Florida State’s College Football Playoff hopes are already on life support just one full week into the 2024 season.
After suffering a 24-21 loss to Georgia Tech in the season’s opening game in Week 0, Florida State suffered another loss in the final game of Week 1, falling 28-13 to Boston College on Monday night.
Boston College dominated the game from the beginning, possessing the ball for more than 14 of the first quarter’s 15 minutes. The Eagles scored the game’s first points on the opening play of the second quarter on a 4-yard Thomas Castellanos touchdown run. Five minutes later, Castellanos made it a 14-0 ballgame with a 13-yard touchdown pass down the left sideline.
BOSTON COLLEGE TAKES A 14-0 LEAD IN TALLAHASSEE
— ESPN (@espn) September 3, 2024
: ESPN pic.twitter.com/eY0VItVONs
Florida State drove inside the 10-yard line on each of its final two possessions of the first half, but ended up settling for field goals both times.
Boston College quickly extended the lead to 21-6 early in the third quarter after DJ Uiagalelei threw an interception straight to Boston College cornerback Max Tucker, who returned the ball 58 yards to the 7-yard line to set up another Eagles touchdown.
A DJ UIAGALELEI INT ON 4TH DOWN LEADS TO ANOTHER BOSTON COLLEGE SCORE
— ESPN (@espn) September 3, 2024
EVERYTHING IS GOING RIGHT FOR THE EAGLES pic.twitter.com/T7MhIW53QC
Florida State finally scored its first touchdown with 5:19 to play in the third quarter when Uiagalelei connected with Kentron Poitier on back-to-back 29-yard completions. But Boston College drove right back down the field for another touchdown to make it a 15-point game again entering the fourth quarter.
The Seminoles failed to score on each of their next three possessions, allowing the Eagles to run out the clock on a two-score victory.
Uiagalelei, who was once ranked ahead of C.J. Stroud as a five-star prospect in the 2020 recruiting class but is now playing for his third school in three years as a fifth-year senior, completing just 50 percent of his passing attempts (21 of 42 for 272 yards) as he struggled for the second week in a row to begin his Florida State career.
The Seminoles, who went 12-0 during the regular season last year, have now lost three straight games dating back to a 63-3 loss to Georgia in last season’s Oregon Bowl. Ranked 10th in the preseason AP poll, the Seminoles are now a sure bet to be unranked when the polls are updated Tuesday, and they will likely need to win out the rest of the season to have a chance to make the CFP.
Boston College earned the upset win in its first game under new head coach Bill O’Brien, who replaced former Ohio State co-defensive coordinator Jeff Hafley after Hafley left to become the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers. O’Brien took the job at Boston College after a very brief stint as the offensive coordinator at Ohio State, who replaced him with Chip Kelly.
