Florida State Is Still Number One (Until You Beat Them To Prove Any Different)

After F.S.U. came back against Auburn to win the National Championship last year, football pundits anointed them at the top of the heap in 2014. Then as usual, they began expecting them to be the same team they were last year and taking shots at them for not being.

F.S.U. fans know better than anyone what it’s like to play with a target on their backs. Their dominance in the 90's, winning National Championships in ‘93 and ‘99, made them one of the most revered and hated programs in the country. It would drive then Gator head coach Steve Spurrier to make silly and embarrassing comments about “Free Shoes University” and remark that there were newer and more expensive cars in the F.S.U. player’s locker room parking lot than there were outside of the University of Florida’s.

In 2013 Jameis Winston and the Seminoles made mincemeat of every team they played, running up the highest score against Clemson in Death Valley in the stadium’s history, 51–14. Toward the end of the season, accusations against Winston hardly fazed the team, and they rolled on to the Rose Bowl to take the last BCS trophy and Jameis the Heisman.

But 2014 is a whole different ball game, for a whole host of reasons. That big fat target on their backs starting out number one is the largest. Hardly has any college team beginning number one ever ended up the same, though Florida State did it in 1999 and went undefeated.

The main reason is that every team the #1 team plays is playing above their heads, as if their life depends on it, knowing that if they only win that one game all season they are in a realm all their own, a football god’s Mount Olympus. Every team that plays number one plays with blood in their eyes and their hair on fire, in the first half anyway, giving a superhuman effort to knock off the top dog until they’re beaten down by them.

The second reason is the impossible expectations placed on last year’s Heisman Trophy winner to duplicate what he did the year before, and missing some of the personnel he did it with. What Jameis was able to do in 2013 as a redshirt freshman is almost unbelievable, and there is always a “sophomore slump,” a second year comparison, which is a whole new set of pressures.

And then there’s the continued and erosive effect of some of Jameis’s childish and poor judgments off the field, getting him suspended for the entire Clemson game, which a doggedly determined F.S.U. team won behind an essentially fourth string quarterback. The second and third string quarterbacks, Jacob Coker and Clint Trickett, seeing that they weren’t going to be playing much behind Jameis, had fled to Alabama and West Virginia respectively.

Ironically, it was the Clemson game, played without Jameis Winston, where Florida State showed the character and determination of a Champion. It’s easy to be a Champion when everything’s clicking for you. But how you respond when your back’s against the wall is a defining moment.

And so, on October 5th, 2014, when I write this, the same football pundits who proclaimed F.S.U. the number one team in the country early on, had been taking shots at it for not being as dominating as they were last year. And despite F.S.U. being undefeated, and still #1 in the AP polls, they had been jockeying other teams ahead of them.

And then all hell broke loose. One of those teams, #2 Oregon, was knocked off buy Arizona State Thursday night. On Saturday, October 4th, #3 Alabama was beaten by Ole Miss, and #4 Oklahoma by T.C.U. #5 Auburn, who Florida State defeated to win last year’s National Championship, now moves up to #2 behind F.S.U., and the sports announcers are gnawing at the Seminole’s heels.

In F.S.U.’s first game of the year, with that big target on their backs, against a very good Oklahoma State team, F.S.U. struggled a bit but came out on top. They routed The Citadel in the next game, and then pulled off a late overtime miracle against Clemson behind quarterback Sean McGuire, who’d barely played any college football yet. And then they rallied from 17 points down to beat N.C. State 56–41. On upset day, October 4th, after Oregon had already lost, and Alabama and Oklahoma were being upset, F.S.U. routed Wake Forest 43–3.

This is not exactly the same team that won the National Championship last year, but don’t count them out. Their character and resilience is still intact. If Jameis Winston is the soul of this team, wide receiver and punt returner Rashad Greene is its backbone, the stoical, unyielding “grown ass man” spine of this team. They still have one of the strongest and most athletic offensive lines in the country, and a group of running backs in Karlos Wilson, Pender, and Cook who have asserted themselves. Lou Groza Award winning kicker Roberto Aguayo is far and away the best kicker in the country, with one miss in his career, kicking five field goals against Wake Forest. Their secondary and defense as a whole has rebuilt from last year, and is very fast and capable of turning a game with sacks and interceptions in a heartbeat. Their recruiting class from last year has reloaded more depth and speed than probably any team in the country, at least on a par with Alabama.

To F.S.U.’s advantage, the random shots being taken at them have to be driving them to prove something. Oddly enough, those doubting shots could be a blessing in disguise. When there’s little adversity, it’s easy to become complacent. When sports talk people are saying “they aren’t as good as last year’s team,” they’re doing F.S.U. a favor, because week by week they’re sharpening their spears. F.S.U. has not really hit its stride yet this year, and they are poised to.

And neither has any other team dominated or lived up to expectations, except perhaps Auburn. In this first season ever of college football playoffs, it appears we have more parity than we've had in years. If F.S.U. hasn’t jumped on everyone’s heads and wiped away any doubt about who is the best team in the country, neither has anyone else. But so far, F.S.U. just keeps on winning.

I have a feeling F.S.U. is just getting warmed up. If they play one of their best games against Notre Dame, which they’ll have to do on October 18th to come out on top, I look for them to go undefeated in the regular season, win the ACC Championship game again, and enter the four team college football playoffs with a good chance of repeating as National Champs, playing Alabama, Auburn, Oklahoma, or one of the Mississippi teams in the finals.

As of this writing, F.S.U.’s undefeated through 21 straight games. As one after another of the top teams fall, it wouldn't surprise me to see F.S.U. find a way to win every game again this year and end up right where the fickle football pundits started them out, at #1. They’ve done it before, and with the resilience and never-say-die character of this team, they may do it again. They’re still number one until someone, in a head to head contest, proves them any different.

Ron Clinton Smith is a film actor and writer of stories, songs, poetry, screenplays, and the novel Creature Storms.