The more things change, the more they stay the same when it comes to Florida State. On Saturday night, they lost to the Clemson Tigers, making it their third consecutive defeat to fall to 3-5 on the season.
It was also their third straight loss to Clemson and their fifth straight to them at home. On the season, FSU is now 1-4 in the ACC, which drops them to 4-17 within the conference since the 2023 season. They simply can't seem to pull themselves up from the bottom of the ACC.
Florida State will now have to go on the road for two straight games as they look to snap an 11-game losing streak away from Doak Campbell Stadium. Before they do so, let's dive into five takeaways from their loss to Clemson.
FSU looked unprepared despite having a bye week
There's just no excuse for how the Seminoles
looked on Saturday night. Their offense started the game with three straight three-and-outs, and they also turned the ball over four times. They gave up 162 yards rushing and allowed Clemson to score 15 points more than their season average. It was a pathetic showing all around.
Ashton Daniels was awful
Daniels had seemed to turn the corner lately, especially after his five-touchdown performance in a narrow defeat to the Miami Hurricanes two weeks ago. However, he threw three interceptions against Clemson, and he also had a fumble late in the third quarter. The argument can be made that this was his worst game in a Florida State uniform.
The running game was largely ineffective
The loss of Ousmane Kromah was apparent in this game. Quintrevion Wisner only averaged 3.3 yards per carry in his first game as RB1, and the Seminoles tallied just 65 yards total on the ground in total. In fact, FSU only had two runs over 10 yards. Being one-dimensional fell right into Clemson's hands defensively as they produced four sacks and nine tackles for loss.
Defensive woes continued
It's been an extremely frustrating year for Florida State's defense under Tony White. This was the third straight game that they gave up over 35 points, giving them four such instances this season. It was also the third straight games of them allowing over 150 yards rushing, which is something they've done five times in 2026.
Mike Norvell has to go
Enough is enough when it comes to Norvell. Once again, he proved that he isn't capable of getting FSU prepared to win games. He is staring at his fifth losing season in seven years, and two more losses will mean that Florida State will miss a bowl game for the third straight year. This program simply has to cut ties, and they need to do so immediately.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: Five takeaways from FSU's loss to Clemson
