Alabama And Florida State Continue To Move In Opposite Directions
Who saw this one coming.
If I had told you back in August that, come mid-October, the Alabama Crimson Tide would be 5-1 and sitting just outside the top five while the Florida State Seminoles were 3-3 and reeling after a third consecutive conference loss, you probably wouldn't have batted an eyelash.
However, many fans after the first week of the season were feeling quite the opposite after FSU dominated Bama on both lines of scrimmage in their August 30 showdown in Tallahassee.
Since then, though, the fortunes of these two proud college football programs have gone in completely opposite directions.
For Alabama, it's been a bed of roses since its loss at Doak Campbell Stadium, culminating in a second road win over a top-15 conference foe in the last three weeks.
Conversely, Florida State has been in a tailspin over the last four weeks, with their latest loss at home to Pitt seen as particularly troubling, considering the Seminoles were double-digit favorites over the Panthers.
The Seminoles will almost assuredly drop out of the AP Top 25 when the rankings are released tomorrow, completing their slide back to mediocrity.
These latest results are just more proof that week one results don't carry a lot of weight in today's modern version of college football.
Teams that look like garbage in August can look like College Football Playoff contenders by November, and vice versa.
The expanded playoff has made it possible to have a few stinkers and still make it to the big dance at the end of the year, so anyone who buried Bama back in early September might have some crow to eat come postseason play.
As far as Florida State is concerned, the big-money players in Tallahassee have some tough questions to answer about Mike Norvell, who has dropped to 1-10 in his last 11 conference games, proving even more than ever that 2023 might have been a massive fluke.
The worst news of all for Seminole fans: Norvell still has a $60 million buyout for boosters to worry about.
It feels like purgatory in Northwest Florida, a fate no one could've seen coming over a month ago.
It just goes to show you should never jump the gun after week one. Those are words we have all had to live by at one point or another.