FSU Football: Why blowout loss to Clemson was what Noles needed
By Jason Parker
FSU Football suffered their worst defeat in decades last season against the Tigers – but losing that bad might have been the best thing for the future.
When the story is written on the 2018 FSU football team, it’s going to be the story of a team who suffered their first losing campaign in over four decades and can be summed up in one moment – a 49 point loss at home to a Clemson team that beat them by just three points in the game in Tallahassee just two years before.
It’s a game that was the sign that things were going to end in a losing season – the Seminoles won just one of their final four games to finish with a 5-7 record – and squarely put the focus of venom and hate from both critics and some fans of the Seminoles right on the shoulders of head coach Willie Taggart.
It wasn’t the fact the Seminoles lost their fourth straight game to the Tigers – it was that FSU football wasn’t even competitive for the final three quarters and looked like boys playing against grown men.
Florida State Seminoles Football
But, though we all love the FSU football program and never want to see the Seminoles lose a game, it might have actually been the best thing for the Seminoles if they want the future to be much brighter – both for the program as a whole and those supporting Taggart as he continues with season number two.
The main reason is that a close loss to the Tigers would have made people think that things were still normal in Tallahassee – instead, getting blown out exposed the dumpster fire left by the previous coaching staff before bolting for Texas A&M and made people realize that the Seminoles were not going to be going to a bowl game after that season.
It saw several players who had given up on giving it there all for FSU football leave the program and led to changes in accountability that have shown a much different and better team this season despite having the same record through five games as the Seminoles did last season.
Getting beat by 49 points at home is never easy to swallow or deal with – but if you’re the FSU football team, it may be the moment that changed the program for the best in the future of Taggart, the Seminoles and the foreseeable future of major college football in Tallahassee.