Better Know an ACC Opponent: Florida State

Meet the new USC, same as the old USC

How have I not found this picture when putting together TwistNHook’s legal analysis posts?!

In case you’ve blissfully forgotten, the Pac-12 is dead and Cal is now in a conference named after the other side of the country. If you’re reading this, it means that this new reality is not a deal breaker for you. Over the rest of the off-season, we’ll profile each and every member of this conference that Cal has joined, that will definitely 100% exist it its current form for years if not decades.

Previously: Boston College; Clemson; Duke

Give me the basics

Florida State is a public research institution, but with a strangely transitory history. Florida’s legislature chartered the school (the “Florida Institute”) in 1851, but it quickly became a military institution to support the confederacy during the Civil War. In 1885 it was renamed as the University of Florida, but in 1905 in a major reorganization of the Florida university system, it was turned into a women’s college.

As a result, major collegiate athletics didn’t occur at Florida State until the school went back to being co-ed until 1947, when Florida needed to meet the educational needs of returning GIs from World War II. The Seminole mascot was chosen that same year, and Florida State joined the Dixie Conference in 1948. They soon left that conference for independence, which was maintained in football until the entire athletic department joined the ACC in 1991. Florida State and its fans have been happy, 100% satisfied Atlantic Coast Conference members ever since.

Do they have any relevant history with Cal?

Not particularly, no. The football teams have never faced each other. The men’s basketball programs played one game in an early season invitational in the 2008-09 season that FSU won by 3. There have been a handful of baseball games and I’m sure that there have been other non-revenue encounters, but nothing that I particular recall or could find easily.

You may remember me from such Pac-12 teams as:

This is the easiest comparison we will make throughout this entire series, so much so that I ‘spoiled’ it already in the headline. Florida State is USC is every way possible.

Their band plays one song incessantly while their fans do a mindless hand gesture. They have generally been the best program in their conference but have had periods of mediocre play that has done nothing to dampen the arrogance of their fan base. They have an actual human mascot doing kinda uncomfortable cosplay on a mascot horse. They are actively conspiring to destroy the conference that Cal is in, because they want more money.

I want to get on their good side. I should agree with them about:

Well, agreeing that their too good for the ACC and should be let out of the contract they signed is just transparently sucking up, so you can keep it mild and just praise them for being pretty clearly the best, most consistent football program in the ACC since they joined in ‘91.

I want to troll them incessantly. I should make fun of them for:

The fact that for the foreseeable future they’re stuck in this stupid conference with us, unless they’re willing to fork over an amount of money that would hamper their competitiveness in a different conference.

What should I know about their current coaches?

You might remember Mike Norvell from his time at Arizona State, where he was Todd Graham’s offensive coordinator. Graham built some pretty solid offenses at ASU that were largely wasted by defenses that weren’t any good, and he managed to parlay that into the Memphis head coaching gig. After a 38-15 run at Memphis, FSU came calling.

Norvell inherited a big ole mess from Willie Taggert, then managed to avoid the chopping block after a mediocre first two years, and the Seminoles were rewarded for not listening to their most unhinged fans with back-to-back 10+ win seasons.

MBB coach Leonard is entering his 23rd season in Tallahassee, and he’s made nine* NCAA tournaments in that span, and I distinctly remember how much I enjoyed his teams in the late teens when it felt like every dude on their roster was 6’6’’ or taller and could jump out of the gym. The main thing I know about Hamilton is that the internet claims he is 75 years old but in every picture on the internet he looks 45.

*I’m counting the COVID year, when they were 26-5

Which alumni keep them stuck in the past?

It doesn’t get much cooler than Burt Reynolds and Lee Corso being roommates and football teammates, does it? Though in terms of actual on-field success you’ve got Fred Belitnikoff, Deion Sanders, Warrick Dunn, Derrick Brooks . . . an embarrassment of riches, really.

Also, I doubt FSU fans care about this one way or the other, but Jim Morrison went to school at FSU before transferring to UCLA and was arrested for getting drunk at a game, and I just felt like you needed to know that.

Which alumni will they pretend they’ve forgotten?

Well, an authority no less than Bobby Bowden said that Jameis Winston was embarrassing to Florida State, though I’d wager that fans were willing to overlook is off-field escapades since he won a national title.

What’s their school tradition that they take way too seriously?

Florida State fans will be quick to point out that the Seminole mascot name and their specific mascots Osceola (the dude) and Renegade (the horse) are officially sanctioned by the Seminole tribe of Florida. They will NOT be quick to point out that it isn’t sanctioned by the much larger Seminole tribe of Oklahoma. And if you don’t know why there is a large population of Seminoles living in Oklahoma and why they may not be thrilled about current Floridians using their name as a sports mascot, you should probably read up on your history.

What non-revenue sport do they care about most?

Probably baseball, as Florida State has made 24 college world series appearances, though improbably they have not been able to secure a single baseball title. Amusingly, Cal has made a paltry 6 college world series appearances and has won 2 national titles! How long ago were those titles? Doesn’t matter!

Should I go see Cal play a game there?

Tallahassee is a state capitol and there’s a certain amount of history in the area, but the city itself is a mid-sized government/college town that isn’t exactly renowned as a vacation destination. Plus, being in the panhandle, it’s pretty well removed from the other major population areas of Florida. If you want to pair your trip with Miami or Disneyworld, you’re gonna have to do some driving or multiple plane flights.

Really, the reason is to see Cal play in a college football mecca in a historic, large stadium. Florida State’s Doak Campbell stadium (named after a staunch segregationist former university administrator!) historically has seated just short of 80,000 but renovations are in progress this season which will limit capacity in 2024 and reduce capacity in the future.

Is Cal better than them at sports right now?

Florida State is coming off an undefeated regular season, and while they’re not expected to be quite that good in 2024, most experts and projection systems see them somewhere between #10 and #20 in the nation entering the season. So yeah, they’re better in football.

The basketball team had a five year run of really high end play, but over the last three years they have fallen off badly (which might arguably be correlated with the departure of former assistant coach Dennis Gates!) and it would not be a surprise if Madsen’s crew of transfers ended up better than the Seminoles this season.

The Florida State women’s basketball program has made the NCAA tournament every year but once in the last 20 years, though without a ton of deep runs, but it’s still a level of consistently solid basketball that I would commit crimes to see come back at Cal.