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The Florida State Seminoles played ugly in Week 0 but were able to overwhelm New Mexico State due to the talent disparity.
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That wasn’t the case on Monday night during Florida State’s 27-24 loss to SMU. Plenty of mistakes showed up on both sides of the ball, and despite forcing four turnovers, the Seminoles came up short in the final seconds.
When you pull up the box score, it’s hard to fathom how this game was even close. SMU outgained Florida State by over 250 yards; 585-324. The Mustangs converted 57.1% of their third-down attempts compared to the Seminoles’ 13.3%.
In the same vein, FSU had more rushing yards, more fourth-down conversions, more time of possession, fewer penalties, fewer turnovers, scored 100% of the time in the red zone, and still lost.
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Truthfully, I meant to get this written a lot earlier, but things have been pretty strange since Monday night. Shortly before kickoff, Doak Campbell Stadium went through a partial power outage, and the press box went dark.
Obviously, these are real first-world problems, but we had no power, internet, AC, or access to the broadcast for the remainder of the evening. That made it tough to cover the game efficiently in real-time, so I wanted to rewatch the defeat before putting any thoughts on paper (or the internet).
It was a unique experience. Florida State finally added blue Powerades to the press box this season, foregoing the lemon-lime, which I personally can’t stand. The refrigerator was stacked full at the beginning of the game. By halftime, there were probably only about 10 bottles left.
We were all struggling.
Either way, it was another game where the Seminoles found a way to lose in the fourth quarter. Mike Norvell’s seat is as hot as ever as the program goes into its first BYE week.
Here are three thoughts on the loss to SMU in Tallahassee.
1. Florida State’s Inability To Put The Ball In The Air Is A Problem
Questions were already surfacing about Florida State’s passing game following the win over New Mexico State. Those concerns were brought to the forefront against SMU.
Ashton Daniels completed 12/23 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t turn the ball over, but he didn’t look very confident either. Daniels was slow to read the opposing defense and far too hesitant when deciding whether to throw or scramble. He averaged just 5.4 yards per attempt. In the second half, Daniels only connected on 4/10 attempts.
I get it. There are obvious limitations. But if opposing defenses have no doubt that Daniels can’t beat them, they’ll just load up the box on Ousmane Kromah. That’s exactly what we saw the Mustangs do, even if the Seminoles compiled 199 rushing yards.
Florida State fought to keep Duce Robinson, Micahi Danzy, and Jayvan Boggs this offseason, along with adding Jasen Lopez. Those four players combined for 12 targets over four quarters.
That’s inexcusable. Robinson is one of the top wide receivers in college football, and he has 5 catches for 75 yards in 2 games. He’s averaging 37.5 yards per game, compared to 90.1 yards per game in 2025. Danzy is arguably the fastest player in the country and has a single big play to show for it, which came on the first drive of the season.
The blocking isn’t great and the tight ends aren’t going to be useful for much. Fine, that much is true.
But Daniels also had an average of 3.75 seconds of time to throw, which is more than enough. Jennings was at 2.78 seconds.
Florida State needs to cut down on the long-developing plays and make things simpler for Daniels. More slants, curls, and throws outside of the numbers to get him comfortable. Play-action to build off the running game, rollouts to get Daniels away from the pocket, where he starts to feel like the walls are closing in.
Do something different in Tuscaloosa, please. Make a quarterback changed if needed. It just can’t keep looking like this.
2. Kevin Jennings Made The Seminoles Look Like Swiss Cheese
We knew coming into this game that Kevin Jennings was going to be a problem for Florida State’s defense. If Trey Hedden and New Mexico State could create big plays, it felt like only a matter of time until Jennings got his.
By the end of the first quarter, Jennings was 8/8 for 120 yards and a touchdown, nearly more yards than Daniels accumulated all game. In a season opener where the Mustangs were breaking in multiple new starting offensive linemen and skill players, it certainly didn’t look like it.
Jennings went on to rack up 430 passing yards, with 3 touchdowns to 2 interceptions. He averaged 11.9 yards per attempt and 16.5 yards per completion.
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That’s the most passing yards that the Seminoles have allowed in a single game under Tony White, by a large margin. Pittsburgh’s Mason Heintschel threw for 321 yards in a 34-31 win against FSU in 2025.
SMU’s 585 total yards were the most that Florida State has allowed since North Carolina put up 500 yards in 2024. To put that in comparison, the Seminoles surrendered 673 yards in the 2023 Orange Bowl loss to Georgia. At least the program can make the excuse that it was missing practically all of its starters in that game.
Whether it’s breakdowns in coverage, not trusting the assignment, or just flat-out getting beat, the Seminoles’ defensive backfield looks lost. Florida State’s five starters gave up 17 receptions for 312 yards and 3 touchdowns.
Ja’Bril Rawls was supposed to be one of FSU’s top players regardless of position. He disappointed once again, as SMU completed 8/9 passes for 48 yards when throwing his direction.
The Seminoles have to do some soul-searching. This group isn’t on the same page, not even close. I understand Florida State is replacing three starters in the secondary, but it shouldn’t be this pathetic.
That’s where leaders like Rawls and Ashlynd Barker need to rise to the occasion. Barker did his part on Labor Day, but he can’t pull every single defender to their feet on a night when the Seminoles looked like a modern-day Swiss cheese wheel.
3. Situational Failures Are Killing FSU, And That Comes Down To Coaching
Through two games, Florida State is just a bad football team when it comes to key situations. For a coaching staff that preaches performing on third and fourth down, the Seminoles are coming up well short of the mark.
Defensively, FSU has allowed its two opponents to convert 18/31 third-down attempts (58.1%), despite the average distance to go being over 7 yards in both games. In those situations, New Mexico State and SMU completed 16/23 passes for 322 yards with 4 touchdowns to 1 interception.
The Seminoles have surrendered six 20+ yard passing plays on third down.
As I’ve written about, the personnel is certainly part of the issue, but I don’t think Tony White is doing his secondary many favors. I’ll use one example. Florida State forced SMU into 3rd and 6 when the game was tied early in the fourth quarter.
Instead of pressing at the line of scrimmage, the Seminoles had all of their defensive backs 10+ yards off the wide receivers. That allowed Yannick Smith to catch a short screen with Florida State defenders coming in at odd angles for the stop. Smith broke two tackles and went to the house for 79 yards to give the Mustangs the lead again.
The zone concepts clearly aren’t working with this defense. This feels like the time to throw some of the exotic stuff out of the window. Florida State might be a little more efficient in man coverage. Regardless, it’s going to take a lot of work for this group to be even average, based on what we’ve seen in eight quarters.
As bad as the defense was, somehow the offense was worse. The Seminoles converted on 2/15 third-down attempts, one of the worst showings of the Mike Norvell era.
Florida State averaged 3.7 yards on third down, and went 1/5 on third downs that were 4 yards or fewer. The Seminoles went 2/8 passing on third down as well.
There’s no rhythm and no hope when Florida State is in those situations. Facing 3rd and 10 in the final frame with the game tied, the Seminoles surrendered a sack, and ultimately dropped their opportunity to pull out a victory.
Once again, I point back to Mike Norvell. The play-calling looks just like it did in 2024. It feels like he didn’t learn anything from the past failures and the time to observe the full picture last year.
Norvell and his staff are trying to coach and instill concepts for the team they want. It’s time for all parties involved to realize what the Seminoles actually have.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/fsu as 3 Thoughts As FSU Football’s Mistakes Doom Upset Bid Against SMU.
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This story was originally published September 9, 2026 at 5:30 AM.