FSU football: A look back my 2020 schedule predictions

(You can see the original slide here)

September 5th-BYE WEEK- I pitched this as an extra week to prepare, but as I said in the intro, I think fall camp was more of an evaluation period than preparation. This bye week was vital to starting the season strong, and this was the first thing I got wrong.

September 12th- Georgia Tech- Prediction: W Reality: L- I called this game “a more welcome addition to the 2020 schedule,” and predicted a score of “35-14.” Boy, did that not age well. It ended up being a trap game where we realized that no matter what we thought going into the season, we had to reevaluate everything.  Georgia Tech was one of the more polarizing results of the season. A highly touted defense looked abysmal, even with Asante Samuel trying to put the unit on his back with 2 interceptions. The offense struggled and was inefficient when it was off-script. James Blackman and the offensive line struggled yet we still went into halftime with a 10-0 lead and all the issues compounded with Georgia Tech coming back to win the game.

September 19th-Bye Week- I said that “keeping the Samford game was essential,” and a couple of days later, we got the news that Samford’s conference canceled their season, and we were shopping for new opponents. This matchup was to be an early momentum builder, especially after the Georgia Tech game win or loss. Instead, we got back to a mini-camp and a reevaluation period while players got healthy, and the coaches adjusted.

September 26th- Miami- Prediction: W Reality: L – A massive, massive, massive, L! One of the worst ones taken by this ball team in its history. I predicted a 17-16 win, and we lost 52-10. There weren’t many positives coming out of it. Blackman played poorly, wide receivers had major drops and the offensive line was dominated. On defense, there were even fewer positives to draw from. The defense was dominated in every facet. The loss was so bad that it almost didn’t matter Mike Norvell was in quarantine (obviously it does, as he wasn’t able to help them prepare and was detached from the program for 10 days). The only positive was Lawrance Taofili, who ran the ball very well in garbage time and proved himself as a competitor. We saw a little bit of Tate Rodemaker, who had a couple of good throws but came out of the game after an interception. The whole game was bad, really, really bad. Thankfully I was able to escape and watch the Tampa Bay Lightning hockey team win the Stanley Cup.