CORAL GABLES, Fla. — Worst day ever? Worst week ever? There was no joy, at least of the major-college football variety, in Florida this weekend.
There were eight games involving the state’s FBS and FCS teams on Saturday. There were nine such games this weekend.
There were no wins.
For only the second time, the other being Oct. 10, 2020, the state saw its seven FBS programs — Miami, Florida, Florida State, UCF, South Florida, Florida Atlantic and Florida International — combine to go 0-5 on the same day.
It all happened Saturday: Miami watched its unbeaten start end with a 28-23 loss to Georgia Tech, Florida State lost 52-3 to Notre Dame, Florida lost to Texas 49-17, South Florida lost 28-7 to Navy and UCF lost 35-31 to Arizona State.
“We’re in a bad place with the results that we’ve seen,” Florida State coach Mike Norvell after his team fell to 1-9 with a seven-touchdown loss.
He was speaking of his team, and it indeed has been a miserable year for the Seminoles — the preseason pick to win the Atlantic Coast Conference and a team that will finish no better than tied for last in that 17-team league.
But misery had a lot of company this weekend. Misery has had a lot of company all season.
This is the 20th season of Florida having seven FBS-level programs — and combined, it’ll be one of the worst years the state has seen in that era.
Miami is 9-1, by far the best of the bunch and still in control of its destiny when it comes to reaching the ACC title game even after losing to Georgia Tech. No other Sunshine State school at the FBS level even has a winning record at this point.
“We have everything in front of us to play for,” Miami coach Mario Cristobal said.
Not everyone else in Florida can say that. Not even close.
South Florida and Florida are both 4-5, UCF is 4-6, Florida International is 3-6, Florida Atlantic is 2-7 and Florida State is 1-9. It’s possible the Hurricanes will be the only major-college Florida team that goes to a bowl game, an unthinkable notion given the state’s football tradition.
“We have a ton of young talent that I think will continue to develop,” Florida coach Billy Napier said after losing to Texas. “They’re learning, they’re going through this experience, and I think that will prove beneficial in the future.”
Add up the records so far this season and the state’s FBS teams are 27-39, a .409 winning percentage. The worst combined record in the era of the state having seven FBS schools came in 2021 when they went 35-51, a .407 winning percentage.
Saturday marked only the sixth time since 1978 that the state’s three traditional top programs — the Hurricanes, Seminoles and Gators — lost on the same day. The UCF and USF losses added to the tally, and the news got worse when adding the state’s three FCS teams into the mix.
With Florida A&M, Bethune-Cookman and Stetson, the Sunshine State’s record on Saturday fell to 0-8 — the worst one-day showing in state history by FBS and FCS teams. Florida A&M lost to Prairie View 31-12, Bethune-Cookman fell 25-23 to Southern in five overtimes and previously winless Marist beat Stetson 40-31.
And Saturday wasn’t the entire story of the state’s lost weekend. The weekend record for Sunshine State schools fell to 0-9 with the inclusion of Florida Atlantic’s 49-14 loss to East Carolina on Thursday.
The only team among the state’s FBS and FCS schools that didn’t lose this weekend was FIU. The Panthers didn’t play.
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