1. College Football News Preview 2020: Florida State Win Total Prediction, What Will Happen
There’s a good chance new head coach Mike Norvell will be able to benefit from the groundwork set by Willie Taggart.
Florida State needed a reboot. It’s not necessarily that things got stale under Jimbo Fisher, but there was a talent dip, Clemson rose up into superpower status, and the program that’s supposed to be among the elite of the nation’s elite on a regular basis was reduced to simply trying to make a bowl game.
Norvell was one of the hot gets among the offseason coaching hires, but – like Taggart – he has yet to win a bowl game and he has never been an FBS head coach.
However, he inherits a veteran team that has just enough talent to make this a good first season.
The offense has options to play around with on the line, a new running back has to emerge – it should be Texas A&M transfer Jashaun Corbin – and the receiving corps should grow into one of the team’s biggest strengths. As long as QB James Blackman can take his experience and game up another level, the O should be fine.
The defense has way, way too much talent and experience to not be appreciably better. There are at least three NFL top 50 picks to work around, the depth is good, and the athleticism is there to attack like the new coaching staff is going to want to do.
Set The Florida State Regular Season Win Total At … 7.5
If this was national championship-level Florida State, the schedule would work out great.
Clemson and Florida are killers, but both of them have to come to Tallahassee. NC State and Syracuse will be better – both games are on the road – and dealing with Louisville won’t be easy, but even with the trip to Miami the road games aren’t that bad.
Throw in the games away Doak Campbell against West Virginia and Boise State – there’s only one home game before hosting Clemson on October 10th – and this could be a trying run in a season of transition.
Even so, there’s way too much talent and experience across the board to not easily get bowl eligible – something that’s been a fight over the last few years – and set the tone for what should be a resurgence in the program.
Don’t expect a conference title again quite yet, but being in the mix to be the ACC’s second-best team isn’t asking for the world.
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