Notre Dame’s 2024 schedule didn’t look overly difficult on paper during the pre-season but we discussed if Florida State could remain one of the stronger teams nationally it would help out a lot. As such, it made the most sense to have this weekend’s matchup with the Seminoles as the 7:30 PM home game kickoff in primetime on NBC.

Thanks for nothing, FSU!

Florida State (+26.5) at Notre Dame

Notre Dame Stadium South Bend, Indiana
Date: Saturday, November 9, 2024
Time: 7:30 PM ET
TV: NBC/Peacock

The Noles come to northern Indiana limping through a nightmare season from hell following on the heels of an exciting 2023 that ended in tremendous pain. It’s been a shocking 180-degree turn for the program and improvement doesn’t look to be happening at all this weekend.

Vegas Corner

A long time ago, this game opened with Notre Dame favored by 3 points. Three points! We thought this could be THE premier game of the season for the Irish. The first line this week from Vegas had Florida State as +25 underdogs and that line has moved to +26 while ticking up to +26.5 recently.

Weather Report

We should be getting nice and beautiful partly sunny crisp high 50’s fall weather on Saturday for ideal on-campus tailgating leading up to a night game. However, temperatures look to be dropping below 50 near kickoff and some rain showers are expected with a light 9 mph wind coming from the southeast. It probably won’t be too gross of weather but also not the kind of weather a team from the South is going to be excited about playing in this weekend.

Series History

Notre Dame doesn’t have many series where they are under .500 against the competition but Florida State is one of those as the Irish will look to move to 6-6-0 all-time against the Seminoles on Saturday. This will be the 3rd visit in 7 years for Florida State to Notre Dame Stadium and the Irish are currently on an overall 3-game winning streak in the series from victories in 2021, 2020, and 2018.

Fun Fact

Florida State’s Latin motto is “Vires, Artes, Mores” which translates to “Be a terrible nuisance on social media.” Kidding, it means “Strength, Skill, Character.” Ironically, the football team could use all 3 of those this season.

Coaching Staff

No coach has been on quite the roller coaster like Mike Norvell. Rebuilding the program at Florida State was taking time (8-13 his first 2 seasons) and things looked on a definite upward trajectory in 2022 following a solid 10-3 season, including a win in the storied Cheez-It Bowl. No one predicted the rise during 2023 when the Seminoles hit the jackpot on some transfers and ended up going 13-0 before a playoff snub sent the program into chaos. Since then, FSU has lost 9 out of its last 10 games.

It’s been that kind of year at Florida State.

Norvell is heavily involved with the offense. Offensive line coach Alex Atkins came over to Florida State in 2020 after stops at Georgia Southern, Tulane, and Charlotte and was promoted to offensive coordinator ahead of 2022, but it’s Norvell who calls plays.

Current defensive coordinator Adam Fuller spent a long time (2013-18) at Marshall before spending one season with Norvell at Memphis prior to coming to Florida State together.

Mascot

With approval from the Seminole Tribe of Florida, the university introduced the Osceola and Renegade mascots in 1978. With a flaming spear, the mascot plants the weapon prior to kickoff. However, this is only done at home games in Tallahassee. Of course, Notre Dame doesn’t allow live mascots in South Bend anyway.

The horse saw 2024 coming.

There is only allowed to be one Osceola from the student body at a time and the mascot goes through training on riding and Seminole history.

Portal

Florida State has gone heavily to the transfer portal in recent seasons and as mentioned had a lot of success leading to 2023. Out of their 10 NFL Draft picks in the spring, only 1 player started their career at Florida State. So far in 2024, things have not panned out very well. Here’s a look at all of the 2024 off-season transfers coming into the program:

QB D.J. Uiagalelei – Oregon State – Struggled a lot before breaking a finger on his throwing hand.

RB Roydell Williams – Alabama – Averaged less than 3 yards a carry and has been hurt since FSU’s 4th game.

RB Jaylin Lucas – Indiana – Played in 2 games before going down with a season-ending injury.

WR Malik Benson – Alabama – Having a solid season as the Noles no. 2 receiver.

WR Jalen Brown – LSU – 8 catches this season and none over the last 4 games.

OG Terrence Ferguson – Alabama – He started games 3 through 6 and that’s it so far.

OG Richie Leonard – Florida – Not playing.

OT Jacob Rizy – Harvard – Started the last 2 games.

DE Marvin Jones – Georgia – Starting and having a good season.

DE Sione Lolohea – Oregon State – 2nd stringer.

DT Tomiwa Durojaiye – West Virginia – Barely sees the field.

DT Grady Kelly – Colorado State – Solid backup.

LB Shawn Murphy – Alabama – Banged up all year and has played in only 1 game.

LB Cam Riley – Auburn – Doesn’t start but plays a ton.

CB Earl Little – Alabama – Solid backup.

CB Omarion Cooper – Colorado – Not seeing the field that much.

S Davonte Brown – Miami – Started the first game but now playing in a backup role.

The defense has done pretty well, especially given Florida State’s season. However, as you can see the transfers coming in on offense have not panned out.

Top Men

WR Ja’Khi Douglas – Leading this team in receiving is something, at least! Douglas is a shifty 5th-year senior who works out of the slot and has been a rare bright spot on offense for the Seminoles.

DT Joshua Farmer – There was some big NFL buzz for Farmer and that’s died down a bit this season. Still,  he’s a big body (311 pounds) who can get after it with 7.5 sacks and 13.5 tackles for loss since 2023.

DE Patrick Payton – One of the top recruits out of Miami Northwestern, Payton has now developed into one of Florida State’s top NFL prospects. He has 8 tackles for loss and 4 sacks this season.

Payton could be a day 2 pick for FSU. 

PK Ryan Fitzgerald – Not a great sign for any opponent that we’re going towards a kicker here but Fitzgerald is 10 for 11 on field goals in 2024. He made 19 of 21 last year, too.

P Alex Mastromanno – Florida State’s 49.35 yards in punting average leads the nation!

KR Samuel Singleton – This redshirt freshman running back has been inserted as a kick returner mid-season and is averaging nearly 30 yards on 9 attempts, with a touchdown against Duke.

Bad Matchup

Florida State’s Special Teams

The Noles are ranked 2nd in FEI special teams so this is no joke. As mentioned above, their kicking and punting game is top notch. And they’ve blocked 3 field goals and 1 punt, as well.

Good Matchup

Notre Dame’s Run Defense vs. Florida State’s Attempt at Running the Ball

This was supposed to be a solid to very good offensive line for Florida State this season. All of the pre-season predictions revolved around the team breaking in some new pieces on offense but at least having the experienced offensive line to keep things together. That…has not happened.

The Noles have started 10 different offensive linemen this season. Their run game is currently suffering through maybe program worst-ever levels at 2.67 yards per carry. Things looked up briefly for 2 games (295 yards total) against Duke and Miami before falling back to 42 rushing yards last weekend against North Carolina.

Special Teams

This is such a funny game preview where this section has already been covered. I’m not going to entertain a Florida State upset at this juncture but super annoying levels of bad field position and a few field goals from the Noles mixed in with a couple special teams mistakes from Notre Dame is a clear path to a non-cover this weekend.

Prediction

I promised myself this preview would stay well below 2,000 words. This Florida State team is an abomination and not worthy of much more talk.

I should mention, the Seminoles defense has been pretty solid. They had to re-load this season, only had 4 starters returning from 2023, and at least this side of the ball hasn’t fallen off a cliff like the offense. The defense also hasn’t suffered that many injuries, either. They aren’t great on defense, but if Notre Dame has their stinky passing game show up don’t be surprised if we head to halftime with only 14-17 points on the board.

FEI 2024 RANKINGS

Notre Dame should quickly swallow up this Florida State offense and immediately choke their hopes for remaining competitive. Current redshirt freshman Brock Glenn didn’t look ready last year in his brief appearances, he hasn’t had quality development time in 2024 with the Uiagalelei injury, and what are they going to do rely on true freshman Luke Kromenhoek (he threw 2 interceptions last week) in relief again?

This will be the 6th time since the 2020 season (Syracuse 2020, Duke 2020, Boston College 2022, Pittsburgh 2023, Stanford 2024) that Notre Dame faces a power conference opponent with an offense ranked 100th or worse by FEI. The Irish have allowed 9.6 points in those 5 games with an average margin of victory of 32.4 points. Take those last 3 in the Freeman era only and the defense has allowed just 14 points total and created a margin of victory at 41.4 points.

Coming off a bye, Notre Dame should be sharp. I doubt Florida State wanted to even fly to South Bend.

Florida State 6

Notre Dame 43