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Notre Dame Football 2021 Opponent Preview: Florida State

By Daniel Morrison

SOUTH BEND, IN - NOVEMBER 10: Miles Boykin #81 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish makes a three-yard touchdown reception against Hamsah Nasirildeen #23 of the Florida State Seminoles in the first quarter of the game at Notre Dame Stadium on November 10, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images)
SOUTH BEND, IN - NOVEMBER 10: Miles Boykin #81 of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish makes a three-yard touchdown reception against Hamsah Nasirildeen #23 of the Florida State Seminoles in the first quarter of the game at Notre Dame Stadium on November 10, 2018 in South Bend, Indiana. (Photo by Joe Robbins/Getty Images) /
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Notre Dame Football vs. FSU. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images)
Notre Dame Football vs. FSU. (Photo by Streeter Lecka/Getty Images) /

Notre Dame Football 2021 Opponent Preview: Florida State

Florida State in 2020

The Seminoles fired Willie Taggart after only about a season and a half. Taggart held a 9-12 record in 2018 and part of 2019 with Florida State, but the boosters got restless and pulled a quick trigger on him, which wasn’t entirely fair.

After all, Florida State trails in terms of facilities and now has to compete with the giant that is Clemson, as Jimbo Fisher left Florida State in bad shape.

Things didn’t improve in 2020. Former Memphis coach, Mike Norvell, came in and immediately had to deal with the pandemic and a wave of social unrest. The pandemic, for its part, took away vital Spring practice, which made it harder to install his system and evaluate the roster than Novell would’ve liked. During the season, Norvell would catch COVID-19, forcing him to miss the Miami game.

In other words, things were a mess and their 3-6 record is better than they played on the season.

At halftime of the Jacksonville State game, the Seminoles had lost to a bad Georgia Tech team, were humiliated by their rivals from Coral Gables, and found themselves trailing to an FCS team. Next week was a top-5 Notre Dame team, and things were bad.

Somehow, they flipped the switch, though. Florida State came back to beat Jacksonville State, took their loss to Notre Dame, and then beat North Carolina in one of the surprises of the season in the ACC. At 2-3, things were looking up, but then COVID-19 hit the program badly, and essentially left their season dead in the water.

The truth is that you can’t just rate Florida State off last season. They’ve had time to practice now, they have a lot of turnover on the roster, and they’re going to be better than the shell of a program they’ve been putting on the field.

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