FSU Football: Noles losing opener has not been good sign in past
By Jason Parker
FSU football is starting the season with a number in the loss column – and judging by recent history, that does not mean something good for the Noles.
It may seem like ages ago with all the delays and postponements and cancellations of games due to Hurricane Irma, but it was just a week and a half ago that FSU football dropped their opening game of the 2017 season, after a last 20 minutes to forget in losing 24-7 to the Alabama Crimson Tide.
It’s a rare thing for the Seminoles to drop the first game of the season – in fact, in the 41 seasons since Bobby Bowden became head coach in 1976 and Jimbo Fisher took over the job in 2010, the Noles have lost just six times to open the season.
The only problem with that stat, other than Florida State starting the year behind the eight ball when it comes to the standings, is that most of the time FSU football isn’t able to bounce back and have a successful season by standards achieved in the past few decades.
The last time that the Seminoles lost an opener before this season was in 2009, when Florida State was upset by the Miami Hurricanes at home. That season, Bowden’s last, finished with a 7-6 record that required a Gator Bowl win just to avoid the first losing season for the program since the legendary coach’s first year – which was also one of the six opening game losses.
In 2007, an opening game loss at Clemson led to a 7-6 finish that included losses to Wake Forest, Miami, Florida and Kentucky while a 2004 loss at Miami led to a 9-3 finish and just the second time in FSU football history at that point that the Seminoles hadn’t won the Atlantic Coast Conference.
Granted, two of the seasons didn’t turn out all that bad as the 1988 season started with a shutout loss to Miami and finished 11-1, while 1989 saw the Seminoles lose their first two games and finish 10-2.
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In spite of that, FSU football has had the tendency to underachieve when they start the season with a loss. With games left against teams like Miami, Clemson, Louisville and Florida, here’s hoping the Seminoles can break that trend.