FSU Football: Is Wake Forest a trap game for Noles entering 2019?

While FSU football knows some of the tougher foes this season, there is one opponent that may make them worried because of its spot on the schedule.

Whether those outside the FSU football program want to admit it or not, the schedule that the Seminoles had to face this past season did in fact play a major role in how the year played out and the Noles having their first losing season in over four decades.

How could it not – after all, you’re talking about the Seminoles playing a total of 11 teams that had a winning record after the regular season was over and a stretch of five games at the end that included the national champs, a College Football Playoff team and another that made a New Years Six bowl game. It’s not an excuse, just a fact that it played a role.

This season, FSU football will still have plenty of competition that they will have to get up for this season but things are spread out much more and making things slightly easier than the 2018 campaign. But is there one game that the Noles could fall into a trap with during the upcoming year?

Florida State Seminoles Football

If that’s the case, there is one opponent that is in the front runner spot to be that trap game – their October 19th showdown on the road against Wake Forest.

Yes, that same Demon Deacons team who the Seminoles beat 38-10 last season in Tallahassee but also the same Wake Forest team that the Noles have had to survive against the last two times they played in Winston-Salem – winning essentially on a Dalvin Cook touchdown on their first offense play in 2015 and a Hail Mary on their final offensive play in 2017.

It’s also a Wake Forest team that is right in the middle of what will be the toughest stretch of the season for FSU football – as the Seminoles play at Clemson the week before and have games vs. Syracuse and Miami at home and a road trip to Boston College in the three weeks after.

It’s a game that could swing how the season goes and if the Seminoles can get back to a bowl game in 2019. In a perfect world, the Noles win their first five games of the season and enter Winston-Salem with a record no worse than 5-1 and know they just need one win in the final six games to go bowling with that slate that includes Cuse, UM, BC and the year ender at Florida.

But, as we’ve seen in recent seasons, things don’t always go according to plans for the garnet and gold – so if FSU football heads into Winston-Salem with a 4-2 or even 3-3 record, this becomes the definition of a must win for both the team, their bowl chances and maybe even the coaching future of Willie Taggart in Tallahassee.

Last seasons, the Deacs left the Sunshine State with a 3-4 record but finished with a 7-6 campaign that included wins over a ranked N.C. State team on the road as well as beating Coastal Division champs Pittsburgh and their bowl game against Memphis – essentially adding to the argument that the Seminoles can not overlook them.

While FSU football knows that teams like Clemson, Florida and even Syracuse are teams that in the preseason are projected to beat the Seminoles by many, it’s games like October 19th where the Noles can’t afford to beat themselves if they want to get back to the postseason.