It has not been a good year for college football in Florida. With apologies to Miami, not much has gone right. Florida State, at 2-10, has been knocked to the mat and Florida is struggling to get off it. Central Florida has been unable to establish itself in the Big 12, and South Florida, which is eying a promotion to the big time, stumbled when it lost to Rice Saturday to finish 6-6, a bit of a dip from last season.
But it is the status of the programs at Florida and Florida State, the state’s two flagship universities, which is of the most concern. Again with apologies to Miami, they are the bellwethers. They lead the way. If they don’t have it together, college football, here. struggles to keep it together.
The annual Florida-Florida State game is an example of this. In the Bobby Bowden-Steve Spurrier years, it was not only the most important game in the state, if was frequently one of the most important games in the nation. It was a battle that could, and did, determine national champions. In 1996, Florida went into the contest ranked No.1 in the country with Florida State No.2. Florida State won, 24-21, setting up a rematch in the Sugar Bowl. Florida smashed FSU in New Orleans, 52-20, giving Spurrier and the Gators their first ever national championship.
This year, nothing was on the line except pride. FSU had a chance to save its season, it didn’t, and Florida needed to keep a late season surge intact. It did.
Where this leaves these two programs is uncertain. FSU’s Mike Norvell went into the year with high hopes and expectations. FSU was coming of a 13-0 regular season run in 2023 and then, for reasons that are not fully understood, the ‘Noles fell apart. They couldn’t beat anybody, or at least not anybody that mattered.
For football in Florida to become relevant again, FSU must become relevant. It must reach a certain standard, and maintain it. Norvell knows this. “It’s a disappointing end to an awful season,” Norvell said at a post-game press conference shown on the school’s website. “Very disappointing that we performed the way we did. Like I told the team in the locker room, this is getting fixed. It’s going to be an immediate, fast fix. We are going to make sure that every person who is a part of this program is all in on that process,” Norvell declared.
For the Gators, things are not quite as desperate. This was Billy Napier’s first winning season in three years and while Florida still has a long way to go to reach the level of the Spurrier-Urban Meyer years, there were signs of a rejuvenation in the second half of the season.
Napier said he felt the team turned the corner in the off week before the Tennessee game. Florida would lose that one, 24-17 in overtime, but the Gators stood toe-to-toe with one of the best teams in the country and it appeared to give them the confidence they needed.
“I think midseason, that’s when it all kind of came together,” Napier said according to a post-game video on on on3.com. “I think the players did a good job of kind of putting their blinders on the first month and didn’t allow excuses, didn’t allow blame and really just went back to work. Go back to that first open date before the Tennessee game, and I think the Tennessee game was pivotal, the way they responded there.”
That game appeared to get the Gators going as they followed up with big wins over Ole Miss and LSU and finally Florida State. Now, the challenge becomes keeping that momentum into a bowl game and then 2025.
And FSU? “We’re done playing the way we did this year,” Norvell declared. “I take full responsibility for that. I’m willing to do what’s necessary to make sure we don’t ever have another season anywhere like the one we had this year. So to the Florida State fans, the university, past players, the players in the locker room, I’m sorry. It will be fixed,” Norvell emphasized.
If he can pull that off, it would go a long way towards fixing college football in the state. And again with apologies to Miami, college football here is in desperate need of fixing.