Mike Norvell has Florida State football knocking on the College Football Playoff door again. It’s been nearly a decade since the Seminoles last made the playoff, but the 2023 team looks poised to end that drought.
It’ll be possible with a Heisman-caliber quarterback leading the way for an offense that should put up massive numbers in a weak ACC.
Will we see Florida State back in the playoff? Let’s get bold.
3. Florida State will have two 1,000-yard receivers
Florida State made a big move this offseason by picking up Keon Coleman from the transfer portal just months after he broke out for Michigan State. He led the Spartans in receiving in 2022 and is arguably one of the top freak athletes in the nation.
Coleman joins Johnny Wilson who also broke out last season, catching 43 passes for 897 yards and five touchdowns. He, too, is a former transfer, coming to Florida State from Arizona State following the 2021 season. He’s a massive 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds.
So Florida State has a freak athlete receiver with solid size in Coleman and a mammoth 6-foot-7 target in Wilson to lead the way. Defenses are going to have nightmares about these guys.
I see both accounting for over 1,000 receiving yards for the first time in their careers in 2023. They’ll be virtually impossible to stop.
2. Jordan Travis finishes top 5 in Heisman voting
As previously mentioned, Florida State has some elite receivers in town to help out the offense as well as a budding star at running back in Oregon transfer Trey Benson who came just 10 yards short of 1,000 yards last season. This offense will him along.
The main reason for this? Jordan Travis.
The senior quarterback who started his career at Louisville has gotten better each year at Florida State and is coming off a breakout season in which he passed for 3,214 yards and 24 touchdowns with only five interceptions. He also rushed for 417 yards and seven scores.
Travis has the talent and potential to be one of the best players in the country and he proved that last year. He’s only going to build on that in 2023 with nearly 4,000 passing yards and 30 touchdowns while rushing for more than 500 yards.
That will be good enough to earn him a spot in the top five of Heisman Trophy voting.
1. Florida State finally makes the playoff again
It’s been a while since Florida State went to the College Football Playoff. In fact, you’d have to go all the way back to the Jimbo Fisher era as the Seminoles won the national title in 2013 and then went to the playoff in 2014 but lost to Oregon.
That’s going to change this season.
Florida State will open the season against LSU at a neutral site which could very well be a loss, but that might be the only time we see the Seminoles losing this season. Could Florida State get in the playoff field as a two-loss team? I have a hard time seeing that as the ACC isn’t valued as highly as the Big Ten or SEC.
However, I can see the Seminoles losing the opener and reeling off 11 straight wins. Heck, they could win the opener and drop one to either Clemson or Florida on the road and make the playoff.
Florida State is a better team than Florida and is every bit as good as Clemson so seeing the Seminoles finish 11-1 isn’t crazy.
Florida State goes 11-1, wins the ACC, and makes the playoff for the first time since 2014.