Blue & Gold Illustrated: America's Foremost Authority on Notre Dame Football
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40 NOV. 9, 2024 BLUE & GOLD ILLUSTRATED GAME PREVIEW: FLORIDA STATE On3's Andy Staples quote-posted a "Message Board Geniuses" social media post with a screen shot of a Noles247 poster asking if Norvell would let Flor- ida State out of his $70 million buyout as a proposed win-win for both parties: Norvell saves any ounces of credibil- ity as a head coach he has left and the school saves tens of millions of dollars. Of course, we have no way of know- ing if the post was complete satire. But the simple fact that it was written at all shows just how far Florida State has fallen since most of the college foot- ball fan sector at large condemned the College Football Playoff committee for snubbing the Seminoles from being a semifinalist in the final season of the four-team playoff last December. Fans from teams across the country had Flor- ida State's back then. They're laugh- ing now — just like that one dude from Warchant.com. The Seminoles' next chance to be made a mockery of comes under the lights at Notre Dame Stadium in the only primetime game played at the venue in this 2024 regular season. Notre Dame has had oodles of success in the spot of late, from beating Clemson 35-14 in 2022 and smacking reigning Heisman Trophy winner Caleb Williams and USC around in a 48-20 drubbing in 2023. Worth noting — Uiagalelei is the one who started that Clemson game. He threw an interception and totaled only 191 passing yards on 39 attempts. Wil- liams, meanwhile, had the worst game of his illustrious college career against Notre Dame. It was the only game in which he threw 3 interceptions. He had 199 passing yards on 37 attempts. This is not a good spot for an ail- ing Florida State offense to come into, whether it be Uiagalelei returning from injury or freshman Brock Glenn or whoever. Notre Dame has feasted on opponents' passing games in the last couple of seasons. The Seminoles have a passing game that's been feasted on by everyone it has gone against this year. "There is an absolute sense of ur- gency for continued steps," Norvell said. "Some of it's mental. We're allowing some of the external and sometimes even the internal to be able to affect performance. We just got to relax and go out there and do what you've trained to do and go perform like you have before." Norvell can be optimistic all he wants. It'll take more than optimism to spring a major upset in South Bend. ✦ 2024 NOTRE DAME SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 31 at Texas A&M W, 23-13 Sept. 7 Northern Illinois L, 16-14 Sept. 14 at Purdue W, 66-7 Sept. 21 Miami (Ohio) W, 28-3 Sept. 28 Louisville W, 31-24 Oct. 12 Stanford W, 49-7 Oct. 19 vs. Georgia Tech# W, 31-13 Oct. 26 vs. Navy^ W, 51-14 Nov. 9 Florida State (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 Virginia (NBC) 3:30 p.m. Nov. 23 vs. Army* (NBC) 7 p.m. Nov. 30 at USC TBA # at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta; ^ at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.; * Shamrock Series at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, N.Y. ; Games on NBC are also televised by Peacock 2024 FLORIDA STATE SCHEDULE Date Opponent (TV) Result/Time (ET) Aug. 24 vs. Georgia Tech* L, 24-21 Sept. 2 Boston College L, 28-13 Sept. 14 Memphis L, 20-12 Sept. 21 California W, 14-9 Sept. 28 SMU L, 42-16 Oct. 5 Clemson L, 29-13 Oct. 18 at Duke L, 23-16 Oct. 26 at Miami L, 36-14 Nov. 2 North Carolina TBA Nov. 9 at Notre Dame (NBC) 7:30 p.m. Nov. 23 Charleston Southern TBA Nov. 30 Florida TBA * at Aviva Stadium in Dublin, Ireland Playing for his third school in five years, quar- terback DJ Uiagalelei struggled mightily before suffering an injury in Week 4. He was completing a career-low 53.8 percent of his throws with just 4 touchdowns and 6 interceptions. PHOTO COURTESY FLORIDA STATE ATHLETICS