Why Boston College Football Can't Afford to Overlook a Reeling Florida State

Despite FSU's coaching change and key injuries, the Eagles can't afford to look past the Seminoles as they battle their own inconsistencies.

John Sexton / Boston College Eagles On SI.

Boston College football will host Florida State for its Week 10 matchup in Chestnut Hill, Mass., on Saturday, with kickoff scheduled for 12:00 p.m. ET.

The Eagles (4-4, 2-3 ACC) have experienced a myriad of ups and downs this year, which has produced a continuous theme of inconsistency — something they will try to navigate against the Seminoles (3-5, 1-4 ACC).

FSU has had its own share of issues, meanwhile, resulting in the dismissal of former head coach Mike Norvell following a 36-24 defeat at the hands of Clemson last weekend.

Rick Stockstill will take over as interim head coach after serving as the Seminoles’ director of scouting for offense since the start of the 2024 season. Prior to that, he served an 18-year stint as head coach at Middle Tennessee State, where he compiled a 113-111 overall record.

“It’s tough,” BC head coach Bill O’Brien said of Florida State’s leadership change. “I think Mike Norvell is a great football coach. I mean, he went 13-0, you know what I mean? I think it’s hard to do that man. But that’s the way it is. We all know what we sign up for.”

“Rick Stockstill is a great coach. I’ve known him for a long time. Got a lot of respect for him. We’re just going to prepare for what we see on film.”

The other big change heading into the week for the Seminoles revolves around the loss of wide receiver Duce Robinson to a season-ending ACL (Anterior Cruciate Ligament) tear, which was announced right after O’Brien’s press conference ended following Tuesday’s practice.

Sources: Florida State star wide receiver Duce Robinson will miss the remainder of the season, as he suffered a torn ACL against Clemson. He leads FSU with 438 receiving yards and four receiving touchdowns. pic.twitter.com/0v3r954F5P

— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) November 3, 2026

After receiving First-Team All-ACC and Third-Team All-American (Phil Steele) honors as a junior in 2025, Robinson could have declared for the NFL Draft and would have probably been selected in one of the first three rounds, but he chose to return for his senior campaign instead.

Through eight games, the 6-foot-6, 230-pound wideout amassed 438 receiving yards and four touchdowns on 24 receptions, averaging 18.3 yards per catch with two games in which he surpassed 100 yards.

It is a massive loss for the Seminoles’ offense, which already was without running back Ousmane Kromah since the middle of their 43-35, double-overtime road loss at Miami on Oct. 18.

Kromah exited the game with an ankle injury that also put him out for the season, but he was well on pace to exceed 1,000 yards rushing and possibly the 10-touchdown mark, as he had generated 609 yards and five touchdowns on 114 rushing attempts.

While these changes, notably in the coaching realm, could make it difficult for FSU to regroup mentally and put a well-oriented product on the field this Saturday, the Eagles have to not look at this game any differently than how they did before the major transition.

“Trap game” is the frequent term used for this scenario, meaning that because of the aforementioned recent events, this game is poised to suddenly become easier for BC to win.

On paper, that might be true, but anything goes once the hits start flying, and the Eagles must treat it like any other game, which they claim they will.

“Gotta treat every week the same,” defensive back Carter Davis said. “Just go into each and every week ready to put in the work no matter if we lost or if we won, so treat it all the same.”

In fact, after the last two weeks, in which the Eagles have totaled 25 penalties, the real opponent this coming week could once again be themselves, which is something they will have to prepare for most of all.

“Yeah, we got to execute better than we did,” running back Bo MacCormack III said. “I mean, we know [that] everybody knows their job. We just, we all have to do our job better than we did, and we got to continue to work on that, make sure that we get that done this week. We can't have, we can't shoot ourselves in the foot.”

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