After playoff snub, FSU’s goal in 2024: Prove it’s ‘among the nation’s elite’

Florida State defensive lineman Joshua Framer didn’t mince words.

It has been more than seven-and-a-half months since the College Football Playoff committee made its decision to leave an undefeated FSU team out of the four-team field that competed for the national title — making the Seminoles the first undefeated conference champion from a Power 5 conference to be left out of the playoff field.

“We were pretty pissed off,” Farmer said Monday at the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Football Kickoff in Charlotte, North Carolina. “I think we deserved to be there last year, but that’s in the past. It didn’t happen for a reason.”

The Seminoles’ task at hand now as it prepares to start fall camp on Wednesday exactly one month before opening the 2024 season on Aug. 24 against Georgia Tech in Dublin, Ireland: Prove they can do it again. Run it back. Show, once again, that it is one of the top teams in college football and deserves a spot in the playoffs.

It will be a little easier to do that this year, with the field expanded to 12 teams and the five highest-ranked conference champions receiving automatic bids into the field.

“Our objective this year is just to go get better,” FSU coach Mike Norvell said. “Coming off a 13-0 regular season and [conference] championship game is something that was really a special experience for our entire program, but it sets the stage and opportunity for us to continue to push and continue to elevate this program to where it deserves to be — and that’s among the nation’s elite.”

It took Norvell a little time to get FSU to that point, though.

The Seminoles went 3-6 and 5-7 in his first two seasons at the helm of the program before a breakthrough 10-3 season in 2022.

And then came last season’s run, with FSU going a perfect 12-0 in the regular season before winning the ACC championship against Louisville.

But with star quarterback Jordan Travis sidelined at the end of the season with an ankle injury, the CFP committee kept FSU out of the playoff field, going with Michigan, Washington, Texas and Alabama as the four representatives.

Florida State wound up in the Orange Bowl, playing with a shell of its roster due to transfers and players opting out to focus on the NFL Draft. They got blown out 63-3 by the Georgia Bulldogs.

“It was challenging,” Novell said of the Orange Bowl, “because there were a lot of guys over the course of our team that got thrown into new situations. Communication, continuity and consistency of who you’re doing [your job] with is so important. It’s developed and grown throughout the course of a year, and then you get to the end of it, and you have guys that might have been working the scout team or in very limited capacities [playing bigger roles]. It’s a learning experience.”

What, exactly, does Novell hope his team learned from that day?

“Regardless of where you might be, make sure that you’re ready to jump in and capitalize on those opportunities,” Norvell said, “because it happened. ... Guys got experiences. Some might not have been very fun experiences in that game, but there were things that you’ll definitely grow from if you bring the right mentality.”