Undefeated FSU is the Harry Houdini of College Football

All year this undefeated FSU team has fooled its doubters into believing its demise was imminent, but as the regular season ends– it’s the last unbeaten team left standing.

Turns out there aren’t a whole lot of similarities between a turn of the 20th century Hungarian illusionist and the Florida State football team.

Save maybe one big one.

Both can escape even the most precarious of situations with head-scratching efficiency.

More from Chop Chat

It’s been an entire season now. Twelve games. And the whole time we’ve struggled to figure out who this Florida State team is. It’s not as dominant as last year’s. It doesn’t blow teams out. It rarely comes out swinging. And yet right when it seems like it’s time to turn the lights out on them, these Seminoles flip the switch and somehow — at times even at the expense of believability — end up winning football games.

Like, all of them.

We’ve joked that it’s been a little bit like 50 shades of grey with Florida State this year (50 shades of Garnet and Gold)– FSU needs to have its hands tied behind its back before it gets up for the game. We’ve wondered if maybe the Seminoles just like to make things sporting. Someone has even accused FSU of point-shaving in the first half.

But now, with FSU sitting undefeated — for the second year in a row — at the end of the regular season, it’s become abundantly clear that this team just has a little Houdini in it.

“What they’ve been able to battle through and achieve, I want them to really understand how tough they really are, how mentally tough they really are and what they’ve been able to accomplish and the situations they’ve been in and how they’re able to overcome a lot of those things,” said head coach Jimbo Fisher. “I think sometimes they don’t realize that.”

Even Houdini — who found fame in the early 1900’s for his daring escape acts — would be impressed by the Seminoles’s resume this year:

September 20th, vs. Clemson- With QB Jameis Winston suspended, FSU finds itself playing defense inside its own 20 following a Sean Maguire interception. With the scored tied at 17 and just 2:18 remaining, Clemson needs only to bleed the clock down and kick the game-winning field goal, when — on 2nd and 2 — DT Eddie Goldman forces a fumble and S Nate Andrews jumps on it. FSU runs out the clock and wins 23-17 on a Karlos Williams TD run in overtime.

September 27th, at NC State- FSU’s defense gives up scores on the first four Wolfpack possessions and NC State builds a 24-7 lead by the end of the first quarter– much to the delight of a raucous home crowd. The Seminoles proceed to reel off 49 points over the next three quarters and win by 15.

October 18th, vs. Notre Dame- Florida State runs for just a paltry 50 yards and the defense surrenders 470 yards of offense to the Irish. But the Seminoles use a brilliant second half by Jameis Winston — who goes 15/16 passing — to overcome a 17-10 halftime deficit. Even then it takes an offensive pass interference penalty on the penultimate play of the game for FSU to escape with a win.

October 30th, at Louisville- Florida State trails 21-0 at one point in the first half and is down 24-7 until about five minutes into the third quarter. The Seminoles score 35 points in the final 25 minutes — against, what was at that point in the season, the nation’s top-ranked defense — and win by 11.

November 15th, at Miami- The Hurricanes jump out to a 16-0 lead and head into the tunnel at halftime up 23-10. This time the Florida State defense steps up, limiting Miami to just three points the rest of the game and the Seminoles come back to win 30-26– icing things with a late Dalvin Cook touchdown run.

November 29th, vs. Florida- The Seminoles commit enough mistakes to make defeat a mathematical certainty– Jameis Winston throws four interceptions and the Seminoles allow a blocked punt. Combined, the statistical probability of a team committing that many turnovers, allowing a blocked kick and still winning is below 1%. UF even jumps out to an early 9-0 lead. But the Florida State defense forces two of its own turnovers and holds UF’s running backs to just 66 yards on 22 carries while the Seminoles go on to win 24-19.

“Again this team finding another way [to win],” said Fisher. “Did it running game last week, did it on defense, we’ve done it with field goals. Done it without Jameis. Done it with Jameis. We’ve done it again, there’ve been a lot of things that we’ve done as an organization that are pretty remarkable now.”

Combined, the statistical probability of a team committing that many turnovers, allowing a blocked kick and still winning is below 1%.

Six times this season the rest of the country — especially those with an axe to grind with FSU — have started to lean forward in their seats at the prospect of the Seminoles’ demise. There was FSU, upside down in the water tank with chains and pad-locks and both hands tied behind its back. And then voila! A couple quick touchdown passes. A timely defensive stop. A big run. A defensive touchdown. Maybe a sack late in the game. And suddenly FSU is back out of the tank, standing safely on the stage with a shocked audience looking on in disbelief.

“That’s who we are and how we play. We’ll play the way we play,” said Fisher on Sunday when asked about FSU’s propensity for starting slow and having to come back.

“You know, we’ve had some — a game is a 60-minute game, and some of the games we’ve started fast and some of the games we haven’t started as fast. We’ll keep doing the things that we do, try to play 60 minutes as hard as we can, and adjust to the game.”

When it comes to football, getting yourself into these situations is easy. Any team can throw four picks. Any team can spot its opponent 24 points in the first quarter.

Not any team can get out of it– in fact, this year, just one could.

That requires skill. And just like people didn’t go to see Houdini because he was lucky — he was skillful — at this point it’s time to admit that not many teams in the country could ever hope to overcome adversity like Florida State does with startling regularly. That requires a certain degree of skill.

What’s scary about this year’s Florida State team is that in half of its games, it’s beaten two teams. The Seminoles have had to play against their opponents and themselves– and one of those teams is the defending national champion. All kidding aside though, it’s usually the Seminoles themselves that dig those holes that they have to climb out of.

If and when Florida State finally stops digging — stops performing its Houdini routines — we might finally see this team peak.

And if that ever happens, even Houdini would have a hard time escaping Florida State.

Home/FSU Football