ESPN Analyst Selects Florida State To Win the ACC in 2023

The national spotlight is getting bright and brighter by the day in Tallahassee. It's safe to say that expectations within the city and around the country are as high as they've been in over five years.

Those projections are well-deserved with Florida State coming off a ten-win campaign where the program took down Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl.

There's no question that head coach Mike Norvell has the Seminoles on the right track. Entering 2023, he possesses the deepest and most experienced team that he's had since he arrived in December 2019.

Florida State isn't flying under the radar anymore with personalities across college football taking notice of the program. Earlier this month, ESPN's Steve Coughlin, better known as 'Stanford Steve,' and for his work on SportsCenter alongside Scott Van Pelt, joined ACC Network's Eric Mac Lain and Kelly Grimlich to discuss a variety of topics.

While talking about the Seminoles, Steve made it clear that he believes FSU will win the ACC this upcoming season.

"I believe so. I believe so. I do," Stanford Steve remarked.

It will be important for Florida State to be at its best out of the gate. The team doesn't have the luxury of a 'cupcake' game and instead will be thrown into a gauntlet that only includes one home contest in the first four weeks.

The Seminoles will open up the season with a neutral site matchup against LSU before playing Southern Miss at home just six days later. Florida State concludes the month of September with back-to-back road games against Boston College and Clemson.

Steve thinks the team has a better chance of going undefeated than dropping two contests during that stretch.

"I can't get a 3-1? I like it. Put me on the spot," Stanford Steve said. "More likely between 2-2 and 4-0, I would say 4-0."

One reason that he's confident in Florida State is due to the pieces the team has returning on offense, including star quarterback Jordan Travis. In Steve's opinion, the Seminoles have a more dynamic offensive attack than North Carolina, which is another program that has high expectations in the ACC.

"Travis was just tremendous. I look at what he's overcome, think about him on the sidelines in that Louisville game early in the year. I just didn't know what to make of it. That was a make-or-break deal for that program, I thought," Stanford Steve said. "Looking at where they were and knowing what the expectations were and people say a year early, I think they got back on track. But he's a guy that's as dynamic as anybody in the league. I get it, Drake Maye makes the wild plays but when you take an offense as a whole, I don't see how you take North Carolina's offense over Florida State's. I really don't. And then you factor in what you've done defensively, the changing system, and guys getting better. You've got to let these guys play together."

On paper, Florida State's offense is stacked at every position after averaging 484.2 total yards of offense and 36.1 points per game last season. The sky is truly the limit with a Heisman contender like Travis behind center. Maybe even more important, he's entering his fourth year in Norvell's system and knows the offense like it's the back of his hand.

Check out Stanford Steve's full interview with Gramlich & and Mac Lain. He begins to talk about Florida State around the 38:40 mark.

Stick with NoleGameday for more coverage of Florida State football throughout the offseason.

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