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Miami Herald
10 hours ago
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Florida State Football Preview 2025: The Seminoles Hit the Refresh Button
What happened to Florida State? This isn't actually all that program got caught in an all-time bad break perfect storm at the end of 2023 to miss out on the CFP, made worse by a 63-3 Orange Bowl loss to a Georgia team that could've put up 80+ if it tried, and …Because there wasn't enough horrible luck for that Seminole team, it was the last year of the four-team the hits just kept onnnnnnnn coming. X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN Florida State Offense BreakdownFlorida State Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonAfter suffering the most brutal of gut punches, Florida State seemingly had a good enough team returning to quickly get back on track. Fully motivated, it all instantly fell apart after a last-second loss to Georgia Tech in Ireland. From there, the bad vibes never went away. Oh, and 2024 Florida State played a way harder schedule than it did the year 2023 team was great, starting with a dominant win over Jayden Daniels and a strong LSU team in the opener, but lost in history was how FSU slipped by Clemson because Dabo's 19th-string kicker biffed the game-winning field goal try in regulation. Also forgotten was that the LSU win and the ACC Championship victory over Louisville were the two victories over teams that won ten games. In all, the 2023 team played seven games in the regular season against teams that went bowling. The 2024 team played 11 - Charleston Southern was the lone outlier - including five that won ten games or more. Three of those were against CFP teams, and one was against a Notre Dame squad that played for the national doesn't mean Florida State should've lost to Boston College by 15, or to North Carolina by 24, or to Florida 20, all at home. And now this becomes a wildly interesting experiment. From 12-1, to 1-11, to almost completely starting over, at least with the starters, FSU is loaded with upperclassmen, it's totally reliant on new guys, and that might be exactly what the program should be between 11 to 15 new starters for the opener against Alabama who weren't part of the 2023 fun or the 2024 pity party. Getting Gus Malzahn as the offensive coordinator was a coup, there's a new defensive coordinator, and overall, the refresh should get everything going again. It might be one of those Mike Tyson "everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth" things with Alabama to kick things off, but there's talent, along with decent depth on the way to a bowl. Remember, FSU has only been to three or those since there's an expanded playoff this time around, just in case head coach Mike Norvell makes it three double-digit winning seasons in four years. But that only happens if he gets a lot more out of his … Florida State Offense BreakdownFlorida State Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
4 days ago
- Sport
- Miami Herald
USC Football Preview 2025: Lincoln Riley On the Hot Seat? Be Careful What You Wish For
Make sure you take a giant deep breath on this one, everyone, as you're busy fanning the flames under the hot Lincoln Riley. He'll only be 42 when the season starts, and there are decades of football coaching ahead for the guy who took Oklahoma to four straight conference championships with four straight College Football Playoff appearances, and he went 10-2 in his final season before leaving for USC.(By the way, Oklahoma is 22-17 with two losing seasons in the last three since Riley left.) X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN USC Offense BreakdownUSC Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonCompletely lost in the fog of hysteria by those who expected a national title run in Year Two at USC, and absolutely in Year Three, was that Riley went 11-3 in his first season after taking over a floundering 4-8 blew off the offensive pop and ripped on the defense. And then, last year, his Trojan D allowed 134 fewer points than the 2023 version. That didn't seem to matter because the team kept losing in brutally painful fashion. No, it wasn't okay to go 6-6 in USC's first year in the Big Ten - seriously, I have no skin in this game as the apparent leader of the Lincoln Riley PR Club - but it opened with a win over LSU, closed with a Las Vegas Bowl win over Texas A&M, and five of the six losses were by one score. In the other defeat, USC was about to go in and tie Notre Dame late, and then came the two monster pick-sixes by the Irish to screw that lost to Michigan with 37 seconds to play. It gave up the game-winning score to Minnesota with 57 seconds left, and to Maryland with 53 seconds to go. It lost to Penn State in a wild overtime firefight, and came up just short at Washington. As it turned out, Notre Dame and Penn State were pretty good - they played each other in the College Football Playoff semifinals - and those other four losses were the four games played outside of Los Angeles and Las yeah, yeah, but it's USC. Most of those losses shouldn't have been that close to begin with. And yes, it's Lincoln Riley. His first year was fantastic, but going 15-11 over the last two years wasn't okay. And this is where cooler, critical minds have to try to calm everyone down going into this supposedly do-or-die season for the Riley has a funky way of hiring great coaches who leave, and then do big things somewhere Kiffin might be the best football coach going - seriously, what he did at Florida Atlantic, and what he's doing at Ole Miss, is next to was handed USC when it was deep in a coma after the ridiculous punishment for Reggie Bush doing NIL before it was cool. The expectations were high with a huge 10-2 season, the program had to rebuild, and he got is now 44-18 at Ole Miss, after winning two conference titles with two 11-win seasons in three years at FAU. Ed Orgeron went 6-2 with USC in 2013 when Kiffin was launched. Okay, so his time in Baton Rouge imploded in the end, but his 2019 LSU team had, arguably, the greatest season in college football Sarkisian's situation was far different, and there were far more important personal issues when he departed USC, but ultimately, he became the one who made Texas a national championship power again. He won 25 games in his first three years in Austin - one fewer than Riley has won so far at USC. Pete Carroll didn't win a national title until his fourth season, John McKay started 8-11-1, and …USC has the talent and the schedule - even with road games at Notre Dame, Oregon, Illinois, and Nebraska - to have a breakthrough season as a Big Ten program. So yes, USC needs to win more now for Lincoln Riley to stick around. At the very least, it has to look like he's close to making USC into USC again, and it starts with getting more out of the … USC Offense BreakdownUSC Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
6 days ago
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Florida Football Preview 2025: Billy Napier Has His Best Gator Team Yet - But Is It Enough?
Florida is supposed to be playing for national the program of Spurrier, and Urban, and Tebow, and fun, and 'n', and gun, and spread, and Wuerffel - and basketball national titles - and Billy Napier was and is supposed to be the guy who came in and got everything back to rough has it been? Starting with the final season under Dan Mullen, the 26 losses mark the worst four-year run of Gator football since 1978 to 1981, and there was a 0-10-1 campaign in that mix. X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN Florida Offense BreakdownFlorida Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to SeasonBefore last year, the three straight losing seasons were the first time that happened since a stretch from 1945 to 1947. And following a 49-17 loss to Texas in mid-November, Florida appeared to be destined for its first four-season losing run since the then the offense clicked, the defense didn't allow more than 17 points in any of the final four games, Napier came up with a strong recruiting class, and now there's hope again that the big production is about to first, Florida just has to get closer to the pin against the good teams. This is the best squad yet under Napier. It was rebuilt to this point with a strong combination of depth, youth, and talent. There weren't any major losses through the transfer portal that can't be fixed, and there weren't a ton of players coming in other than to patch a few lines are strong, there's a rising superstar at quarterback in DJ Lagway, and the kicking game might be the best in the SEC. But the team needs to be in more tight games to let the special teams be the of the 19 losses under Napier, 12 of them were by double-digits, including four of the five defeats last year. And that's where the bar should be set. Of course Florida needs to be good enough to be a regular in the College Football Playoff, and of course Napier needs to do more, but out of those 19 losses under Napier, 13 were against the elite of the elite that finished with ten wins or this year's schedule might be the toughest of the again, it's Florida. It's supposed to be one of those elites among elites that take down all of the other good programs. It might not happen this year, but 2025 has to be the final season before it does. Florida Offense BreakdownFlorida Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
19-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Arizona State Football Preview 2025: Who's Having More Fun Than Kenny Dillingham and the Sun Devils?
Everything about Arizona State last year was back Cam Skattebo was fun. Quarterback Sam Leavitt was fun. Winning the Big 12 Championship was fun, and almost pulling out a thriller over Texas in the College Football Playoff was super-fun, even in a no one had more fun than head coach Kenny Dillingham, with an infectious excitement and style that showed in every play in every game. X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN Arizona State Offense BreakdownArizona State Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season Skattebo might be a New York Giant, but now that the Sun Devils are the hunted, the good times aren't going to Big 12 is much better from top to bottom, being the hunted won't be easy, and there will likely be more than the two regular season losses the team suffered last year. And none of that should be a problem, because this team won't quit. Arizona State started 2-7 in Dillingham's first season in 2023, but there was still intensity and toughness over the final three weeks, even when they were way overmatched in blowout losses to Oregon and Arizona over the last two all carried over into 2024, and now is when it's on Dillingham to keep the party going. He's just 35, and Arizona State is his school - this isn't just some job for him - and it should once again show after proving that his style year's team is among the most experienced in the country, and it still landed a few icing-on-cake transfers to come in to help patch what few holes there team, fun coach, and all at one of the most fun schools in the country. Arizona State is on the national radar now as a must-watch team every it all going with another strong season, and 2024 should be just the beginning. Arizona State Offense BreakdownArizona State Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
Miami Herald
14-06-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
UCF Football Preview 2025: Scott Frost is Back Where He Belongs
Yeah, why not give it another shot?Scott Frost had to take the Nebraska gig. He legitimately didn't seem like he wanted to leave UCF after what he built in two seasons - who moves from Orlando, Florida, to Lincoln, Nebraska? - but that was his school, his home, and his guy was born in for a whole slew of reasons, it just didn't work. X CFN, Fiu | CFN Facebook | Bluesky Fiu, CFN2025 UCF PreviewUCF Offense BreakdownUCF Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season The talent level wasn't there at Nebraska. The Big Ten was good, and Frost's teams invented creative and fun ways to gack away tight of the 31 Husker losses under Frost from 2019 to three games into the 2022 season, 23 of them were by one score. Less famously, out of the 16 wins, just two were against teams that finished with winning records, and 2018 Minnesota and Michigan State both finished also should've worked when Gus Malzahn took over UCF in hasn't exactly been booking College Football Playoff tickets since he was let go. It was a great hire for the Knights, he won nine games in each of his first two seasons, and the UCF football program was introduced to two things. Reality, and the Big 12. When UCF was rocking, it won a big then-called Power Five game here and there, but that was the point all along in the big years under Frost and later Josh weekly grind of dealing with Power talent is brutal. Over the last two years since the move up in weight class, UCF is 5-14 against Power conference teams, and two of those came against fellow AAC transfers Houston and Cincinnati in 2023. But UCF is going into Year Three of the Power conference life. It's building up the talent with more good transfers, the program overall is getting stronger, and sort of like the 0-12 thing Frost walked into after the 2016 season, the overall situation is far, far better than it taking over 2025 UCF is more turn-key than trying to make 2018 Nebraska Frost is back at UCF. Here we go. UCF Offense BreakdownUCF Defense BreakdownSeason Prediction, Win Total, Keys to Season © 2025 The Arena Group Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
