No. 4 Florida State held off No. 14 Louisville with a 16-6 win in the ACC Championship Game on Saturday to likely lock down a spot in the College Football Playoff.
Florida State improved to 13-0, securing its first ACC title since 2014. They are one of three teams in the top 10 in the latest CFP rankings without a loss, along with No. 2 Michigan and No. 3 Washington. The final CFP rankings will be unveiled Sunday.
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Both offenses struggled in the first half at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, N.C. Ryan Fitzgerald’s 45-yard field goal in the second quarter gave the Seminoles a 3-0 lead, but the Cardinals tied it up with a Brock Travelstead field goal in the third. Lawrance Toafili — who led FSU with 10 carries for 118 yards — scored the first touchdown of the night on a two-yard run to put the Seminoles ahead.
After another Travelstead field goal and with FSU up 10-6, the Cardinals botched a scoring opportunity as Tatum Bethune picked off a Jack Plummer throw in the end zone to send the ball back to Florida State with 10:01 left to play. Fitzgerald added two more field goals in the fourth quarter as FSU prevented Louisville from scoring.
What a play by @tatumx15 !!!#NoleFamily | #KeepCLIMBing pic.twitter.com/iygYIKHFni
— FSU Football (@FSUFootball) December 3, 2023
FSU freshman quarterback Brock Glenn finished 8-of-21 passing for 55 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions. He made his first career start in place of Tate Rodemaker, who was ruled out for Saturday after taking a hit to the head against Florida on Nov. 25. The Florida game was Rodemaker’s first start, after Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending leg injury against North Alabama on Nov. 18.
Mike Norvell has right approach with Brock Glenn
Sometimes the best thing a quarterback can do is get out of the way and stay out of trouble. Third-stringer Glenn, a true freshman starting in place of Rodemaker, essentially did that by not turning the ball over for FSU. Coach Mike Norvell tried to run as conservative an offense as he could at the start for Glenn. His first four completions came on quick screens to receivers, and his longest completion of the night turned out to be a second-quarter sideline pass Johnny Wilson turned into a 19-yard gain with a dash down the sideline.
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It turned out to be the right approach because Glenn wasn’t ready for the moment. He was sacked four times and had two passes in the third quarter bounce off the hands of Louisville defenders in FSU territory. Had those passes been picked off, Florida State might not still be unbeaten. Glenn, a four-star recruit FSU is high on, will likely be back in a backup role whenever the Seminoles play next. — Manny Navarro, college football staff writer
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Seminoles’ defense key in title win
Florida State’s defensive improvement is the real season the Seminoles won the ACC title this season with huge gains in a lot of areas, especially third downs, red zone touchdown percentage and opponent completion percentage. Saturday, the Seminoles recorded a season-high 14 tackles for loss, seven sacks and 10 pass breakups against Louisville including Bethune’s interception in the end zone. — Navarro
Braden Fiske turns in MVP performance
Braden Fiske was one of the big heroes for FSU with three sacks. The sixth-year defensive tackle from Western Michigan punctuated FSU’s big night with his second sack of the game on Plummer with under three minutes to play. Fiske started the game by crushing Louisville running back Jawhar Jordan in the backfield. He followed it up a play later with a tackle on the edge of receiver Chris Bell on a screen. Fiske had eight tackles and 3.5 tackles for loss. — Navarro
Jack Plummer struggles for Louisville
The quarterback battle should have been a clear edge for the Cardinals. Plummer, a fifth-year senior, was making his 38th career start against a true freshman, but it proved to be one of his shakiest. He finished 14 for 36 (39 percent) for 111 yards, zero touchdowns and one interception. The turnover was particularly painful, coming in the red zone in the fourth quarter after a big special teams stop by Louisville, who tackled Florida State’s punter to force a turnover on downs at the 12-yard line.
Three plays later, trailing 10-6 with a chance to take the lead, Plummer was picked off in the endzone by Bethune. The Cards struggled to compensate on the ground, finishing with only 77 rushing yards on 34 attempts, but that was largely a result of -59 yards on seven sacks by the Seminoles. — Justin Williams, college football staff writer
Cardinals’ regular-season schedule comes back to haunt?
Louisville earned its way to the ACC Championship Game, but it’s been noted all season that the Cardinals did it against a rather advantageous schedule. No Florida State, no North Carolina and no Clemson in the regular season. The Cards did knock off Notre Dame and Duke, though both were at home, and the team crumbled under the weight of Florida State’s talent.
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Louisville entered the night with a top-20 offense averaging 6.57 yards per play and a balanced attack running and passing. The Seminoles’ defense held the Cards to just 188 total yards and 2.7 yards per play on Saturday, including seven sacks and 3 for 21 on third and fourth downs. Louisville scored zero touchdowns, managing just a pair of field goals on three trips to the red zone, the other ending in an interception following the special teams unit tackling the FSU punter on fourth down.
It doesn’t take away from an unexpectedly impressive season for Louisville in Jeff Brohm’s first season, but the Cards were overmatched and outclassed by Florida State. — Williams
Is Florida State a lock for the CFP?
Based on past precedent, Florida State secured its spot in the four-team Playoff on Saturday as a power-conference team with an undefeated season and conference championship. The question now is whether the Playoff selection committee would use the Travis injury to justify ranking Texas and Alabama ahead of the Noles. It certainly wasn’t the prettiest win over Louisville with a third-string, true freshman at quarterback, and Travis’s absence could hurt FSU’s argument as “one of the four best teams.”
But the committee has traditionally favored the most deserving teams based on resume and has never kept an undefeated P5 champ out of the four-team format. From Florida State’s perspective, winning a conference title against a top-15 opponent with a third-string QB is an obvious argument in its favor, as well as the team anticipating having backup Rodemaker healthy for the national semifinal.
It seems highly unlikely the committee would penalize the Seminoles for an injury, but the nerves and doubts might be a tad higher than preferred for Florida State until the selections are in on Sunday. — Williams
Required reading
(Photo: Isaiah Vazquez / Getty)
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