Courtesy: Tallahassee.com
It’s surprising that our first regular season loss in over two years was to the unranked Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets. As FSU students and fans cry in utter shock, some FSU supporters believed that a humble loss is just what our team needed. Our team is darn near good to say the least, but do you all think that our unconquered mentality got the best of them? I personally don’t think so, but that’s what some people argue. We are so used to winning that we overlook the game, celebrating the fact that it’s another game day to party and drink and not “another day to be unconquered.”
Even the spirit of football has been a little different lately. I can honestly say that the tension in the crowd isn’t there like it used to be. I remember my freshman year when Winston started driving our team to victory for the first time and the crowd was so amazed. The FSU support system went from “OMG, we won!” to “OMG, we’re going to the playoffs!” to “We’re National Champs, baby,” to “Jameis is going to take us to the playoffs again.” When we lost the first game in the playoffs our thoughts were that atleast we even made it to Pasadena. Now that we are so accustomed to making it all the way to California, we kind of lost that extra support we needed to show our football team because they need us as much as we need them.
Courtesy: CBS Sports
We are so used to winning that everyone watching the Georgia Tech game watched it casually. I was not in Atlanta myself, but I attended the away game viewing party that was shown on the Union Green and I sensed the reaction of the crowd as just “another easy game that raises our stats.” I had my face buried into my phone, checking social media as I do every other day when I’m bored. Other people were talking amongst themselves, lying in the lawn enjoying the night breeze. All of a sudden, Georgia Tech and FSU are tied 16-16. Everyone’s eyes become glued to the screen, cursing themselves at the sudden meme changes on social media. I felt the crowd become tense as I did my freshman year. The lawn was silent and everyone’s neck was extended so far that it nearly touched the screen as the clock kept whining down.
I haven’t seen an FSU fan so into the game since the playoffs. It was at this point that our unconquered spirit was questioned a bit, praying that we wouldn’t have to run into overtime. A lot of viewers wanted to jump in the game while others rocked back and forth in discomfort. I sensed our confidence in the crowd drown in worry. We were hoping that the last field goal of the game should save us in the end, but it didn’t and from that 60-yard kick to the unforeseen block by the Yellow Jackets, time stood still in our eyes and we witnessed the first team in years make a winning touchdown.
Now that we have experienced our first loss in years, we are humble yet still confident in our team. Some people woke up the next morning in disbelief. Losing for the first time in years was such an awkward feeling that we did not know what to do after. I don’t think Florida State students have dreaded playing Clemson as badly as we do now, but we’ll continue to support our team like unconquered Noles do!