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Florida State’s Bad Luck Continues
Growing up I listened to far too much Motley Crue. One line I’ve always remembered was from the song Keep Your Eye On The Money. The line is “if it wasn’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all”. Hello Florida State! It is your bye week, Mike Norvell is still your head coach, and the bad luck keeps getting worse. A week after folding against Louisville, the Seminoles were actually in the hunt against arch rival Miami only to see their dreams swept away by questionable calls and really bad luck. Coach Norvell must know his time is short. “We had our chances. I am not in the business of being close. We are not into any of the moral victories of it” he said at his Monday press conference going into the bye week.
There were two Hail Mary passes that could have kept FSU alive. The first was caught and negated by a holding call that Norvell called “an absolute joke” and is now asking the ACC offices to review. The last Hail Mary looked like both the FSU and Miami player had simultaneous possession, but the replay booth never asked about a potential tie going to Florida State and awarded the Hurricanes the interception and win. “It’s a shame. It really is.” Norvell lamented, but so is his tenure now at Florida State. 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the ACC. “I believe in this team. Our record is not what anybody wants it to be. We’ve lost some close games, and we’ve got to win those games.” Now Norvell gets Clemson after the bye week in a toss up match between two underachieving programs. They’ll also have to face the Tigers without their best player to date this season. Running Back Ousmane Kromah suffered a gruesome, season ending injury in the Miami game. Mike Norvell needs something, anything positive to save his job, but Florida State just doesn’t seem to have the luck he needs.
Photo courtesy of X and Matt Fortuna @Matt_Fortuna
Should Miami Be #1?
Most pollsters have Miami as their number one team this week, but I do not. Their reasoning is the eye test, the faulty phenomenon I wrote about last season. The other is the teams in front of them losing, so just slide the next team up. I believe in wins and losses and recalculating every single week. Was Miami so impressive against a mediocre Florida State team that they now deserve to be number one? The best wins for the Canes were at Wake Forest and at Clemson. I don’t think those wins are as good as the one BYU pulled off this week over Notre Dame, so the Cougars get the top spot for now. BYU’s next best win is over Arizona, the only loss for the 5-1 Wildcats.
A week after writing about teams blowing their opportunities to get into the championship mix, even more teams faltered! Georgia, Notre Dame, Texas, Indiana, Alabama, and Missouri all spit the bit instead of asserting control over their own destiny. Inconsistency is the common theme of college football this season, and hopefully it will make for an exciting finish.
TOP 25 FOR THE WEEK BEGINNING OCTOBER 19TH
- BYU (6-0) Proved they are a total team in taking down Notre Dame
- MIAMI (6-0) May be able to run the table in the regular season
- UCLA (6-0) Beat a good Wisconsin team with their backup quarterback to earn this spot
- TEXAS TECH (6-0) Beat a really good Houston team, but barely above the best one loss teams
- OHIO STATE (6-1) Barely lost at Texas, only team to beat Indiana and Iowa
- OLE MISS (5-1) Lost at Florida, but has beaten LSU, Missouri, and Louisville
- UTAH (6-0) Their wins just don’t stack up
- GEORGIA (6-1) Loss at home to Auburn proves Dawgs need to be more focused every week
- NOTRE DAME (6-1) Path to the playoffs is still clear, maybe even if they lose to Miami
- INDIANA (6-1) Still not convinced this is a great playoff team, but were a foot out of bounds away from beating Ohio State
- TENNESSEE (6-1) only loss a tight one to Texas. Got a major win over Alabama this week
- KENTUCKY (6-1) Only loss is to Alabama in Week 2. Best win is LSU
- IOWA (5-1) Wins not great, and don’t have a tough schedule left
- HOUSTON (6-1) Barely lost at Texas Tech. Got signature win over Oklahoma State this week
- ALABAMA (5-2) Far from out of the playoff race
- WAKE FOREST (6-1) The more I watch them, the more impressed I am
- ARIZONA (5-1) Only loss at Texas Tech
- FLORIDA (5-2) Two quarterbacks have now lead them to top notch wins
- TEXAS (4-2) Inconsistent, but have beaten Ohio State and Tennessee
- SMU (5-1) Another week where they handle a fairly good, not really good ACC foe
- LSU (5-2) Dangerous team with a shot at the playoffs
- MISSOURI (5-2) Outclassed by Ole Miss, still have wins over Florida, Kansas, and rout of Texas A&M
- SOUTHERN CAL (6-1) Not a big fan of their wins
- NORTHWESTERN (5-1) Great record but wins not impressive. Only loss to Indiana
- JAMES MADISON (7-0) Amazing what Billy Napier is doing there after failing so badly at Florida
