Seminoles Season Opener: FSU takes on Stanford in a Must-See Matchup

As the 2025 Florida State Seminoles season approaches, we’re taking a look at the schedule game by game.

Just before their bye week, the Seminoles will play the Cardinal at Stanford, a first in program history.

 

Stanford and Cal were a combined 1-7 versus ACC opponents at home last season, so ACC teams’ surprising success on the West Coast this season is no surprise.

 

Nonetheless, Mike Norvell’s squad will not be guaranteed anything in October, especially because other FSU programs had problems on the cross-country trip.

 

Stanford Cardinal: Team Preview

2024 record: 3-9 (2-6)

Two things to know:

• The Cardinal had a noisy offseason and and will look much different in 2025. Troy Taylor, their head coach for two seasons, was fired in late March by general manager Andrew Luck due to alleged bullying of staff members according to an investigation. Needing to find a new head coach extremely late in the offseason, Luck hired former Indianapolis Coltshead coach Frank Reich, but not full time like usual. Reich is technically a one-year interim coach even though he was hired from outside the program and then both sides will decide what their futures moving forward at the end of the year. Reich is an accomplished NFL offensive mind and becomes the third former professional coach in the ACC.
• As mentioned earlier, heading west will be uncharted territory for the football program as FSU’s contest against Stanford will be their first regular-season game in the Pacific time zone since September 6, 1997 against USC. However, Norvell will be able to rely on plenty of data and evidence from within his program, talk to other coaches around the conference and deal from his Ireland experience last season. The other teams within Florida State’s athletic department struggled a season ago, including men’s basketball going 0-2 on their West-Coast swing and Link Jarrett’s team dropping a game to Cal, the worst team in the ACC, before looking exhausted in their following series at home against UNC. A 10:30 eastern start after a five-hour flight sounds daunting, and FSU’s travel decisions will be just as important as their gameplan.

Three key players:

• With former Stanford QB Ashton Daniels transferring to Auburn, today, redshirt-freshman Elijah Brown appears to be the frontrunner when the Cardinal season starts at the end of August. Brown made three appearances a season ago and threw for 274 combined passing yards in all of them with a 58.3% completion rate. Brown played high school football at California powerhouse Mater Dei and was a consensus 4-star prospect.
• The Cardinal are lacking veteran playmakers on the outside and should turn to true freshman WR JonAnthony Hall to make an impact for them on the outside. Hall was a 4-star recruit out of Indiana according to 247Sports and is listed at 6’1’’ 180 pounds, so he should have a college-ready frame.
• S Scotty Edwards returns to Stanford for his fourth year with the program and is the Cardinal’s leading returning tackler with 80 from 2024. Edwards made 11 starts last year, missing one due to injury, and corralled 11 tackles in Stanford’s matchup against Louisville in 2024.