The Florida State football team headed into Saturday's pivotal matchup with the No. 19 SMU Mustangs as three-point underdogs. The Mustangs traveled to Doak Campbell Stadium to experience a night game and started out with something they weren't expecting: A power outage that delayed the game until 9:15 p.m.
When play resumed, the Seminoles battled but came up short in a number of areas in a 27-24 to SMU. Fans of FSU are growing restless with the way the team has started out the season and coach Mike Norvell was greeted with a chorus of boos on multiple occasions after lackluster play calling in the eyes of the fans.
“You notice it but at the end of the day there’s always going to be outside perspective,” Norvell said. “Whether you’re at home or on the road, you have to go and control what you can control and that is a part of this game. It is what it is and if you don’t want to get booed, continue to work and play better.”
Having power malfunctions affected the game tremendously but SMU had to play in those situations, too. When play started, there wouldn’t be any coach-to-player communication, to include no iPads, PA announcer or working scoreboard.
When looking at the stat sheet at the end of the game, one would think FSU would've snuck out a victory after forcing the Mustangs into four turnovers. But the Seminoles didn’t muster any sacks on the night and only passed for 125 yards, compared to SMU’s 430 yards passing. FSU also scored just once off the four SMU turnovers.
The Seminoles had their chances at the end in crunch time. But they simply couldn’t stop SMU senior quarterback Kevin Jennings, who torched Florida State all night en route to a career-best 430-yard night. Jennings exposed the Seminoles’ secondary and showed inexperience in getting SMU offensive players on the ground. Missed tackle after missed tackle doomed FSU at critical times, which only added to the misery of the fans.
“We feel like we gave away too many points, way too many yards,” linebacker Omar Graham said. “It came down to one play and the little details like staying outside or just trusting our technique because the coaches prepare us well, they put us in the right situations, the right calls, we just have to go out there and do our job, so that falls on us, honestly.”
Offensively, the Seminoles couldn’t get a rhythm going. One of the lone bright spots was sophomore running back Ousmane Kromah, who rushed for 122 yards on 22 carries and one touchdown. Running back Sam Singleton only received seven carries for 26 yards and a touchdown after showing an impressive outing in the previous game against New Mexico State. The production in the running game was stellar, but it simply wasn’t enough.
Quarterback Ashton Daniels didn’t make a mistake on the night and had an efficient game but was under heavy pressure. Daniels was sacked three times, went 12 of 23 passing for 125 yards through the air with one touchdown and one on the ground. The Auburn transfer tried his best to scramble around and kept a handful of the zone-read options on the night, but he couldn’t break away for huge runs and couldn’t evade pressure in crucial moments.
“I knew sometimes I would have to get outside the pocket,” Daniels said. “That’s part of my game and I’m not scared to be physical especially when it’s on the goal line or got-to-have-it situations but whatever my team needs from me, I’ll go out there and put us in the best position possible to win a game.”
The Seminoles will have the week off before they make the trip up to Tuscaloosa to play No. 13 Alabama on Sept. 19 at 3:30 p.m. (ABC)
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