North Carolina at Cal
If you like symmetry you might have liked this game as North Carolina fumbled on the first play of scrimmage leading to a 3 yard TD run by Cal’s Freshman QB Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele to go up 7-0 just a couple of minutes into the 1st Qtr. Then down by three points, 21-18, with less than four minutes left in the game the Tar Heels fumbled again at the end of an 11 play 52 yard drive on a pass play from NC Sophomore QB Gio Lopez to his Sophomore WR Nathan Leacock. Just before he crossed the goal line Cal’s Senior DB Brent Austin—the same guy who caused the fumble on the first play of the game—forced the ball out of Leacock’s hands and recovered it in the end zone to prevent the go-ahead TD and probable win by North Carolina. As head coach Bill Belichick said afterwards; “Just came up a little bit short today, a couple inches I guess on the touchdown on the fumble. We’ve been improving every week . . . I think that’s true. But you can’t turn the ball over and win. It’s just too hard. We’ve got to eliminate some of those kind of mistakes.”
For Cal, Sagapolutele completed 21-of-39 for 209 yards, 1 TD to Senior WR Jacob de Jesus, and no interceptions while also running one into the end zone himself. On the ground Junior RB Kendrick Raphael led the way with 81 yards and another rushing TD on 22 attempts. For North Carolina, Sophomore QB Gio Lopez completed 19-of-35 for 167 yards without finding the end zone or throwing an interception but did pick up 11 yards rushing. Led by Sophomore RB’s Benjamin Hall and Davion Gause who collectively rushed for 99 yards and a TD each on 20 carries, the Tar Heels picked up a total of 120 yards on the ground on 29 attempts. The team stats were really close. Cal only led in first downs by one, 19-18; total yards of offense by seven, 294-287; they were both equally poor at converting 3rd downs at just around 35% of the time but both converted two 4th down attempts. North Carolina had the ball a little longer and had few penalties but turned the ball over three times to none which cost them the game. Going forward, North Carolina—now 2-4—are rapidly heading towards 2-5 as they get to go home but have to host No. 18 Virginia. Cal plays on back-to-back Friday’s as they’ll hit the road to take on Virginia Tech.
Florida State at Stanford
Spoiler alert—Not a game recap—but if you read you will find out who won. It was just a couple of years ago in 2023 that Florida State went undefeated going 12-0, and then won the ACC Conference Championship for a 13-0 perfect season. Had it happened in 2024 they would have been in the college football playoff for the national championship. But in 2023 only four teams were allowed to compete for that coveted prize and when the Seminoles star QB Jordan Travis broke his leg in November while playing North Alabama the 13 members of the CFP Selection Committee decided that for the first time in the history of the playoff an unbeaten Power 5 conference champion would be left out of the four team final. There was a huge outcry from the school, the fans, and the state whose Attorney General Ashley Moody ultimately announced an antitrust investigation into the College Football Playoff—a decision she said cost the state and the university millions of dollars. They were ultimately ranked 5th in the nation and scheduled to play the prior year’s national champion Georgia in the Orange Bowl. Of course the 63-13 complete beat down of Florida State by Georgia in that game made it crystal clear that the CFP Selection Committee knew exactly what they were doing.
After going 13-1 in 2023 Florida State fell off the cliff in 2024 and ended up with a 2-10 record—one of their worst records in 50 years. As you can imagine the case to get rid of head coach Mike Norvell was well underway by the end of the year and it was surprising to many that he survived it. This season started off just great for the Seminoles with a shocking 31-17 defeat of No. 8 Alabama, a 77-3 beatdown of Non-Major East Texas A&M, and then a 66-10 win against Kent State of the Mid-American Conference. All of a sudden the talk of getting rid of Mike Norvell settled down, everyone was excited and talking about another ACC Conference Championship and getting into the national championship playoff. After those first three wins and an unexpected loss on the road to an unranked Virginia, Zack Blostein of 247Sports assessed their chances. Other than his deep concern for their pass rush defense he wrote, “I think the Seminoles still have a shot to be very competitive or win every remaining game on their schedule.” Regarding their home games he said; “FSU should be favored considerably in home games like Pittsburgh, Wake Forest, and Virginia Tech and shouldn’t struggle with an awful Stanford team on the road.”
Since Zack wrote that article, Florida State has lost three more games; 28-22 to Miami, 34-31 to Pitt, and 20-13 to that “awful Stanford team on the road,” this past Saturday. Needless to say all the talk of ridding themselves of Mike Norvell has been working back up to a fever pitch. But Monday after the Stanford loss Florida State Athletic Director Michael Alford said; “Our comprehensive assessment of the football program will be completed at season’s end. Meanwhile, we are fully committed to helping Coach Norvell and the 2025 Seminoles strongly rebound in the coming weeks.” It is speculated that Norvell’s buyout might have quite a bit to do with the decision. As reported by Blake Schuster in FORTHEW!N; “As of December 1, 2024, Mike Norvell’s buyout was $63.7 million,” and as Jordan Sigler wrote for Newsweek; “The college football world mostly believes it’s a foregone conclusion that FSU is biding its time to come up with the money to pay Norvell’s buyout and secure a top-tier replace for 2026.”
Interestingly it sounds like Jimbo Fisher, who turned down three head coaching opportunities to become an assistant for the legendary Bobby Bowden before replacing him and leading the Seminoles to three ACC championships and a national title is interested in coaching again. After leaving a Florida State school that he loved and never wanted to leave he became the head coach of the Texas A&M Aggies. In his first year they went 9-4, were ranked 16th in the final AP poll and won the Gator Bowl 52-13. They went 8-5 in 2019 against a horribly tough schedule and lost to three different teams who when they played them were all ranked No. 1 including Clemson, Alabama, and LSU. They also lost to No. 8 Auburn and No. 4 Georgia. They went to the Texas Bowl and beat Oklahoma State 24-21. In 2020 they were 9-1, ended up 4th in the final AP Poll, and won the Orange Bowl 41-27 against North Carolina. After that it started going downhill. They went 8-4 in 2021 but sank to 5-7 in 2022. After going 6-4 in 2023 and losing to every ranked team they played he was fired in November, leaving the last three games to their assistant head coach. His buyout required that the Aggies pay him $19.2 million within 60 days of his firing and $7.2 million annually through 2031. It amounted to $75 million plus, the largest buyout in college football history.
After leaving Texas A&M Fisher was eventually hired as a college football analyst for the ACC Huddle and earlier this month was back at Florida State for the very first time since leaving and as reported by ESPN, “was wildly cheered at the start of the network’s pregame show outside Doak Campbell Stadium. He turned in his chair, did the tomahawk chop to the crowd of garnet-clad fans and started to cry.” According to Ross Dellenger of Yahoo Sports, Jimbo Fisher has been plotting his comeback to college football and coming up with a plan to compete in the new era of NIL funding and conference expansion. Fisher was recently quoted as saying; “When you’re away from something, it makes you reflect. I’m back to watching film and have those feelings. I miss the players and those relationships. I miss practice. I miss the grind. I live to coach. I love to do what I did.” With Virginia Tech offensive coordinator Phillip Montgomery now handling the interim head coaching duties for the Hokies with the firing of head coach Brent Pry after an 0-3 start to the season and a home loss to Old Dominion, it has been speculated that Jimbo Fisher would be a perfect fit. They’d love to see that program get back to what they call Beamer Ball after their late great coach Frank Beamer. I’m sure he would be but with a home in Tallahassee near the Florida State University campus I think after the 2025 college football season is over, Jimbo Fisher might just be coming back home for good.