FSU football: Surpassing early expectations distorted reality

FSU football has a 4-2 record at the mid-way point in the season. That’s where I predicted this team to be after six games in my game-by-game predictions.

I said they will be 4-3 after the Clemson game, for those wondering. However, it’s also fair to say FSU should be 6-0 going into the Clemson game, beating themselves in the two losses against Wake Forest and NC State.

How we got to 4-2 is different than I predicted, and starting 4-0 was not my prediction but was reality. FSU football surpassing our wildest expectations through the first four games distorted reality. I think I have the perfect analogy to describe the first half of the season.

Think of FSU football as someone that used to be an elite athlete that got way out of shape and hired a personal trainer and nutritionist (Mike Norvell) to lose weight/fat.

When you’re in that situation, you don’t have to do too much right to see some results because you’re sedentary, consuming calories without burning any. It’s not uncommon to see some success early, losing 3-5 pounds in the first couple of weeks (water weight), which I would equate to the win over UNC in 2020.

However, you fall off the wagon after a couple of months and decide to get serious again(after losing the first four games in 2021). You’re working out multiple times per week now and eating decent.

You’re beginning to see some results from the work, and you get down to about 25 percent body fat. You meet with your personal trainer and nutritionist and explain your goal is to get to 10 percent body fat, and they explain the changes you have to make from a workout and eating perspective.

You’re counting calories and getting all of your workouts done, and after a few weeks you can see a couple of abs, and some vascularity begins to show. It’s much more progress than you expected because you’ve been out of shape for such a long time.

However, in that same time frame, you’re not completely disciplined and still consuming more calories than you’re supposed to (getting away with low success rates on early downs and not getting stops on third down).

However, because you saw way more progress than you thought, you think it’s OK to continue eating things you’re not supposed to achieve the same results you initially had, thinking you’d continue to get the same results even though you know better. So though you achieved some results, they were not sustainable because you failed to stay as disciplined as needed to reach that 10 percent goal. You surpassing early expectations distorted your reality.

The good news is, you can get back on track and continue your plan to reach 10 percent body fat because you know what to do. It’s simply staying disciplined and executing the plan. That means not missing workouts and eating midnight snacks that make you surpass your daily caloric intake (penalties, turnovers, and failing to execute in key situations).

It’s about making the right decision over and over each day to get your workout in and saying no to things you shouldn’t eat. If you stay the course, you’ll begin to see the results you want to come to fruition, and that’s no different than the backend of the 2022 schedule for FSU football.

FSU is still on target to reach the 8-4 goal most of us set before the season. They just have to get healthy and execute the way we’ve seen them perform at different points this season.