FSU beat rival Miami, but even in losing the Hurricanes showed their fight and future | Opinion
It was a finish befitting the history and drama of one of the great rivalries in college football.
The 55th consecutive season the Miami Hurricanes and Florida State Seminoles have met on a field produced the 18th game since 2000 decided by one score.
FSU beat UM 27-20, but if it felt like both teams won, that might not have been entirely wrong.
The Seminoles were fighting for their season in a real, literal sense — to stay unbeaten and protect their spot in the College Football Playoff and their national championship hopes. They did.
The Hurricanes were fighting for their season, too, but more symbolically. To show their improvement in Year 2 for Mario Cristobal. To show they are getting closer to “back.” They did.
“Winning this game is one of the reasons I came back to Miami,” Cristobal said.
In sports at this level only one team can win and the Seminoles did. But Cristobal and the Canes showed fight, showed progress, in their biggest and most important game of the season.
FSU already had qualified for the ACC Championship Game.
Miami, now 6-4, had nice wins earlier this season vs. Texas A&M and Clemson, but the previous game, a 20-6 loss to North Carolina State, had been a huge letdown.
UM and Cristobal needed to show up in every sense in Tallahassee, and did.
A year earlier, amid a 5-7 inaugural UM season for Cristobal, Miami was embarrassed to lose at home to the Noles, 45-3.
“There’s a lot of development, a lot of improvement,” Cristobal said. “We came here to win. We didn’t come here for a consolation prize.”
Cristobal benched starting quarterback Tyler Van Dyke for the game and started true freshman Emory Williams, 19.
It was the right move. UM had 11 turnovers in the past four games, and Van Dyke was a big reason.
Both QBs would have a role in the drama as it played out.
Williams played like the college rookie he is yet threw a pair of touchdown passes, including the 85-yard play to Jacolby George that drew Miami within the final score with eight minutes left.
The ABC cameras showed his family in the stands after that play and the Kid QB’s mom kept shouting, “Yeah, baby!” She could have meant it literally.
But that same family was terrified minutes later as their son, after a scramble for a first down with 2:43 to play, sustained a “significant” left arm injury on the play (Cristobal’s word) and left the field on a cart, fighting tears.
Van Dyke entered, and completed two nice passes before throwing the interception that ended the game.
“He has a super bright future,’’ Cristobal said, of Williams. “And Tyler Van Dyke [a junior] has a super bright future. There was a rough patch there and we made a decision, but I think everybody jumps to conclusions too quickly. Tyler is an awesome young man. It was a very tough decision. He handled it extremely well.’’
The first half ended in a 10-10 tie, but was a triumph for Miami, a 14-point underdog on the road against its biggest rival.
The Hurricanes would have and should have led 12-10 but for an apparent safety that was not called even upon review as UM’s sack of Noles quarterback Jordan Travis was marked at the 1-yard line. Cristobal was furious on the sideline.
FSU led 10-0 on a short scoring run by Trey Benson and a short field goal, but the Canes packed their fight for the trip north to Tallahassee.
A 3-yards pass from Williams to Jacolby George pulled Miami within 10-7 and a 27-yard field goal in the final minute tied it.
UM played stout defense throughout the half and Williams didn’t need to do much, aided by 80 yards rushing by Don Chaney and 71 receiving by George.
After took its only lead at 13-10 in the third quarter the Noles scored 17 unanswered points before Miami rallied on Williams’ ate throw to George.
These two old state rivals met as national powers for a long time, through the 1980s, through the ‘90s, through around 2006.
Today, FSU is back contending at the very top. They have a chance to win a national championship.
Miami is still trying to get there. They will play in a second tier bowl game.
But if Saturday in Tallahassee showed anything, it is that the Seminoles and Hurricanes — no matter the records and rankings — are not that far apart.
This story was originally published November 11, 2023 at 7:43 PM.
