The Next Six Weeks Will Define The Season for The Seminoles

By Maria del Pilar Langman on October 7, 2015

After three weeks without home-games at Doak Campbell Stadium in Florida’s capital city, this upcoming Saturday, the Seminoles will kick-off at home a six-week game schedule that will pretty much define the rest of the season.

Facing six ACC teams: University of Miami, Louisville University, Georgia Tech (away), Syracuse, Clemson (away), and North Carolina State University… The Seminoles will enter the core of the 2015 season and a raffle for the possibility of getting to the NCAA playoffs. Although it seems that, more likely than not, they will miss the playoffs this year, being a true Seminole fan implies believing in them (the team and the coaches) and in the possibility of getting there; after all, the numbers have not counted them out yet and to be fair, we are talking about football: anything could happen.

On a smaller scale, this six-game streak will also define whether the Seminoles are gonna hold onto the ACC champions title for another year to make it a four-year streak, or if they are going to fall short to the expectations and give the title away.

Looking back at FSU’s performance these past couple of weeks, they have not been as efficient on the field as their fans expected them to be; which makes it a little bit scary entering this new chapter of the season. I am calling it a chapter because it is in fact a defining section of the season; it is not the introduction, it is not the conclusion, but the body of the season with the climax of the story. For the past couple of weeks the Seminoles have not dominated the statistics as previous years. They have faced four unranked teams: Texas State, University of South Florida, Boston College and Wake Forest University, and although they have come up victorious out of all those games, it seems that the numbers and statistics of their performances are not enough for the Seminoles to reach the playoffs… yet.

The Seminoles started off pretty strong with a 59-14 win at the home-opener against Texas State, and a somewhat strong 34-14 win over USF the next week, but then struggled to keep a consistent “generous” point advantage over their following opponents. They scored 14-0 against Boston College which is their lowest output since 2011, and won 24-16 against Wake Forest; the latter, without a doubt, has been the most difficult of their appearances this year. The Seminoles struggled with 10 penalties, which cost them 100 yards and cause many of their fans to hold on to their chairs because the picture did not look good at all (http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32900&ATCLID=210392409). Overall, this season, the numbers have been reflecting a performance that Seminole fans are not used to. As Andrea Adelson, an ESPN staff writer pointed out: “High-flying offenses have spoiled us. We are so used to 40-point outputs, low point totals leave many wondering just what happened… and it has become difficult to see beyond the final score at schools that usually rack up the points” (http://espn.go.com/blog/acc/post/_/id/85909).

This type of execution on the field is mostly due to the fact that the Seminoles lost a great deal of crucial players to the NFL in the Spring, and the new assemble of players is still adapting to the situation. But, Seminole fans have to trust the idea that many times the success of a team depends on the coaches and their abilities to improve their athletes; and the fact that we still have the amazing head coach Jimbo Fisher makes it a lot easier. Coach Fisher said in an interview last week “[y]ou don’t have a championship team because you were born a championship team… You’re not a great player because you were born a great player. You evolved to that. You became that” (http://www.seminoles.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=32900&ATCLID=210392409). His mindset is focused on coaching his players to become better athletes, teammates, and true Seminoles. He has already proven that he can win a championship, and that he can keep consistency when it comes to winning games; now, with the upcoming weeks, he will have the opportunity to prove that his coaching skills are good enough to take any player, any team, and turn it into a championship winning team.

These next couple of weeks are going to test the capacity of our players and the extent to which they can bring to the battlefield what the coaches are teaching them in practice. Since we are talking about the NCAA and not the NFL, it is not as simple as “just” bringing the W home, but more so about the numbers on the score board and statistics. It is about performance, consistency, tactics, and individual as well as team role play. Yes, the Seminoles have won the past four games, meaning they are undefeated (unconquered) this season, but a college football win, nor an undefeated season, will guarantee a pass to the playoffs. Overall, these upcoming weeks represent quite a challenge for the 2015 Seminoles and they will be KEY for determining their future in the league.

Good Luck Florida State Seminoles!

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