Listen Now! Florida State Seminoles look to snap long losing streak against Clemson Tigers

It’s been just over nine years since Florida State last defeated Clemson.

On Sept. 20, 2014, the Seminoles were ranked No. 1 in the country, while Clemson was No. 22.

FSU was playing without their Heisman Trophy winning quarterback Jameis Winston, who was suspended for yelling an obscene expression on campus a few days before the game.

Clemson held the Seminoles to just 13 yards rushing in regulation, but somehow FSU pulled out an overtime victory behind fill-in QB Sean Maguire, 23-17.

It’s been all Clemson since then as they’ve won every year aside from 2020, when the game was canceled for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, Clemson controlled the game for three quarter before Florida State scored twice in the fourth quarter only to come up short, 34-28.

In this year’s game, Florida State travels to Clemson for a noon start. The last time they won at “Death Valley” was in 2013, the year they won their last national championship.

Is this the year the Seminoles finally snap their losing streak to Clemson?

Or will FSU fans be left with a decade of futility?

To break down every facet of this game, I welcome back Ehsan Kassim to “The *State* of Florida Sports Podcast,” powered by the USA Today Network.

Ehsan is the Seminoles beat writer for the Tallahassee Democrat, and nobody knows the insides and outs of this team better than him.

However, we won’t be just looking at the Seminoles. We’ll break down Clemson’s offense, including QB Cade Klubnik, running backs Will Shipley and Phil Mafah, and receivers Beau Collins and Antonio Williams.

They've looked good over the past two weeks against lesser opponents, but struggled mightily in the opening loss to Duke.

"I'm not sure what to make of the offense," Ehsan says during the podcast. "Will Shipley is really good and Florida State is gonna game plan for him as they've had (bad) memories with him, you know, taking over games. But I think they're still dangerous team."

We’ll look at their defense to see who will be trying to make things uncomfortable for FSU QB Jordan Travis.

"The thing with Jordan Travis is as much as he's improved as a passer, if you can contain him and not let him roll out, you have a better chance," Ehsan said. "They do have a few guys, you know, Jeremiah Trotter is a good player. Jalyn Phillips plays safety, has a sack. TJ Parker has a sack this year. So they have a few guys that have been able to get to the quarterback. I think they only have like four sacks this year. They'll try keeping pressure on Jordan, keeping him in the pocket because once Travis, as we've seen, and you know, Florida could attest, once you get him out of pocket he can make magic happen."

We’ll dissect what happened to Clemson in its embarrassing Week 1 loss to Duke.

And we’ll see what was learned from both teams' games this past weekend, with Florida State eking past Boston College 31-29 and Clemson dominating Florida Atlantic 48-14.

If you love the Seminoles, or college football in general, then you have to give us a listen.

Find out why tens of thousands of fans have checked us out why our journalists give you the best sports breakdowns in the state.

We can be downloaded wherever you listen to podcasts, or simply type in “The *State* of Florida Sports Podcast” into your favorite search engine. We also can be found on any of the 17 USA TODAY-Network Florida websites.

If you like it, you can check out previous shows, which feature current and former professional athletes and coaches, as well as our stable of journalists who cover beats and write columns, all of whom have a tie to the Sunshine State.

Contact Walters at twalters@gannett.com

This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Podcast looks at 2023 FSU at Clemson game with Seminoles beat writer