No. 10 Florida State started season with playoff hopes but got exposed by Georgia Tech

Losing to Georgia Tech very strongly suggests that Florida State is not going to win the national championship, or even come within a whisper of the College Football Playoff for the second year in a row.

The Yellow Jackets are pretty good. Right? Who knows? With just one game down in this 2024 season, all we can say for sure is the Jackets are a field goal better than the Seminoles.

But as a sign, this isn’t a good one: Tech beat No. 10 Florida State 24-21 in Ireland on a 44-yard kick as time expired.

A year ago, the Seminoles went undefeated during the regular season and still couldn’t get into the top four. Under multiple different postseason formats — regular bowl games, the Bowl Championship Series and the four-team playoff — Saturday’s loss would’ve left Florida State on the edges of the championship race or even been an immediate disqualifier.

The 12-team college football playoff will alter the complexion of the regular season. Beyond changing the pressure of November games, though, the new format will give teams such as Florida State much more room for error and allow for one or even two losses before being eliminated from the conference-title race. But they also face a schedule that still included Clemson, Miami and Notre Dame and have little margin for error.

When all it takes to get into the playoff is to win 10 or more games in a Power Four conference or just win a league title regardless of your final record, losses to teams such as Georgia Tech take on much less meaning.

Senior quarterback DJ Uiagalelei made most of his attempts at or near the line of scrimmage, connecting on just two completions of 20 yards, and resembled the same quarterback we saw at Clemson. Uiagalelei finished 19 of 27 for 193 yards, doing his best work on an 84-yard scoring drive that included a pair of fourth-down conversions and tied the game at 21-21 in the fourth quarter.

But from there, the Seminoles rebuilt defense couldn't get off the field. Georgia Tech bled the last 6:33 of the clock as its drive set up Aiden Birr for the game-winner.

The Yellow Jackets ran for 190 yards on 36 carries and three touchdowns. Florida State managed 98 yards on 31 carries and just 291 yards overall. The defense allowed Georgia Tech to score touchdowns on all three trips to the red zone.

Sloppy offensive line play, an inability to stop the run and no downfield passing game. Seen as one of the best in the ACC and a team good enough to take the next step after last season’s narrow playoff miss, the Seminoles are clearly not as good as advertised. That’s a concern for a team that will play Memphis, Clemson, Miami, North Carolina, Notre Dame and Florida.

Those games come with the opportunity to climb back up the Top 25. In the end, the only games that matter come in the ACC; winning a Power Four league comes with what is essentially an automatic invite for the playoff.

So the Seminoles aren’t out of the picture. It just doesn’t look good.