Florida State football’s downfall began with losses to Georgia, Georgia Tech

Those of us graced with the opportunity to spend Dec. 30, 2023, in beautiful South Florida witnessed more than just Georgia’s historic 60-point beatdown in the Orange Bowl.

Then those who visited Ireland for Georgia Tech’s international affair to begin the following season witnessed more than just a perceived upset.

It was, in a way, a two-part football funeral; the unofficial beginning of one of the finest programs in college football unraveling into nothingness.

Florida State has fallen on brutally bad times — and this during a period the ACC has really needed FSU to be the Seminoles of yesteryear.

We’ll start with that night in Miami Gardens, a 63-3 UGA win that was partly dismissed as circumstance than referendum. The previously unbeaten Seminoles were decimated by player opt-outs, and the game simply carried no weight.

They felt disgusted that they were robbed of a College Football Playoff spot despite sweeping their schedule. Quarterback Jordan Travis’ season-ending injury became one of the great what-ifs in college football history.

The fallout was extreme. That included the Seminoles suing the ACC that December, which eventually resulted in a settlement but made it increasingly clear the conference is likely in its final years with its current iteration of teams.

Debate rages to this day whether the committee was justified in its decision to exclude the Seminoles. These days, though, Florida State is dealing with much bigger problems.

The next time the Seminoles took the field, Georgia Tech pulled off an upset in Ireland, 24-21. Florida State had been at full strength, entering the season No. 10 and supposedly seeking payback for its previous injustice.

That game mattered. It wasn’t an exhibition in which Florida State lacked its firepower. That was the time FSU was supposed to flex its muscles and embark on a campaign that’d reestablish it as a power and yield the respect that apparently wasn’t earned starting 12-0 the previous season.

Florida State had won 19 consecutive games and appeared on its way to reviving its glory years before the committee’s decision didn’t go its way. Then came consecutive defeats to Georgia and Georgia Tech, two losses under totally different circumstances that launched this downfall.

The Seminoles have lost 18 of 24 games the past two seasons. They were 2-10 in 2024 and 4-8 in 2025 (despite beating SEC runner-up Alabama). They’re 3-13 in the ACC over that span, worse results than Western newcomers Cal and Stanford, which don’t even belong in the conference.

Florida State coach Mike Norvell, hailed for building a behemoth through the portal in 2023, is now never-endingly mocked by rivals. A sizable buyout exceeding $50 million disinclined the Seminoles to make a coaching change — unless, reportedly, Lane Kiffin had decided to he wanted the job — and it further highlighted the Seminoles’ financial distress.

Norvell enters this season fighting perception that his dismissal is an inevitability.

“You’re going to have wins, you’re going to have losses in life,” Norvell said Wednesday at the ACC Football Kickoff event in Charlotte, North Carolina. “It’s what you do with it. I don’t spend a whole lot of time reading magazines or seeing where we’re projected. Ultimately, it’s not going to matter.

“I have a lot of confidence in who I am, the people I get to do it with and the opportunity we have in front of us.”

To Norvell’s credit, his players delivered powerful endorsements of his character and coaching ability. Transfer quarterback Ashton Daniels said Norvell is already the best coach he’s worked with (that’d mean more if the last wasn’t Hugh Freeze).

“(Fans) don’t have to worry, we’ve got his back,” defensive back Ja’Bril Rawls said in response to a question about outside skepticism.

We posed a similar question to receiver Duce Robinson, perhaps the Seminoles’ best player: “I’d tell the fans coach Norvell is …” He paused, admitting he was trying to think of the best way to phrase his answer. “Coach Norvell is everything you could possibly want in a college football coach, a leader and someone you’d want your kid to play for and learn life lessons from. He is the ultimate leader.”

Robinson continued for another 30 seconds. With respect to Norvell and his players, observers are in show-me mode. There’s nothing they could’ve shared Wednesday that would alter anyone’s perception.

This space is not intended to just rehash the Seminoles’ misery. Instead, let’s acknowledge what a shame this is for the conference and sport.

The Seminoles were the ACC’s creme de la creme, the standard of the conference and face of the league. There is no doubt that FSU’s demise has played a significant role in how the ACC is viewed as it faces an uncertain future and its brand has lost so much luster.

The ACC needs the Seminoles to be a contender. Miami, dormant for so long, is now pulling its weight. Clemson, which carried the mantle for a decade, has regressed, which doesn’t help.

But those are the three schools most capable of national relevance in the ACC.

The conference needs its middle tier to carry its weight, too: the Georgia Techs, Virginia Techs, Louisvilles. Tech and Louisville are doing their part, and with coach James Franklin in Blacksburg, the Hokies should be on their way as well.

But Florida State needs to be the team those programs are trying to spoil, not another Wake Forest or Boston College. The ACC needs its elite brands to be just that. Another round of realignment is fast approaching, and it could make the conference a Pac-12 2.0.

A closing thought: Wherever these schools end up, it’d be nice if Georgia Tech and Florida State were still competing against each other.

The schools aren’t considered true rivals, but their matchups have provided real entertainment over the years, and they were games worth anticipation for Tech fans. The Jackets have actually won three of the last four meetings, most recently the game in Dublin.

There was the shootout in 1999, a sterling showcase for Joe Hamilton and Peter Warrick. Ten years later, Tech trampled Florida State in an upset on the Flats. In 2015, Tech famously blocked a Roberto Aguayo field-goal attempt that handed the Seminoles their first conference loss in years, and their first defeat of the post-Jameis Winston era.