CVILLE RIGHT NOW<\/a>) \u2013 Virginia football coach Tony Elliott was waxing nostalgic when he told a room full of reporters that the ACC championship goes through Tallahassee, Fla.<\/p>\nCertainly, there was a time \u2013 when Elliott was at Clemson and Florida State was the Tigers\u2019 chief rival \u2013 when that sentiment was accurate. Nowadays, the Seminoles are more a spoiler than the league\u2019s gold standard.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Still, for Elliott\u2019s team this season, Saturday in the Florida panhandle could be a defining moment, much the way last year\u2019s double-overtime upset of the Seminoles at Scott Stadium vaulted the 2025 Cavaliers toward the ACC title game.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt might not have national rankings and recognition, but it\u2019s still Florida State, right?\u201d Elliott said. \u201cAnd if you want to be a champion in this league, I just believe that, man, you got to go through Tallahassee.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, the Seminoles are both chaotic and capable. They\u2019ve fired their athletic director, and their coach, Mike Norvell, is sitting on one of the sport\u2019s toastiest hot seats.<\/p>\n
Still, FSU (2-2, 0-1 ACC) \u2013 especially in Tallahassee \u2013 won\u2019t be easy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same Seminoles who struggled past New Mexico State in the season opener and underwhelmed in a home win over Central Arkansas this past weekend, hung with Alabama for a half and nearly upset then-No. 19 SMU in between.<\/p>\n
Offensively, FSU may have the league\u2019s most talented receiving corps, led by Duce Robinson, Micahi Danzy and Jayvan Boggs. That group won\u2019t be easy to jam at the line of scrimmage or stick with downfield on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part of what makes the Seminole receivers difficult to defend is the danger posed by running back Ousmane Kromah, who is averaging 6.2 yards per carry and has scored five touchdowns in four games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019ve always had the best talent in college football,\u201d Elliott said. \u201cIt\u2019s blue blood. It\u2019s one of the big-time logos. So, that\u2019s what\u2019s been consistent. There\u2019s always been a ton of talent in Tallahassee.\u201d<\/p>\n
A year ago, Florida State was undefeated, had a win over Alabama and was ranked No. 8 in the nation when it visited Scott Stadium. A 46-38 double-overtime victory later \u2013 one complete with arguably the fastest field storming in college football history \u2013 and it was UVA being viewed as an ACC title contender.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt really showed us and the country and the world that we were for real,\u201d running back Xavier Brown said this week. \u201cIt kind of just pushed us forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
That victory had ripples beyond last season. UVA cornerback Omillo Agard said he can remember watching the Cavaliers\u2019 fight past FSU while he was at Wisconsin. In fact, he and a number of teammates stayed up late to see how the game ended.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were supposed to go to sleep, but we were still watching it,\u201d Agard said. \u201cAnd they pulled it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Students on the hill behind the north end zone rushed onto the field as soon as UVA corner Ja\u2019Son Prevard intercepted FSU\u2019s final pass, diving in front of receiver Squirrel White to secure the pick. The wave of fans rolled over Prevard, White and other players as they rushed to celebrate the win.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Brown and other UVA players who weren\u2019t on the field also took off in a jubilant sprint toward midfield.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone ran to the left so I ran to the right,\u201d Brown recalled this week. \u201cWhen I turned around, I was just consumed with fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
After that, Virginia went to a program-record 11-win season, including an ACC title game loss to Duke and a bowl win over Missouri. And here is where Elliott is correct. With challenging road games at SMU, Wake Forest and Virginia Tech and a home game against Duke still to come, UVA (3-1, 1-0) may need a win Saturday to have a shot at getting back to Charlotte.<\/p>\n
No, the road to the ACC title no longer runs through Tallahassee for the rest of the league. But for the Cavaliers, it just might.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While Virginia coach Tony Elliott waxed nostalgic this week about FSU’s former status in the conference, he is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415900,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[232,234,233],"class_list":["post-415899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=415899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/415899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=415899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=415899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=415899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}