Florida State University Athletics
Game Preview: Florida State Vs. Boise State
8/30/2019 4:19:44 PM | Football
WATCH: Nole Insiders Layne Herdt and Tim Linafelt break down the Noles and Broncos
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. – The longest 280 days in Florida State football history are finally over.
And, in some respects, sooner than anticipated.
After a cold, quiet offseason, Year 2 of the Willie Taggart era is here. The Seminoles will kick off against Boise State at noon on Saturday inside Doak Campbell Stadium.
That last bit is a not-so-subtle wrinkle. The game had been slated to be held in Jacksonville for more than three years, but nature had other plans: The threat of Hurricane Dorian to Florida’s east coast prompted officials to move the game to Tallahassee.
Which means that one of FSU football’s most anticipated season openers might also turn into one of its most unique.
Tickets cost just $10, seating is general admission and parking is free – how many major college football programs could say that in the last 40 years or so?
And a noon kickoff harkens back to FSU’s halcyon days of the 1990s, when high-profile matchups were played earlier in the day.
The Seminoles, of course, are hoping to turn back the clock in a much more obvious way – back to the era in which they would dominate their opponents while competing for conference and national championships.
No matter the venue, Saturday’s game against the Broncos represents FSU’s first chance to show that it’s on the right track.
“Everybody has the same mindset,” sophomore linebacker Jaiden Lars-Woodbey said, “of accomplishing something great and just helping Florida State get back to what it was before.”
For as much as things have changed this week – FSU had just 48 hours to prepare Doak Campbell Stadium for a game – it’s remarkable how familiar things felt around campus on Friday afternoon.
TV trucks dominated the parking lot outside the Moore Athletic Center. Fathers and sons in matching FSU gear gazed at the old jerseys, helmets and trophies on display in the center’s first-floor atrium.
And the Seminoles, after their usual afternoon walkthrough, were headed to their usual night-before-the-game hotel for dinner and rest.
By noon Saturday, the only unfamiliar thing might be the team on the opposing sideline.
This is FSU’s first ever meeting with Boise State.
“It is a great feeling,” junior defensive tackle Marvin Wilson said. “We are just ready to go out there and shock the world and win the game.”
Wilson’s sentiments sound strange at first, but they fit into the context of this game and, beyond that, this season.
Under normal circumstances, Florida State knocking off a school from a “group of five” conference (meaning not from the ACC, SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 or Pac-12) might not raise many eyebrows.
But this is a different group of Seminoles, and Boise State is far from a typical “group of five” team.
Despite their lack of historical pedigree – they’ve only been in the bowl subdivision since 1996 –and their remote location, the Broncos have a notorious reputation for beating college football’s heavyweights. They famously shocked Oklahoma in the 2007 Fiesta Bowl, but the program’s resume also includes victories over Georgia, Oregon, TCU, Virginia Tech, Washington and Arizona, among others.
Boise State is 15-9 against “power five” opponents since 2006, and, since 2000, has won as many games as anyone in college football. The Broncos’ 207 wins in that span are matched only by Oklahoma.
“We’re expecting a really good football team to come in here and kind of do what Boise’s known for doing: knocking off ‘power five’ schools,’” Taggart said.
“They’re a winning football program. They understand what it takes to win, they understand how to play the game and they’re very well-coached. We all know what we’re up against.”
Boise State’s Curtis Weaver (left, in white uniform) has 20.5 sacks over the last two seasons.
The Seminoles, meanwhile, sort of represent the other side of the coin – loaded with some of the country’s most talented players, but still learning to win consistently after going a combined 12-13 in the last two seasons.
Yes, the forecasters expect a Florida State victory on Saturday. But make no mistake – after all these Seminoles have been through over the last few years, a win over the Broncos would be a significant achievement.
And don’t think they don’t know it.
“That’s something we need,” junior receiver D.J. Matthews said. “We had a down year (in 2018). We’re not looking back on that year, but we need that momentum rolling into this season.”
“We’re all just ready for the game,” sophomore defensive tackle Robert Cooper added. “All this work we have put in, from January to now, we’re ready to put it out there.”
They won’t have to wait long to see the results of their labor.
For the fifth time in six years, the Seminoles are opening their season against a high-profile opponent, one that will provide a much stiffer challenge than the “gimme” games that are often played across the country in Week 1.
One game doesn’t define an entire season, but it sure can set the tone for everything that follows.
Victories over Oklahoma State in 2014 and Mississippi in 2016 helped vault the Seminoles to College Football Playoff and New Year’s Six bowl appearances.
And losses to Alabama in 2017 and to Virginia Tech a year later set FSU on the course it’s attempting to reverse now.
To do that, Taggart believes that the Seminoles must avoid the pitfalls that teams often fall into at this time of year.
Penalties, turnovers, misalignment or a lack of discipline – anything that might fall under the umbrella of “sloppy” – conspire to send otherwise good teams to disappointing results.
Against a championship subdivision opponent, those mistakes might just make for film-room fodder after the game. Against a team like the Broncos, they’re much more likely to have significant consequences.
“Most teams ‘lose’ this (first) game, rather than ‘win’ these ball games,” Taggart said. “And a lot of it is because of some of those mistakes.
“You hate to make those mistakes in the first game and then get better later. …—You look around, you’ll see that in those ball games, the team that does a good job taking care of the football and that (is) disciplined, that’s going to be the team that’s going to win.”
The Seminoles, though, feel they’re well-prepared to handle those things.
They’ve spent the last 280 days working, preparing, conditioning and practicing, all of it in an effort to move forward and rid themselves of the bitter taste of last season.
After the longest offseason in Florida State football history, the Seminoles are finally ready for something sweet.
“It’s like the treat at the end of the week,” Lars-Woodbey said, “the cake after you eat all the vegetables, all the food your mom tells you to eat.
“We’re just waiting for the dessert now.”
Odds and ends …
- This marks the fourth consecutive season that weather has in some way impacted FSU’s football schedule. Thanks to Hurricane Hermine, Doak Campbell Stadium was without power in 2016 when the Seminoles left Tallahassee to play Ole Miss in Orlando. A year later, FSU’s games against ULM and Miami were rearranged due to Hurricane Irma, with the Seminoles forced to go three weeks between their season opener and their next game. And in 2018, Hurricane Michael hit the panhandle during FSU’s bye week, forcing the Seminoles to alter their practice schedule and briefly putting their game against Wake Forest in doubt.
- Florida State is 53-19 all-time in season openers, and 30-8 in openers at home.
- Remarkably, Saturday will mark just the fourth time since 1976 that FSU has opened consecutive seasons at Doak Campbell Stadium.
- Florida State has never lost a game in the month of August (11-0). The Seminoles last played in the month in 2014, beating Oklahoma State, 37-31, in Arlington, Texas.
- The Seminoles are looking to avoid starting 0-1 for the third consecutive season. FSU hasn’t lost three straight openers since dropping four straight from 1973-76.
- FSU has never faced Boise State in football. In fact, they’ve rarely played in any sport. The Seminoles’ men’s tennis team is 2-0 against the Broncos, having met in 2010 and 2012.
- Boise State’s all-time winning percentage of .726 is the highest among “group of five” schools and the fourth-highest in college football history.
- The Broncos are 2-2 all-time against ACC opponents. They’ve beaten Virginia Tech (2010) and Virginia (2015), and lost to Boston College (2005) and Virginia (2017).