FSU Football: Accepting 2017 failures only way to move on to 2018

FSU football is working hard to put what took place last season in the rearview mirror, but the first step to recovery is admitting the problem.

Across the college football landscape entering the 2018 season, there is plenty of cautious optimism that comes with predictions and insights for the FSU football team in their upcoming campaign. Sure, plenty of people think the Seminoles CAN do better than a 7-6 record last season, but questions remain if they WILL.

With a schedule that may go down as the toughest in the sport this season and maybe the history of the Noles, plenty of insiders thank that it would be a miracle if FSU football can get to double digit wins during the 2018 season. Heck, some even think the Seminoles could be staring down the barrel of another seven win season.

Much of this pessimism about the Noles stems from the fact that the team had one of their worst records in the last 41 seasons. Never mind that the Seminoles have never had a losing season over that span because that fact doesn’t matter to those who don’t look at anything other than the quick push alert on their phone with a final score.

Fans of FSU football and alumni of the school (myself included) have spent the last six months since the end of last season preaching the same reasons why things went down hill and why things weren’t as bad as they looked on the surface.

"“Our starting quarterback got knocked out in the opening game and was replaced by a 165 pound freshman”“Three of the losses were by a combined 13 points, including Miami needing a last second touchdown just to win”“We were just three points behind Clemson on the road with less than six minutes to play”“We had to play Boston College on the road in a short week”“Our head coach and some assistants stopped recruiting midway through the year and essentially threw in the towel”"

Every single one of those things is right and helps the argument that the 2017 FSU football team was not as bad as their record – and none of it matters to anyone outside of the garnet and gold family.

We can talk until we’re blue in the face about what really happened last season aside from the record and it will just be falling on deaf ears. The casual college football fan will only look at the record while those who hate the Seminoles for whatever reason will say we are just making excuses.

Honestly, it has come to the point where it’s not worth it anymore. So, let me just say this as the first step to recovery from what took place:

The 2017 FSU football season was horrible and we own the year for the disappointment it truly was.

There – I said it. I know there will be some in the fan camp of the Seminoles who will not go along with this theory and will continue to stick to the things I listed earlier. That’s fine, everyone is entitled to their opinion – but doing so will keep the subject of last season fresh in everyone’s minds and that’s the worst thing for the program.

FSU football has a new coach, a new attitude and – quite frankly – has enough things to worry about with this season’s slate of games than to be focused on stuff we can’t go back and change.

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After all, 2017 couldn’t have been all that bad if it got rid of the dead weight in the main chair that didn’t want to be committed to FSU football anymore – right?