E-mail Pete Fiutak 
Follow me … @PeteFiutak 

Of course Florida State was going to get a 94-yard Terrance Smith interception return for a touchdown just as Florida appeared ready to go in for a touchdown and take a 16-0 lead. 

Of course Jameis Winston was going to throw two second quarter touchdown passes after throwing a bajillion interceptions early on. 

Of course Florida State didn’t care after Florida came up with a momentum-changing touchdown at the end of the first half – the Seminoles had the lead going into the locker room, after all. 

Of course Florida was going to miss two field goals – one bomb, one makeable. 

Of course Roberto Aguayo was going to make the 37-yard field goal late to put FSU up five, and of course the final Florida drive was going to stall after Treon Harris missed a wide open Demarcus Robinson for a sure first down. 

This was 2014 Florida being 2014 Florida, missing play after play, opportunity after opportunity, and it was 2014 Florida State being 2014 Florida State, playing like hot garbage at times, but knowing it was going to come up with the key play at the key time, and leaving the field with a win. 

This was the right opponent and the right game for the Seminole winning streak to take a hit – having to go against a defense full of NFL caliber players, and with a power running game to deal with on offense – but the lack of a consistent Gator passing game turned out to be a killer, ten penalties became a disaster, and an inability to come up with early touchdowns and settling for field goals became a huge problem as the game went on. 

Whatever the spread is, Georgia Tech will cover it in the ACC championship, and I’ll probably pick the Yellow Jackets just because, but you know exactly what’s going to happen before the game is even played. 

And you know Florida State is going to be 13-0 going into the playoff.

E-mail Phil Harrison
Follow me @PhilHarrisonCFB

Florida State survives yet again.

It has become customary for the Seminoles to play up and play down to its level of competition, and it’s hurt them in the eyes of the College Football Playoff Committee. But is that fair? All Jimbo Fisher’s crew does is to continue to win, and while nobody gets credit for last year, the program has now won 28-straight contests. You have to wonder if the dominating fashion in which the Seminoles won in 2013 is now working against them for comparison’s sake.

All they do is win.

And now, despite those torching the program for having more lives than a cat carrying a shamrock, the spear is just one win away from having a shot at defending its national championship as one of the four teams to be selected for the College Football Playoff.

For the Gators, it was much of the same. They played hard, showed flashes of the talent that’s still in the cupboard, but couldn’t get past their own psychological block of putting games away. They couldn’t do it for the rivalry, couldn’t do it for the seniors, and couldn’t do it for Will Muschamp who will now ride off into the sunset.

The stage was just too bright and too big for Florida’s freshman quarterback Treon Harris. He’ll be developed going forward, but with another head-man wearing the headset. Let the coaching search begin in earnest now in Gainesville.