What a distinction a 12 months makes.
In 2023, the Florida State Seminoles had been the most effective groups in faculty soccer. They went 12-0 through the common season, received the ACC, and possibly would have been within the four-team Faculty Soccer Playoff if beginning quarterback Jordan Travis had not been injured.
Regardless of lacking out on the playoffs, after which getting blown out of their bowl recreation, the Seminoles nonetheless entered 2024 as a preseason top-10 group with ACC championship expectations.
They aren’t going to return near matching them, and with Saturday’s 52-3 loss at No. 10 Notre Dame, their season has formally gone from unhealthy to embarrassing.
It’s also one of many worst 180 wrong-way turnarounds in faculty soccer historical past.
The Seminoles aren’t solely 1-9 on the season, they haven’t even been aggressive in most of those video games.
Saturday’s loss at Notre Dame was already their sixth loss by at the least two scores and the fourth time they’ve misplaced by at the least 20 factors.
The Seminoles accomplished simply 10-of-26 passes for under 88 yards, whereas additionally throwing two interceptions together with a pick-six late within the fourth quarter. They had been out-gained 453-208 general.
Sure, Florida State misplaced quite a lot of expertise from final 12 months’s group, together with Travis and high operating again Trey Benson. However once more, this was nonetheless a group that entered the 12 months with a top-10 rating and was 23-4 the previous two seasons. To not solely lose 9 of their first 10 video games however to get dominated in most of them is a foul search for everyone concerned, from the teaching workers all the way down to the gamers.
It’s also uncharted territory for this system. Whereas Florida State has had some mediocre seasons in recent times, it has not often been this unhealthy. That is Florida State’s first nine-loss season since 1974.
If there’s a silver lining to take from all of it, it’s that the Seminoles at the least have two winnable video games remaining to shut out the season with Charleston Southern and Florida nonetheless on the schedule. The previous must be a win, whereas the latter is likely to be a 50-50 coin flip given the best way each groups have performed this season.
