Florida State is on its heels following a disastrous start to the 2024 college football season. Following an upset loss to unranked Georgia Tech in the season opener, No. 10 FSU didn’t look any better against unranked Boston College at home, ultimately suffering a 28-13 loss to move to 0-2 on the season.
Mike Norvell’s program has gone from a contender for the ACC Championship and College Football Playoff birth to the bottom of the conference in just two weeks. The fall is a historic one, too, following the updated AP Top 25.
Florida State is the first team in 16 years to go from a preseason top 10 ranking to completely unranked in the very next release of the AP Poll. Clemson had the same fate in 2008.
Although there is still plenty of time for the Seminoles to find their footing this season, it seems that FSU’s preseason standing was vastly overvalued. But that status wasn’t undeserved at the time, following an ACC Championship title and a 13-1 finish last season.
If there’s something to learn from Florida State’s early fall, it’s how incredibly hard it is to maintain a high level of success on a yearly basis. The process has become even more difficult within the transfer portal era, as roster structure goes through massive changes year to year. The Seminoles struck gold there in 2023, and it was easy to buy in again after Florida State replaced 22 transfers with 17 additions of its own over the offseason.