Florida State shifts focus to Clemson

TALLAHASSEE — If you can comprehend the current state of college football, Jimbo Fisher would gladly accept your counsel.

With a bye in Week 8, the Florida State football team was able to regroup while teams like Ohio State and Texas A&M suffered their first loss of the season, teams like Alabama, Nebraska and Boise State ground out victories to stay undefeated and one-loss Houston suffered an upset defeat to SMU.

The Seminoles (5-2, 2-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) will host No. 3 Clemson (7-0, 4-0) on Saturday in Doak Campbell Stadium during a weekend where 13 teams in the Associated Press Top 25 rankings are on the road.

Surely, the chaos will continue.

“Anything can happen,” Fisher said Monday. “If you can figure out college football right now, tell me. You’re not going to. We’re in a crazy time right now where you don’t know what’s going to happen.”

After a tumultuous weekend, which saw Penn State upset Ohio State at home and Alabama overcome a 14-13 third-quarter deficit to beat Texas A&M 33-14 at home, Fisher was asked if he believes a twoloss team could reach the playoff semifinals.

After initially saying, “no, I don’t see it,” Fisher progressively grew more open to the possibility.

“I could see it happening. I could see it not happening,” he said. “It wouldn’t surprise me.”

FSU is the second highest-ranked two-loss team behind No. 11 Wisconsin, which beat Iowa 17-9 on Saturday. The Seminoles are still ranked ahead of No. 14 Florida (5-1, also had a bye last week); No. 17 Utah (7-1), which won a 52-45 shootout at UCLA.

No. 5 Louisville, No. 6 Ohio State and No. 9 Texas A&M each have one loss, while No. 1 Alabama, No. 2 Michigan, Clemson, No. 4 Washington, No. 7 Nebraska, No. 8 Baylor, No. 10 West Virginia and No. 13 Boise State remain undefeated.