How Florida State Could Still Make the College Football Playoff

DJ Uiagalelei of the Florida State Seminoles runs with the ball during the Aer Lingus College Football Classic game at Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Aug. 24, 2024. Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

Georgia Tech kicker Aidan Birr knocked Florida State down six posts in the Top 25 Associated Press poll but didn’t completely sink Seminoles’s College Football Playoff chances.

Once-10th-ranked Florida State (0–1) became the first big victim of the new college football season on Aug. 24, but it has the benefit of the new 12-team playoff format. A program that just missed last year’s four-team playoff field, the 16th-ranked Seminoles still stand a fighting chance this year and won’t need the luck of the Irish despite the 24–21 loss in Dublin.

Florida State (FSU) has three ranked opponents: No. 7 Notre Dame on Nov. 9, No. 14 Clemson on Oct. 5, and No. 19 Miami on Oct. 26. Additionally, the Seminoles get Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) newcomer SMU (1–0) on Sept. 28 and rival Florida to end the regular season on Nov. 30.

“You know, we get to respond,” FSU head coach Mike Norvell told reporters after the loss. “Here, in a week from now, we get to play another ACC opponent, and we’ve got to go get better, and it’s going to come down to work and the overall execution of details, of fundamentals, and making that happen here next Monday [against Boston College].”

The Seminoles winning out gives the team a shot at making the ACC Championship Game on Dec. 7, but FSU can ill afford to get tripped up. FSU, which came into Dublin as favorites over Georgia Tech, can’t afford to overlook unranked opponents such as Boston College, Memphis, and California during the next three weeks, or Duke on Oct. 18 or North Carolina on Nov. 2. In addition, the FSU will need to put away FCS team Charleston Southern on Nov. 23 to avoid a playoff-crushing blow.

That may be easier said than done for the Seminoles, which didn’t win the battle in the trenches and failed to produce more than two touchdowns against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. Seminoles quarterback D.J. Uigalelei only went 19–27 for 193 yards—the first time the Seminoles failed to score a passing touchdown since a 63–3 beatdown by the Georgia Bulldogs in the 2023 season Orange Bowl.

FSU didn’t have quarterback Jordan Travis, who is now with the New York Jets, in that game due to an ankle injury. Uiagalelei, who faces the big task of replacing Travis, didn’t play in that game either.

“Offensively, we have to be more explosive,” Norvell said about the Georgia Tech loss. “I thought we had some missed opportunities there. We got to create the explosive play. They did a good job of trying to stack the box and get the safety down, definitely gave us some challenges in certain fits in the run game, but at the end of the day, we’ve got to control us.”

FSU only rushed for 98 yards and two touchdowns on 31 carries, and neither of the top running backs eclipsed 40 yards. Defensively, the Seminoles couldn’t slow down the Yellow Jackets’ rushing attack, which put up 190 yards and three touchdowns on 36 carries.

“Had some missed tackles defensively that we got to be better, got to make sure we’re setting edges,” Norvell said. “They do a good job in trying to spread you sideline to sideline and force the one-on-ones. And we definitely have capable players to be able to go do that. And so we’ve got to continue to build upon that.”

Georgia Tech, meanwhile, could build upon the upset over the Seminoles despite not receiving a top-25 ranking. The Yellow Jackets’ success, or lack thereof, could also affect the Seminoles’ hindered playoff hopes well beyond a last-second kick in Dublin.

“But at the end of the day, this is a team sport, and we’ve got to take a step as a football team, and not let this one game define the outcome of what our season will be,” Norvell said.