Getty Image / Don Juan Moore
ESPN’s Greg McElroy, a former University of Alabama quarterback and 2010 National Champion, teed off on football in the Sunshine State in a segment where he ripped into the Florida State Seminoles and the Florida Gators for the historically national powerhouse programs disastrous starts to the 2024 season.
Here’s the segment where Greg lays into the Seminoles and breaks down how last season’s playoffs snub triggered a chip on their shoulder, FSU ‘making their bed’ as he claims, and then living/dying by the portal. His full quotes are below the video if you’d rather read than watch:
Greg McElroy: “Florida State is 0-3. They just lost to Memphis and this is a really, really disappointing performance. They’re the ninth preseason top-10 team in the AP Poll era to lose their first three games of the season. They’re the only preseason top-10 team to lose their first three games of the season all to unranked teams. I’m not gonna beat a dead horse here, I’m not. You guys have watched it.”
Greg McElroy says he’s not going to beat a dead horse then proceeds to beat a dead horse…
“Here’s where my problems lie. Florida State made their bed. They did. They made their bed when they became a victim last year of the unfair nature of college football. Yes, what happened to them last year was completely unfair. I hate it. I hate that we only had a four-team Playoff and I hate that they were on the outside looking in, for them. Do I think the committee got it right? Yes. I still do.”
How exactly did Florida State make their bed by becoming a victim? And how exactly are those where ‘your problems lie,’ Greg? They were left out of the College Football Playoff after a blistering campaign to get Alabama into the Playoff and that triggered the series of events that led to virtually every FSU starter sitting out of the bowl game against Georgia. They were completely and utterly disrespected by the selection committee and every talking head saying Bama should get in despite FSU being undefeated. Take some ownership here. Words have consequences. When these kids go undefeated, play their hearts out along the way, and are then told by talking heads they’re not good enough. Those words have consequences.
Greg continued…
“At the same time, this is a group that became the victim and made complaints and is now saying we’re gonna challenge our Grant of Rights and all this stuff. There’s so many reasons why Florida State came into the season with distractions already built in.”
Should Florida State not try and get out of their horrible ACC deal where they are basically subsidizing the bottom-feeding football programs? Is conference realignment only okay when other schools seek to get out? I’m so tired of hearing people knock on FSU, Clemson, UNC, etc for trying to keep with the times and get paid for what their programs are actually worth.
He continues:
“Having to atone for last year. Going to the portal and feeling as though instead of just continuing their process of developing high school talent. Hey, you just had a year where you went 13-1, ‘Let’s stay in our routine and lean into the high school players. Let’s not go all in on the portal. We have a good culture that we built last year. We have a good culture that we have in place. Let’s lean on our high school players and we’re gonna take a big step back this year, but guess what? In 2025 and beyond, we’re going to be better because of the growing pains that we’ve had here in 24.'”
That would have been fine and dandy had the Seminoles not lost 15 starters. You don’t replace all 15 starters with high school players. Full stop.
Greg McElroy went on:
“Instead they go out to the portal, they get a bunch of different guys, several of which are not upgrades at the position, and they’re now off to an 0-3 start. I’m telling you, man, it’s not gonna get much easier because some of the teams they have coming up are going to take great pride in absolutely pounding Florida State because of how Florida State has acted in closed door meetings about their presence and their importance in the ACC,” McElroy said. “This is gonna get ugly and it’s gonna get ugly quickly.”
Ultimately, he could have just said “they whiffed heavily on DJ Uiagalelei who might go down as the worst starting QB in FSU history” but he didn’t even mention DJ by name. Without having someone capable of completing a pass beyond 2 yards the Seminoles have been completely unable to move the chains. It’s that simple.
And I get it. If you’re an avid BroBible reader you’ve probably gathered by now that I’m a Florida State grad. I mention it all the time. We all had sky high expectations coming into this season and last Saturday I took my son to buy Japanese Pokémon cards instead of watching the FSU game because this season’s squad brings me zero joy. In fact, they fill me with the exact opposite emotion. I never got into Pokémon myself but seeing his eyes light up from pulling both a Mewtwo AND a Mew out of the packs sparked more joy in me than this year’s team ever will.
But I’m not quite sure why Greg McElroy has an axe to grind with FSU. Mind you, this is the same guy that flip-flopped on the Seminoles last season and in a matter of 5 days when from “We don’t even need to entertain the idea of a one loss team jumping them, à la Texas and Alabama” to “It should be Alabama” despite the undefeated Seminoles winning the ACC Championship.
5 days ago: @GregMcElroy said, "We don't even need to entertain the idea of a one loss team jumping them, à la Texas and Alabama."
Today: "It should be Alabama."
Unless this man completely changed his way of thinking in 5 days, it's clear what the narrative is here from ESPN. pic.twitter.com/rmX75UUjX0
— TJ Pittinger (@TJ_Pittinger) December 4, 2023
Ultimately, what Greg McElroy has to say about Florida State shouldn’t matter. But that’s not the world we live in because as we saw last year the undefeated Seminoles got left out of the College Football Playoffs because guys like Greg McElroy and Kirk Herbstreit screamed at the top of their mountains that Bama should get in over undefeated FSU.
Then that happened. And now FSU is 0-3 against unranked teams and facing the worst start in program history. They missed in the transfer portal. ‘Take their medicine and move on’ isn’t realistic advice it’s what a guilty conscience sounds like when you know you’re complicit in breaking the morale of an undefeated team.