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson wide receivers running back Trey Benson tight end Jem Bell and then on the defensive side of the ball cornerbacks reonardo green and jeren Jones linebacker Tatum bethon def tackle Braden Fisk and the top FSU guy by far defensive end Jared verse who went 19th overall for those counting that is 10 guys drafted a first rounder 3 seconds a fifth sixth and two sths FSU only had nine guys drafted over the first five years before that it really makes it obvious why FSU was able to have such a great season and I do think you have to give a lot of credit to Mike norell for what he's done there he did start off slow with a 3 and six season and in 2020 he followed it up with just 5- 7 in 2021 and then they went 10 and3 in 2022 and last year of course was the big one but still no college football playoff appearance even if there probably should have been one as far as the new roster goes FSU maybe isn't what they were last year but they do have still some dogs and they have a new quarterback DJ lalile DJ youu he was a great recruit coming out of high school he was supposed to be the heir to Trevor Lawrence at clemon he wasn't he was there for three seasons and disappointed until he had a good 2022 season with 22 touchdowns and seven interceptions he had 21 touchdowns and seven interceptions last year at Oregon State he has put up solid numbers in college at times but he's never had that oh wow and I think he's exactly who we thought he was now two of the fun big weapons to watch now for FSU is Malik Benson and running back Roy Dell Williams funny enough both are transfers from Alabama Lawrence TOA Philly is is also a really good back to he's coming into year five at FSU and then as far as guys that I think you really want to keep an eye on that you can bet on being drafted next year I really think there's two Patrick Payton is the Surefire 100% going to get drafted guy he was the ACC Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2022 he had six sacks last season on the defensive line at this point it really does seem from what I've seen that he's going to be probably a day two pick of the draft but it's going to depend on his season now and then I am personally just really high on F tril Cyprus this is only year 2 for him at FSU and I have seen him play a lot and I paid a ton of attention to him while he was at Virginia I live kind of close to University of Virginia I went to Virginia Tech I'm always paying a ton of attention and usually never miss a Virginia game throughout the year and I'll tell you what he was a lock down corner at UVA he was great and I think he's going to project really well at the next level and he was just a huge huge recruit in the transfer portal for a reason before he even opted to go to FSU I will say college football in the morning seeing that ball get kicked off finally the serotonin levels just skyrocketed number 10 Florida state Georgia Tech in Ireland it's been a long wait and that's when it was like okay we are here and it got off to a really fun start and it really felt like it started with two of the easiest offensive drives you're going to see Toof Philly TouchDown for FSU from 28 yards out took the lead they then went for two on this weird trick play and got it then Zack pyron punches it in for Georgia Tech it's 87 early and then it slowed down a bit we saw a little bit more defense a little bit more Scrappy play and Jamal Haynes had the only other touchdown before the fourth quarter and Georgia Tech ended up missing a field goal but dude we got to talk about Ryan Fitzgerald a top kicker in the country and wow he proved it he drilled a 52 y in the second quarter usually not a far kick that you see a college kicker making and then oh yeah to end the first half and tie the game at 14 he nailed one from 59 yd out just an absolutely absurd kick pick and that's someone that should be getting his flowers after this game but that's going to be overlooked now because after a quiet third quarter the first play of the fourth quarter Jamal Haynes rushed up the gut for a touchdown Georgia Tech took the lead 2114 FSU fully on upset watch and then Norvell got pretty ballsy and I loved it handed up going for it on Fourth and seven FSU picked up a huge first down it felt like dju really did play well on that drive it felt like his vision was really there for the first time all game and he was making the right reads and then bang FSU did it again gutsy call they pick up a fourth and eight to Malik Benson the Alabama transfer the next play royell Williams the other Alabama transfer scores a rushing touchdown and it's tied with 633 remaining Georgia Tech gets the ball back and they kill the rest of the clock very slow drive down the field there was almost a full disaster there at the end with a botch snap that lost 11 yards then Eric Singleton he gets a really good gain and that sets up an Aiden Burr 44 yd field goal the wi in the game a huge win for the yellow jackets their first top 10 win since they beat number nine FSU in 2015 so obviously I at least have to mention Georgia Tech I mean after that game such a huge upset and I think this is a pretty good football team I've been saying that all offseason head coach Brent key he's been there since 2019 after a year at Alabama he's only been the head coach for two years this is year two but what I love is that he was a gr assistant at Georgia Tech he played offensive guard there in the late '90s and I'm always just a real sucker for a head coach coach at their alma mater for their roster they really don't have any guys to keep an eye on for the NFL draft but man I'll tell you what they have some dudes that are fun to watch especially Haynes King he gives me some Taylor hecki like fun Vibes and he really did that last year too he had 27 touchdowns to go with 16 interceptions the Yellow Jackets last year went a solid seven- six year one for key they even beat UCF in the gas BR bable and crazy enough that's actually where key coached for 11 years so that was kind of cool then there's Jamal Haynes who was right there just as an absolute blast to watch dude had countless great plays against FSU just had me wowing he was a wide receiver at Georgia Tech and then he switched to running back last year and immediately went for over a thousand yards that's something Jamir Gibs didn't even do there by the way Haynes is just great to watch put him with Haynes King and it's so much fun and also just ridiculously confusing that they are both hannes because that's not a very popular name what are the chances also I just got to mention Eric Singleton this is a guy I think that can continue to progress and get even better was a stud last season as a true freshman playing wide receiver Georgia Texas overall is fun they're pretty good unfortunately for them though their schedule's nuts every team they play this season made a bowl game last year and you can bet I'm going to be worried when Virginia Tech plays them on October 26 the battle of the techs