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The luck of the Irish (no pun intended, Notre Dame) was squarely on Georgia Tech’s side as the Yellow Jackets opened the college football season by upsetting 10th-ranked Florida State in Dublin, Ireland, 24-21, sending shock waves ripping through the nation in week zero.
Aidan Birr narrowly hits a 44-yard FG as the game clock expired to send FSU back to the states 0-1 and looking to answer many questions about the inconsistent performance from both its offense and defense. FSU came into the season ranked in the top ten and looking to, in many ways, avenge the infamous snub last season where the College Football Playoff Committee left an undefeated Florida State team out of the playoffs, siting the injury to star quarterback Jordan Travis as the reason.
The loss ends a 17-game regular season win streak dating back to October 29th, 2022, when FSU beat the Yellow Jackets 41-16 at Doak Campbell Stadium. The Seminoles came into the season as the preseason pick to win the ACC back-to-back years. However, the team that showed up in Dublin looked nothing like last year’s 13-1 squad that dominated all season until the end.
Florida State opened the game on a seven-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a Lawrence Toafili 28-yard touchdown run and a two-point conversion. It seemed as if FSU would have no trouble offensively against that much-maligned defense that was 118th against the run last season.
However, the Yellow Jackets adjusted and began to show some flaws in FSU’s offensive line. The Noles were inconsistent, primarily in the run game, as Georgia Tech blitzed constantly to try and slow what was supposed to be a revamped and improved offensive line and run game.
After the first drive, where FSU had five rushes for 58 yards, the Noles only gained 35 yards on 25 carries and avg. -1.4 yards per carry for the rest of the game. The passing game for FSU, while it wasn’t bad, seemed to be an afterthought for Head Coach Mike Norvell and his play calling. DJ Uiagalelei was 19-27 for 193 yards, had no turnovers, and had several key throws (two on fourth down) to keep drives alive and allow FSU to tie the game at 21-21 late in the 4th quarter.
However, it seems Norvell was determined to get the run game going and instill some confidence in that rebuilt offensive line. Unfortunately, the confidence never came. With only seven total possessions, FSU was only able to score on four of the seven and only two of those seven drives resulted in touchdowns.
The defense wasn’t much better. Georgia Tech’s offensive scheme had FSU’s defense seeing double as the Yellow Jackets deployed an endless amount of motion (multiple motions on many occasions) in their play calling. It seemed more often than not that FSU’s defense was either not aligned correctly or got bullied and pushed around by an experienced offensive line group that returned four of five starters from last season. The defensive line that was touted as one of the best in the country by many NFL scouts easily had its worst game in two years. FSU’s defense gave up 190 yards on 31 carries for 5.3 yards a carry.
One bright spot was the play of FSU’s defensive secondary. FSU only gave up 143 yards through the air, and most of the passes were five yards or less. Only five of Georgia Tech’s Haynes King’s completed passes exceeded five yards. Another bright spot was FSU’s Ryan Fitzgerald, who went 2 for 2 on field goal attempts. He nailed one from 52 yards and another one with time running out in the 2nd quarter from 59 yards, which was a career-long.
FSU returns to action on Labor Day, Monday night, against Boston College at Doak Campbell Stadium. Tune into Plant The Spear for your authentic Florida State Football coverage. Thanks for reading and Go Noles!
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