Saturday’s matchup between Florida (5-6) and No. 5 Florida State (11-0) brought fans excitement, glare, and plenty of emotion. This was the 67th meeting between the two clubs in what has been known as the “Sunshine Showdown.”
UF’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium was filled to capacity with over 90,000 fans. Florida State’s garnet and gold colors stuck out like a sore thumb in the sea of blue and orange, but it was the crowd that helped push the Noles to a comeback victory.
FSU at one time, trailed the Gators by 12 points. But they marched down the field behind the legs of Junior running back Trey Benson. He scored the Noles’ 3 touchdowns, to get the 24-15 win and helped the team continue it’s undefeated season.
Afterward, Benson praised FSU backup quarterback Tate Rodemaker. The Redshirt-Junior is filling in for Jordan Travis, the team’s starting QB, who went down to a season-ending injury last week.
“Tate played relentless," said Benson. "Some of it may not show on the stats but that’s my dog."
Rodemaker completed half of his passes, for only 134 yards in the game against UF, but Benson says it’s his strong will that he admires the most.
"He [Rodemaker] works hard day in and day out. We just continue to build our chemistry on the field together.”
With the regular season in the books, Florida State now turns its focus to tenth-ranked Louisville(10-2) in the upcoming Atlantic Coast Conference Championship. FSU football head coach Mike Norvell discussed the game on Sunday via teleconference.
“This week, we play another talented team who present so many challenges," said Norvell. It’s still about us. Our growth and our improvement. We just had a team meeting and our guys are excited to get better.”
Back up to No. 4️⃣ in the AP poll#NoleFamily | #KeepCLIMBing pic.twitter.com/aGyo6wfQf1
— FSU Football (@FSUFootball) November 26, 2023
FSU will play for the ACC title in Charlotte, North Carolina this Saturday. They will need to win that game to remain in the top-4 rankings.
The game will decide if FSU will get a shot at the College Football Playoffs to play for the National Championship game in January of next year.