Instant Analysis: Florida State 30, Miami 26

E-mail Pete Fiutak 
Follow me … @PeteFiutak 

Yawn. You knew what was going to happen as soon as Miami PK Michael Badgley missed a field goal late in the first half. 

Florida State comes out slow, opposing team thinks it has a chance and gets out to a lead, there’s much excitement on twitter, Florida State gets its rhythm, Florida State’s depth and talent comes through, opposing team starts to tighten up, Florida State wins again. 

If last year became repetitive for Florida State in its dominant excellence game-in-and-game-out, this season the team has become a broken record in the way it feels out a game and ends up pulling it out late. Yeah, it needed some help from Clemson and Notre Dame screwing up, but every other unbeaten Power 5 conference team out there please raise your hand. 

No matter how the sausage is being made, there’s still a big, fat zero in the loss column, and now the Noles know what they’re doing every single game against every single team that thinks it has a shot. 

Will this matter if and when the Seminoles have to play an Alabama or an Oregon or an Ohio State in a playoff? The tournament is going to be its own animal, and by that time, the teams that get in might be far different after a long layoff. 

Florida State might not make it look easy. But it seems like it knows what it’s doing. 

E-mail Rich Cirminiello 
Follow me … @RichCirminiello 
Earn a Ph.D. in college football … class is in session at Campus Insiders 

Stop it. Stop it right this minute. 

I know you want to see Florida State fall. I get the emotion. Maybe you don’t like Jameis or you’re just tired of seeing the Seminoles find a way to keep the winning streak alive, week after week. But when you root against the ‘Noles, you’re not thinking big picture, since this is easily the most entertaining, edge-of-your seat program in college football. Plus, rooting against Jimbo Fisher’s kids has become an exercise in futility in 2014. 

Florida State deserves to be a part of the inaugural playoff. Any team that can erase a bad half of football, over and over again, with clutch second-half plays has the unique intangible qualities of a championship contender. You can never, ever teach what the Seminoles have, because it only comes with the experience of having previously survived the madness. And wouldn’t you want to see this group on an even grander stage in January? I mean, on drama alone, absolutely no one, not Oregon nor Alabama, can come close to energizing this game’s fans, both those that love FSU and those that hate it. 

If you adore this sport, and it’s one of the highlights of your fall each year, quietly celebrate Florida State wins over the next three weeks. This program, regardless of how you feel about it, has helped make the regular season infinitely more enjoyable and exciting, thanks to its incessant split personality. And we’re all going to get short-changed in the postseason if this band of characters appears in a meaningless Orange Bowl instead of either the Sugar or Rose Bowl.