The 2024 college football season – contrary to popular belief – did not begin with the recent release of the EA Sports College Football ’25 game.
But it’s here Saturday.
This past Saturday was the final Saturday without college football for a while, guys.
The season officially starts on ESPN, appropriately enough, but in a very different location than Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Happy Valley, Pennsylvania or South Bend, Indiana.
We’ll open the 2024 season this Saturday at noon Eastern time in Dublin, Ireland, as we have a few times recently, at Aviva Stadium, with Florida State taking on Georgia Tech in the Aer Lingus College Football Classic.
That’s right: it’s a conference game – an Atlantic Coast Conference game – right out of the gate in the season opener, and in Ireland, to boot, before any other college football kicks off.
Actually, for your convenience, there’s a countdown clock right here (Aer Lingus College Football Classic | Dublin, Ireland) on the home page for the game.
There are three other games Saturday: Delaware State plays at Hawai’i (still listed at a time to be determined, oddly enough); Montana State plays at New Mexico at 4 p.m. EST on Fox Sports 1; and Nevada hosts SMU at 8 p.m. EST on the CBS Sports Network.
And of course, there’s the obvious angle here: the last we saw Florida State, they were lobbying for a spot in the College Football Playoff after finishing their regular season undefeated, limping to the finish line following a season-ending injury to quarterback Jordan Travis.
To say that the Seminoles were a different team without Travis would be like saying Santa Claus wears an off-shade of red. The quarterbacks who replaced him didn’t have near his capabilities, and it showed in the bowl game against Georgia, a heavyweight who completely dominated an FSU team who also had players that didn’t play in the game to “save themselves” for the NFL Draft.
Presumably, those players would have played if the Seminoles had been allowed into the CFP.
At any rate, Georgia Tech has been a tough out in the last season. Led by Texas A&M transfer Haynes King at quarterback, the son of a high school coach in East Texas, Tech has enjoyed a resurgence of sorts, beginning with a Hail Mary to beat Miami (Georgia Tech vs Miami CRAZY Ending | 2023 College Football).
The Aer Lingus College Football Classic in the past has included Boston College-Georgia Tech (2016, also an ACC game), Northwestern vs. Nebraska (2022, a Big Ten game), and Notre Dame-Navy last year.
ACC Commissioner Jim Phillips realizes it’s a chance for his conference to be the only game in town, so to speak: THE spotlight game when very little college football is on the slate. Opening weekend, when almost everyone opens, is the following weekend (Aug. 31), so FSU and Tech will get a ton of attention.
“This is an incredible opportunity for our student-athletes at Florida State and Georgia Tech to expand the reach of ACC football and play in front of an international audience,” Phillips said. “We appreciate the flexibility of both Florida State and Georgia Tech, and thank our partners at Irish American Events, for making this game a reality. The ACC is recognized around the globe for the combination of outstanding athletics and academics at its member institutions. We look forward and are excited about showcasing these two teams and our incredible conference to the fans in Dublin.”
Heck, who WOULDN’T want to go to Ireland?
LSU head coach Brian Kelly was asked about a possible future game involving his program last week at SEC Media Days in Dallas.
“As an Irish Catholic and somebody that loves to go to Ireland, not to just be at the Temple Bar, but to be in Ireland and the history and the culture of Ireland, I just think from our brand, we’ve done such a good job with the LSU brand throughout the country. I think the next step for us is international,” Kelly answered. “I’ve felt the travel there is so clean and easy. Ireland has been such a great destination for other football programs to go and play. Aviva, Cork stadium, both great venues to play in.
“I just think it sets up so easy from my perspective for American football to go over there and be received first of all, and then getting the matchup there. So I’m a huge proponent. I’ve been pushing our administration and hopefully we’re able to see that come to fruition.”
The Seminoles and Yellow Jackets get that opportunity this season.
For Florida State and coach Mike Norvell, it’s the first chance to get rid of the bad taste of the way the 2023 season ended. And the obvious: get ’24 started on the right foot and with a 1-0 start in conference play.
Remember: the Seminoles went through the ACC schedule undefeated a year ago. They haven’t lost an ACC game since Oct. 15, 2022, a 34-28 defeat in a trip to Clemson. FSU has won 12 straight conference games. And one of them: a 41-16 win over Georgia Tech in Tallahassee, the last meeting between the teams, who didn’t face off last year.
For Tech, it’s an opportunity to continue trending upward as a program under coach Brent Key, himself a former Tech player, and to take some of the spotlight from that red-and-black team that’s dominated the state for the last several years; Georgia.
At the rate Kirby Smart’s Bulldogs have won, that’s difficult to do.
Still, the Yellow Jackets are making headway.
It seems to have started with King, though, who left A&M under the tenure of former Aggies coach Jimbo Fisher and found a landing spot in Atlanta. And they’re glad to have him.
He’s shown grit and the ability to bring the team back in some between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place situations.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg gave King an A- in his grades of transfer quarterbacks after the season, one in which the Longview, Texas native accounted for 36 touchdowns: 26 through the air, to go with 2,842 passing yards and 16 interceptions, and 10 rushing touchdowns, along with 737 yards. That might not sound like much, but King ran for 82 yards or more in five games.
If he had a weakness, it was the turnovers, but a lot of that was earlier in the year. He threw four picks against Clemson.
After the game against each other, the Yellow Jackets host Georgia State for their first home game, there at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta, the next Saturday, Aug. 31, and then visit Syracuse on Sept. 7.
Florida State will host Boston College on Monday, Sept. 2, take off Sept. 7, and be back in action at home twice more – against Memphis (Sept. 14) and Cal (Sept. 21) before playing another road game. After Ireland, the ‘Noles don’t go back on the road until going to Dallas to face SMU on Sept. 28.
