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Florida State fell 24-21 to Georgia Tech on Saturday in Dublin, Ireland to open the 2024 season.
It’s a shocking result as the Noles were favored by double digits at most sportsbooks in the lead up to this game. Georgia Tech played very well, with Haynes King and Jamal Haynes leading the way in that regard.
Florida State scored a relatively easy touchdown on its opening drive, but didn’t find the end zone again until there was 6:33 left in the game. In the meantime, its only points came on a pair of 50+ yard field goals by Ryan Fitzgerald.
After scoring that 4th-quarter touchdown, the Noles never touched the ball again. Georgia Tech won it on a 44-yard field goal by Aidan Birr as time expired, securing a major upset to open the 2024 season.
Here are 3 takeaways from Florida State’s deflating loss:
Georgia Tech was dominant in the trenches
Florida State lost the battle up front on both sides of the ball. It was evident watching the game, but even more-so when examining the stat sheet.
Offensively, FSU struggled mightily to move the ball outside of its breezy opening drive. For the game, the Noles averaged just 3.2 yards per rush. DJ Uiagalelei was largely ineffective, save for some money-down throws in the 4th quarter (more on his FSU debut later). Florida State’s offense posted a success rate of just 40% for the game. It was averaging negative EPA per play until its final offensive drive of the game.
The picture on defense might be even bleaker. Georgia Tech manhandled Florida State’s vaunted defensive front for nearly the entire game. The Yellow Jackets had an equally-dominant opening drive touchdown, but they were able to sustain their success for the full 60 minutes. They had 3 separate scoring drives that lasted 6+ minutes, including one that took 7:53 off the clock. Georgia Tech’s success rate for the game was a whopping 58% — an absolutely elite figure.
DJ Uiagalelei’s rough game
Uiagalelei completed 19-of-27 passes in this game, but rarely was willing to push the ball down field. He had an average depth of target below 0 yards in the first half, which was out-of-character for him — at least relative to his 2023 campaign at Oregon State. He was a bit more aggressive in the second half, but not meaningfully so.
Even though Uiagalelei had a respectable completion percentage in this game, his overall performance left a lot to be desired from Florida State’s perspective. He missed or overlooked multiple receivers in key spots. Most of his passing production in this game came on screen passes or check-downs. Uiagalelei also showed off very little mobility as a runner — he proved to be relatively easy to bright down for Georgia Tech’s aggressive defensive front.
It was a bad start for a quarterback that was hoping to show progress as he makes his return to the ACC.
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Where does Florida State go from here?
This is a crushing loss for Florida State. The Noles entered the year as a preseason AP Top 10 team despite losing an enormous amount of talent to the NFL Draft. As it turns out, the Noles may have more work to do after losing so many key players from last year’s squad that started 13-0 and won the ACC. After missing out on the CFP last season, the Noles were hoping to start off this season with some momentum.
Instead, it’s an embarrassing defeat. The Noles were double-digit favorites against the Yellow Jackets in Ireland. This is FSU’s first loss against an ACC team since Oct. 15, 2022 against Clemson.
Of course, Florida State can still recover from this and reach the College Football Playoff — at least in theory. But it would take significant improvement on both sides of the ball for the Noles to get back to the level they were at a year ago.
Spenser is a news editor for Saturday Down South and covers college football across all Saturday Football brands.
