Florida State now has a victory over a Top 10 opponent and the most-lopsided win in program history in its other contest.
For a team that won just two games all of last season, that’s quite the resume. Hell, it’s quite the resume for anyone. And the early returns of the 2025 Seminoles are showing that they’re not just anyone.
Saturday’s 77-3 win over FCS opponent East Texas A&M was impressive beyond the score. The way the team approached the game, the players who stepped up…there’s a lot to like, perhaps even love, about the Seminoles’ start to the 2025 campaign.
Here are three things I learned from Game 2…
1. FSU reinforces that it’s a mature group
An underlying fear that I had entering the contest (shocking that something I couldn’t control was causing me anxiety) was that FSU would play with its food some. I guess it’s a fear rooted in reality, we saw what happened in 2023 and 2021.
FSU’s coaches stressed taking this game seriously to its players all week as there was a reluctance from Herb Hand to even circle back around to discuss last week’s Alabama win. Mike Norvell said that Tuesday’s practice was great from an intensity standpoint, and that Wednesday was up and down.
So there was intrigue to see how FSU would handle its business a week after an emotional win and with a lowly opponent coming to town.
Consider the business handled. The food wasn’t played with, it was devoured.
I thought the first drive by the offense was somewhat flat with some timid(ish) running near the goal-line. But FSU punched the ball in, and then it did it again.
And again.
And again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.
The Seminoles scored touchdowns on their first 10 drives with a blend of explosive plays (Tommy Castellanos to Duce Robinson for 82 yards while getting hit was a thing of beauty, and Robinson’s one-handed catch while being held wasn’t too shabby, either). Three quarterbacks led those 10 drives, with freshman Kevin Sperry showing nice touch and accuracy on his passing scores to fellow freshmen Jayvan Boggs and Ousmane Kromah.
Defensively, FSU was stout. It kept everything in front of it and pitched four three-and-outs to go with (two) takeaways.
Speaking of pitch, the elusive spiked baseball. The last shutout FSU had was in 2015 against Boston College on Sept. 18. So it’s nearly been a full decade since FSU was able to add a baseball with a nail hammered into it – a tradition that started back in 1993 – to commemorate a shutout.
Listen, ETAMU is a bad team even by FCS standards. I think the SP+ had them close to 300th nationally regardless of classification.
But good teams take care of the bad ones in addition to finding ways to beat quality opponents. I thought this was a very, very encouraging sign about FSU’s maturity as a team.
2. Getting Duce going is a great sign (and he’s going to be good, which we kind of already knew)
I wanted to see more from Duce Robinson this week, and I didn’t mean from a volume perspective. Just overall execution. He delivered, and then some.
Robinson was targeted six times and came down with five catches…for 173 yards and 2 TDs. #Efficient
In general, I thought it was important for Castellanos to get a chance to make a variety of drop-back throws. There was a bit of variance there in results as he tried to make some big plays downfield on one drive, but he certainly hit a couple as well (both the touchdown passes to Robinson were really impressive for a couple reasons). Castellanos’ arm looked sharp, so that was good to see. And Robinson had some high-effort plays after the catch and blocking as well.
3. Your dudes are your dudes
It was great to see FSU empty the bench (Gav Holman played hard and was absolutely battling to keep the shutout intact on that final drive in which ETAMU scored).
But the biggest value of the day for me was that your dudes were your dudes. Earl Little Jr. again set the tone early with multiple stops on the opening drive, and Darrell Jackson came in for a sack to force the first three-and-out. Little Jr. had a pick later in the game, and Jeremiah Wilson stopped a scoring threat in the first half with an interception of his own after surrendering a reception the prior play.
On offense, Tommy and Robinson were obviously really good.
Your captains, your leaders, they led the way. It ties to the first point about what seems to be budding maturity among a group that has already matched its win total from last season.