It’s no secret that Florida State’s game against LSU at the Caesars Superdome Sunday night in New Orleans is one of those rare early college football matchups that could easily define a season.
It’s the type of game that were once regular occurrences for the Seminoles during the heyday of the program’s success.
This meeting is no different, particularly for third-year coach Mike Norvell, who desperately could use a signature win over an SEC opponent in prime-time (7:30 p.m.) in front of a nationally-televised audience (ABC) on Labor Day Weekend.
“That’s the joy of coming to Florida State because you’re going to be in these games,” Norvell said of the game against the Tigers. “You’re going to be in prime-time on that stage and that’s where you want to be.”
“It’s going to be a surreal environment,” said transfer defensive end Jared Verse.
FSU (1-0, 0-0 ACC) enters this week’s game fresh off a dominating performance in its Week 0 matchup against Duquesne last Saturday. The Seminoles amassed 638 yards of total offense, including 406 rushing yards, as Treshaun Ward, Trey Benson and Lawrance Toafili became the first trio of tailbacks to rush for more than 100-yards apiece in a single game.
The ability to get their first game under their belt is a huge advantage heading into this week’s matchup with the Tigers.
“Anytime you get experience, it helps,” Norvell said after the 47-7 win over the Dukes. “This was the first time that our team — this team — had a chance to take the field together. You’re always going to have new faces — there were a lot of true freshmen who played and transfers — that’s a good thing to see.
“We’ll take the experience from today and build upon it.”
Said Verse: “It gives us a chance to realize our strengths and weaknesses. I made a couple of mistakes I can’t make again this week, and that’s not going to be enough for the win.”
While new LSU coach Brian Kelly knows it’s a significant benefit to play an early game, he isn’t sold it’s as huge of an advantage.
“Florida State played a game and that’s an advantage for them,” Kelly said. “The advantage for us is that we haven’t played.”
Kelly is familiar with these Seminoles, having seen them in last season’s opener when he was the coach at Notre Dame. The Fighting Irish surrendered an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter before pulling out a 41-38 win in overtime.
This time around, the 60-year-old Kelly is on a new team with new coordinators and new players.
“There are some pluses and minuses there,” he said. “We’ve got that advantage because they don’t have any film on us. You’ve got a new head coach, you’ve got new coordinators. There’s the uncertainty of them not knowing what to expect. So, there is a bit of trade-off there.”
Some of that uncertainty comes from not knowing who will play quarterback for LSU, with the Tigers mired in an offseason competition featuring transfer Jayden Daniels and Garrett Nussmeier. While Kelly knows who will ultimately start Sunday night, he isn’t willing to share that information.
“We’re going to hold on to that card until game day,” said Kelly.
Meanwhile, Norvell doesn’t believe it will take much to get his team fired up this week. He wants to ensure the Seminoles’ focus remains on self-improvement and is not caught up in the hype.
“We won’t need a lot of motivational speeches this week, but the focus is on us,” he said.
