WHY FLORIDA STATE WILL BEAT LSU

Via Florida State Athletics

College football, especially in the South, is at its best when Miami and Florida State are performing at an optimum level and are nationally ranked.

Miami is still working and recruiting well, but Florida State, some say, have arrived and their pre-season number seven ranking is indicative of what the national media think of the job. Mike Norvell and his staff are doing in Tallahassee.

The Florida State Seminoles are out to prove that last season’s 10-3 record was no fluke. To do that, they must beat LSU on Labor Day Weekend in Orlando.

The Seminoles won last season’s Labor Day Weekend game where FSU squeaked out a 24-23 victory over the Tigers in the Bayou. FSU blocked a PAT on the final play of the game and that was enough for the margin of victory for the Seminoles.

Florida State will go as far as the right arm of Jordan Travis will take them. The senior threw for over 3,200 yards and 24 scoring passes and was only picked off five times while being named to the All-ACC Second Team.

Travis has eight of his buddies returning to the offense, including running back Trey Benson, a transfer from Oregon. All Benson did in his first year in the state capitol was rush for 990 yards on 154 carries. He also hit paydirt nine times.

Travis got a new toy in former Michigan State wide receiver Keon Coleman who the Seminoles picked up via the transfer portal. All Coleman did in East Lansing before he left was catch 58 balls for the Spartans and lead the team in receiving.

Coleman will be paired with last year’s leading receiver Johnny Wilson who caught 43 balls for almost 900 yards and five scores. With only one football, Travis will have to decide who gets the ball and when.

If both players are double-teamed, look for Benson to be a good point of contact as a checkdown or on a designed play. Defensively, the Noles look fierce and they will play hard for Defensive Coordinator

Adam Fuller.

The Noles have Jared Verse, a former Albany transfer, coming back as he turned down the NFL Draft to come back and play his senior season for Norvell and the Noles. All Verse did last year was have nine sacks and harass the opposing team’s quarterback so much, he should have been issued a restraining order. If FSU has a flaw, it is in the kicking game. Placekicker Ryan Fitzgerald could not hit the side of a barn and was just 12-of-20 on his field goal attempts.

The Noles brought in a transfer from East Texas State University named Tyler Keltner and it will be a training camp battle to see who will get the place kicking chores against the Tigers. If the game is close and comes down to a field goal, the Noles might have a problem. However, this game will not be close and FSU will blow the Tigers out in the second half and win 48-17.

The Noles will be a good team in 2023, maybe even a great team. They will defeat LSU, but this team is going to heavily rely on transfer portal as their high school recruiting did not fare so well. The Noles will win their share of games, but their top ten ranking might be undeserved as we have to wait and see what they do in their tough ACC schedule.

If you want to see why LSU will beat Florida State, check that out here.