Florida State Is Back! Seminoles Return To Elite Level By 'Beating The Heck' Out Of No. 5 LSU

ORLANDO, Florida - It's a good thing for LSU that Florida State is not coming to the Southeastern Conference at the moment.

The No. 5 Tigers lost their second consecutive season opener to the Atlantic Coast Conference Seminoles, 45-24, Sunday night in front of 65,429 at Camping World Stadium. And it got ugly.

Florida State looked very SEC ready in the process as quarterback Jordan Travis and a bevy of wide receivers led the shred of the Tigers' defense to the tune of 494 total yards.

"You don't want Florida State do you?," ACC commissioner Jim Phillips asked SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on the field before the game, according to Pat Forde of Sports Illustrated.

"Feel free to guess," said Sankey, who has shown no visible or verbal interest in Florida State's obvious recent interest in skipping the ACC for the SEC.

LSU Coach Brian Kelly Eats His Words

But that was not the most interesting quote of the night. This one was, even though it is a few days old.

"We're going to go beat the heck out of Florida State," Kelly actually said on his radio show last week in Baton Rouge. And he was not even answering a question - a baiting one or otherwise. He was discussing the game with the show's host.

Kelly's prediction was as far off as the oddsmakers who made TCU a 21-point favorite over previously 1-11 Colorado. Coach Deion Sanders' Buffalos shocked the world with a 45-42 victory over the College Football Playoff semifinalist of a year ago on Saturday.

LSU only beat the heck out of the red zone, but failed to bring the points home time after time. A fourth-and-goal stop at the 2-yard line by Florida State set the tone for the game. Heck, the Tigers' largest lead was only 14-7 in the second quarter. They led 17-14 at the half, but the Seminoles took it from there.

Florida State outscored LSU 31-7 in the second half as the much ballyhooed Tigers who have been a cool pick for a College Football Playoff season this year appeared to quit.

Travis outplayed LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels as he completed 23 of 31 passes for 342 yards and four touchdowns. FSU wide receiver Keon Coleman caught three of the scores from 40, 21 and 7 yards and finished with nine receptions for 122 yards. Often, LSU's beleaguered defensive backs had Coleman covered, but he just outmaneuvered them. Wide receiver Johnny Wilson caught seven passes for 104 yards against a helpless secondary.

Meanwhile, Florida State's defense stuffed LSU over and over when it appeared close to scoring. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels had nice statistics, completing 22 of 37 passes for 347 yards and rushing for 64 yards on 15 carries. But with his team trailing only 24-17 early in the fourth quarter, he threw a critical interception to Renardo Green. LSU was never in the game again.

Florida State Is Back

And Florida State appears to have woken up the echoes of its glory years under former national championship winning coaches Bobby Bowden (1993 and 1999 titles) and Jimbo Fisher (2013 title). The Seminoles (1-0) beat a top 10 team in its season opener for the first time since 2005 under Bowden when they defeated No. 9 Miami, 10-7.

Florida State beat a top five team for the first time since North Carolina, 31-28, in 2020. But that was the COVID season, and North Carolina was only 3-0 at the time before finishing 8-4.

This was FSU's most significant win since Fisher's 2016 team beat No. 6 Michigan, 33-32, in the Orange Bowl to finish 10-3. That was the Seminoles' last double-digit win season until coach Mike Norvell went 10-3 last season in his third season after two losing seasons.

It is not a reach to say that Florida State will enjoy its first back-to-back, double-digit win seasons since Fisher went 10-3 in 2015 and '16.

"That second half was a glimpse of what I think this team can do and where it can go," Norvell said.

The Seminoles just blew away a very talented and experienced LSU team like it was a mid-level ACC team.

Sankey and Kelly need to be more careful what they don't say and do say.