JessN: Florida State Preview: Seminoles Try Again to Find a Portal to Success

[JessN]

Florida State Preview: Seminoles Try Again to Find a Portal to Success
by Jess Nicholas, TideFans.com Editor-In-Chief
August 26, 2025

Of all the surprises – nay, shockers – of the 2024 college football season, watching Mike Norvell’s Florida State Seminoles go 2-10 had to have been at the top of that list.

It wasn’t just that Florida State lost 10 games, but how. On Aug. 24, FSU scored 21 points in a 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech in a Week 0 game played in Dublin, Ireland. On Nov. 23, FSU beat FCS Charleston Southern – which went 1-11 itself – by a score of 41-7.

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• Bama Depth Chart vs FSU

Florida State Preview: Seminoles Try Again To Find a Portal To Success

Of all the surprises – nay, shockers – of the 2024 college football season, watching Mike Norvell’s Florida State Seminoles go 2-10 had to have been at the top of that list. It wasn’t j…

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Week 01 Info: Alabama @ FSU (ESPN @ 230pm CT )

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• JessN FSU previews:
  • Florida State Preview: Seminoles Try Again to Find a Portal to Success
  • Projected Depth Chart for Alabama vs. Florida State
  • SEC Preview and Predictions: Week 1
• JessN's 2025 Season Previews:
  • 2025 Fall Preview: Alabama Crimson Tide
  • 2025 SEC Preview: Rating The Units
  • SEC Preview Tiers: Tier IV | Tier |II | Tier |I | Tier I
  • The "Pitfall Post" ... (What I'm most worried about)
• JessN's 2025 Alabama Previews:
  • "Pitfall Post" ... (What I'm most worried about)\
  • QB | RB | WR | OL | DL | LB | DB | ST
• Game Notes: Alabama | FSU
• Weekly Bama News: 8/26/2025 Thru 8/31/2025
• Pick the score: Alabama vs FSU
• All time series record (1896-2022):
  • Bama 3-1-1
  • Streak: Bama won last meeting on 9/3/2017
  • All games have been regular season meetings
• Pick'em Weeks: | 1 |

 

[JDCrimson]

Thanks, Jess. Does the effectiveness of the OL factor into the rating of the RBs? Im surprised you gave the edge in RB to FSU.

Also, surprised to hear the WR ratings are close. I would have thought that we have a clear edge in starting talent and depth at WR.

 

[Rollingtide]

Thanks, Jess. Does the effectiveness of the OL factor into the rating of the RBs? Im surprised you gave the edge in RB to FSU.

Also, surprised to hear the WR ratings are close. I would have thought that we have a clear edge in starting talent and depth at WR.

We do IMO.

 

[GP for Bama]

Good call

 

[JessN]

Thanks, Jess. Does the effectiveness of the OL factor into the rating of the RBs? Im surprised you gave the edge in RB to FSU.

Also, surprised to hear the WR ratings are close. I would have thought that we have a clear edge in starting talent and depth at WR.

We were talking about this in another thread, but it's hard for me to find an SEC RB group right now that I'm in love with.

I think our guys have *potential.* But it's hard enough to give Bama the QB edge given Simpson's relatively green status. I thought that was already pushing it. We're hoping for Daniel Hill to emerge and/or Richard Young to perform early on in a close game (most of his work has come in deep relief) ... meanwhile FSU has a pretty substantial advantage in experience there.

We're better at WR but they're not bad. Duce Robinson was a heck of a get for them. Squirrel White is a system-specific guy but this is now the kind of system he can excel in.

 

[BamaMoon]

JessN, as excited as I am about RW and GB, I'm surprised you didn't say more about Horton.

I think the attention those other two get will allow Horton to explode on the scene, if the buzz out of camp about him translates into games!

 

[colbysullivan]

Horton is going to be an absolute stud. Our WR room is at worst #2 in the country.

 

[Saban4Ever]

Do you think the possible bad weather favors Bama? It will probably affect the score with possible turnovers, etc. Seems like there’s bad weather each time Bama plays in Florida!

 

[Ledsteplin]

Nice write up, Jess. I believe our RBs will come through bigly. While not much game play experience, Young and Hill are talented, and have looked good in practice. I can't help but recall Bama backed up on the goal line. Then Ty handed the ball to Young for a long gain in mop up. I haven't heard much about Dre Washington, but he rushed 73 times for 478 yards and five scores while adding six receptions for 107 yards and a touchdown across 11 games of action in 2024 at Louisiana. So, I'm hoping Dre can contribute to a much needed run game.

 

[JessN]

Horton is going to be an absolute stud. Our WR room is at worst #2 in the country.

I like Horton a lot, too. Only concern for me is the health of the backup WRs and the situation at TE outside of Cuevas. The latter will probably fix itself over the course of the season but we've got to pick the guys we want to work. There aren't enough snaps for all of them and we have eight possibilities.

At WR, the backups are Cole Adams (coming off leg injury but appears fine), Jalen Hale (coming off leg injury), Lotzeir Brooks (freshman, isn't 100 percent right now) and Rico Scott. Meadows will probably get into the mix. Mbakwe is still learning the position. I don't know that Hampton has a role or will have one; we'll see. Still a little bit of heartburn here until we figure out the rotation, because the top three can't play every snap.

Do you think the possible bad weather favors Bama? It will probably affect the score with possible turnovers, etc. Seems like there’s bad weather each time Bama plays in Florida!

Right now I think any external that affects both teams is a plus for Bama, given how much "new" FSU is having to cope with.

 

[Rocky Mtn Bob]

Jess, the BAMA fan in me wants you to be more gung-ho.

The football fan in me appreciates your balance.

Thanks for doing this.

 

[BamaNation]

Hey folks, wanted to make you aware of a new "feature" I've created.

You'll see that I've added some links about the game under the countdown timer on the top right of the sidebar.

In those links, when you click on "Bama @ FSU" you'll be taken to a Florida State Gameday Guide that I've created with dozens of links similar to our own TideFans Gameday Guide for games in Tuscaloosa.

This summer I have created these opponent gameday guides for each SEC team and for each non-conference opponent we play this year. There will be a link added to the GAMEDAY menu at the top, as well.

I'll continue updating these with game series history, stats info, etc, but this is the first one. So, those going to the game can use it and those of us not going have dozens of links to get info about the team we're playing (official sites, news site, fan boards, recruiting info, etc etc etc.)

Let me know if you come across any inactive links (I know there are a few on each one where business have gone out of business or the link structure has changed recently... I'm going through them now...send me a PM with the team name & "Gameday Guide link issue" as the subject and let me know the details).

Hope y'all enjoy this effort!

BN