Florida State University Athletics
Five Takeaways: 2019 Florida State Football Schedule
1/16/2019 2:12:34 PM | Football
WATCH: 2019 Football Schedule Breakdown
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – Florida State’s 2019 football schedule is here, and brings with it plenty of opportunities for the Seminoles to make waves during coach Willie Taggart’s second year at the helm. Aside from the obvious – like semi-annual showdowns in Clemson, S.C., and Gainesville, Fla. – here are a few further details and trends worth taking a closer look at.
1) River City a fine place for an opener
Outside of Doak Campbell Stadium, there may be no friendlier place to Florida State than Jacksonville, Fla.
Since FSU’s first game there, against Stetson way back in 1949, the Seminoles are 14-2-1 in Jacksonville and are 8-0 since TIAA Bank Field opened in 1995.
Among those victories are some of the most memorable games in recent program history: A 33-21 triumph over West Virginia at the 2010 Gator Bowl in the final game of coach Bobby Bowden’s legendary career. A 21-14 win over Alabama in 2007, coach Nick Saban’s first year in Tuscaloosa. And a 27-22 upset of Virginia Tech in the first ever ACC championship game in 2005.
Holding a football game in Jacksonville is also something of a crown jewel for FSU president John Thrasher, a Jacksonville native and former state legislator who represented Northeast Florida for nearly three decades.
Thrasher has made no secret his desire to hold an FSU game in his hometown. And given the Seminoles’ outstanding track record in Jacksonville, why not?
“The Gator Bowl, they still call it that, right?” Thrasher joked last year when the game was announced. “I’d like to rename it ‘The Seminole Bowl,’ but we’ll see.”
2) Neutral sites usually mean good things for FSU
Acknowledging that success in Jacksonville is a big part of it, the Seminoles have been remarkably successful in neutral-site, regular-season games.
Dating back to its first in 1948, FSU is 23-6-2 in neutral-site games and had won 16 straight such contests before dropping the 2017 season-opener to Alabama in Atlanta.
Also of note is that 2019 will mark Florida State’s fourth neutral-site opener in six years. FSU beat Oklahoma State in Dallas in 2014 and beat Mississippi in Orlando to open the 2016 season.
All told, FSU is 9-2 when opening its season at a neutral site, with its only losses coming to Alabama two years ago and to Brett Favre-led Southern Mississippi in 1989 – ironically, in Jacksonville.
3) Two bye weeks at two good times
For the first time since the 2014 season, the Seminoles will enjoy two open dates this fall.
And a glance at the schedule shows that those open dates come at particularly opportune times.
FSU will get its first week off on October 5, one week before it visits defending national champion Clemson.
The Seminoles will also spend the third Saturday in November resting, recuperating and preparing for their November 30 game at Florida.
That second bye week comes at a particularly appealing time, as UF also has an open date on November 23.
While having a week off so late in the season is a bit unusual, it’s hardly unheard of.
FSU had an open date before facing the Gators in 2005 and 2003, as well as every year from 1980-1992. (They were off for nearly a full month in 1980 and for three weeks in 1983.)
The Seminoles are 1-0 under Taggart when coming off a bye, beating Wake Forest, 38-17, last season in Tallahassee.
4) Rare trip to Charlottesville can set tone
Florida State’s third game will be played on the road and within the conference for a fifth straight season, this time at Virginia’s Scott Stadium.
As the result of conference expansion, FSU has met Virginia just three times since 2006 and hasn’t played in Charlottesville since 2010.
When the Seminoles make their return this fall, they’ll find a Cavaliers program that seems to be on the upswing under coach Bronco Mendenhall. Not only did UVA post an 8-5 record that matched its best output in seven years, but it also closed its campaign with a 28-0 thumping of South Carolina in the Belk Bowl.
While the Seminoles will have more challenging trips on their schedule, their visit to Virginia will provide the first opportunity to show that they can win in a challenging environment, which is a hurdle that they need to clear on their road back to national prominence.
And the Seminoles would do well to pick up as much momentum as they can during the first three weeks of the season, because …
5) Mid-season Atlantic stretch will likely define 2019
Before the Seminoles can win national titles, they must first win their conference. And before they can win the ACC, they must first win their division.
By October 28, FSU will know exactly where it stands in the ACC Atlantic Division pecking order.
At that point, Florida State will have played consecutive games against Louisville, North Carolina State, at Clemson, at Wake Forest and Syracuse.
How the Seminoles emerge from that stretch will likely be a pretty strong indicator of the kind of season they’re having.
Even with the understanding that winning in Clemson is a tall order for anyone – the Tigers are 36-1 at home since losing to FSU in 2013 – the rest of those games should be fairly effective measuring sticks for how far the Seminoles have come in Year 2 of the Taggart era.
Come through in positive fashion, and the Seminoles will likely be playing meaningful games in November.
That would start a week later, when the Miami Hurricanes and new coach Manny Diaz (an FSU alum and former football graduate assistant) visit Tallahassee on November 2.