Ira Schoffel: Why the best is yet to come for this Florida State offense

This time last year, Florida State fans were filled with confidence about an offense that returned a ton of firepower from the year before and added a few important new pieces.

The Seminoles knew they had stars at quarterback and running back, and there was every reason to believe they had stars at wide receiver and tight end as well. With all of that firepower and an experienced offensive line, it was widely expected that FSU would hit the ground running — and throwing — in the opening weeks of the 2023 season.

And that group more than lived up to the billing

In their season opener against No. 5 LSU, the Seminoles racked up 494 yards of total offense in a 45-24 victory. Jordan Travis threw for 342 yards and four touchdowns on 23-of-31 passing, and Florida State also rushed for 135 yards. Thanks to a breathtaking second half, it was as impressive an opening game as you will ever see.

The story was the same for much of the first half of the 2023 season. In their first seven games, the Seminoles averaged 41.6 points and didn’t score less than 31 in any of them.

Keon Coleman seemed unstoppable. Jordan Travis was in the Heisman Trophy race. It looked like Florida State was going to smash records on offense and cruise into the College Football Playoff.

Then the second half of the season happened. Coleman, Jaheim Bell, Johnny Wilson and others got banged up. The offense suddenly went from high-flying to a bit of a slog at times. After not scoring less than 31 points once in the first half, the Seminoles scored 27 points or less four times in the second half.

They put up just 24 at Pitt and 27 against Miami. Then after Travis went down with his season-ending injury, Florida State scored 24 at Florida and just 16 against Louisville in the ACC Championship Game.

Even though the ‘Noles kept winning, it was hard not to look at Florida State’s late-season offense and think: “What could have been?”

Well, as the 2024 season quickly approaches, the overwhelming question I keep asking myself about this offense is: “What could this be?”

If you watched Mike Norvell speak with the media following Florida State’s second preseason scrimmage on Saturday, you could tell he seemed pretty pleased with that side of the ball. Even though the Seminoles rested several starting offensive linemen and other key players, he said the offense got off to a great start, he had positive things to say about DJ Uiagalelei and the other quarterbacks, and he continued to rave about the young skill players on offense.

That last part is what has me wondering how good this offense could become in the second half of this season.

I have no doubt Florida State’s offense will be good enough to win each of its games in the first month — especially because of how well I think this defense is going to play. I don’t envision this defense giving up a whole lot of points against anybody, and I’m confident FSU’s offense will be good enough to knock off the likes of Georgia Tech, Boston College, Memphis and Cal.

After that, however, the level of competition will improve dramatically. There’s a road trip to SMU, which went 11-3 last season, followed by a home date with Clemson. Two games later, Florida State will travel to face a Miami team that some believe will be a playoff contender. And two games after that, the Seminoles will travel to face Notre Dame, another playoff contender, in South Bend.

Three of those more challenging games will be played on the road, which means those opposing offenses will be much more comfortable and capable of doing damage. All three — Miami (Cam Ward), SMU (Preston Stone) and Notre Dame (Riley Leonard) — will have prolific quarterbacks, and Florida State’s offense will have to be humming at that point to give the Seminoles their best chance of repeating as ACC champs and making the 12-team playoff.

Fortunately for Florida State, the strength of this offense should be its running game. And we all know running games travel much better than passing games.

Like everyone who has watched preseason practices, I love this running back room. I have absolutely no doubt that this offensive line is going to be much better at run-blocking than last year’s group. And at 6-foot-4 and 252 pounds, Uiagalelei could be a cheat code in short-yardage situations.

That ground attack should be the backbone of this offense, especially early in the season.

But having watched the first 2 1/2 weeks of preseason camp, several of the skill players I’m most excited about are the youngest ones on the depth chart. While seniors like Malik Benson , Kyle Morlock , Lawrance Toafili , Ja’Khi Douglas and Roydell Williams will give Uiagalelei a solid nucleus to work with in the first month or so, I have a feeling this offense could really take off once this group of freshmen and redshirt freshmen really starts to get comfortable.

Norvell singled out several of them out on Saturday: Kam Davis and Samuel Singleton at running back; Amaree Williams and Landen Thomas at tight end; and Jalen Brown , Lawayne McCoy , Elijah Moore , and BJ Gibson at receiver. I believe RB Micahi Danzy and WR Cam Frier should be mentioned in that group as well. And as a true sophomore, I’ll include Hykeem Williams as well.

That is one heck of a list.

That is 11 offensive skill players, who are all first- or second-year players, who I believe will be stars before their Florida State careers are finished. And more importantly for the present, they all could help this offense in 2024.

It’s no secret that we’re still waiting to see if some of Florida State’s older receivers will become consistent playmakers. That could still happen, and if it does, no one would be happier than Norvell. That one development could take FSU from being a playoff contender to a legitimate national championship threat.

But if that doesn’t materialize in the first few weeks, I have a hunch we’ll see these young skill players get every opportunity to make their mark. How they handle the moment could go a long way in determining this season’s success.

One year ago, Florida State’s offense played its best football in the first half of the season. I have a feeling this season could feel a little bit more like 2022, when the situation was reversed.

With guys like Johnny Wilson, Trey Benson and Mycah Pittman still in their first seasons in Tallahassee, and Jordan Travis in his first year as the full-time starting quarterback, that Florida State offense played its best in the second half of the season.

The 2022 Seminoles averaged 30.9 points in their first seven games, and 42.2 in their last six. After scoring 28 points or less four times in the first seven, they scored 35 or more in each of those final six.

That’s how I expect FSU’s offensive trajectory to look in 2024.

I don’t expect this offense to click on all cylinders in Week 1 like it did last year — particularly in the passing game. But as Uiagalelei and others get more comfortable, as the young skill players develop, and as Norvell gets a better handle on the team’s strengths and weaknesses, they should get better and better.

That six-game stretch from SMU to Notre Dame will be pretty daunting and likely will go a long way in determining the success of failure of this season.

The good news is that with this defense and running game, the Seminoles’ passing attack should have a full month of games under their belt before they have to operate at peak efficiency.

And the best news is they’ve got a whole lot of reinforcements on the way.

Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com.

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.

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