Moving on up! FSU ranked 14th in Coaches, AP polls; awaiting bowl destination

Florida State football once again rules the state of Florida.

And the Seminoles - under third-year coach Mike Norvell - continue to attract national attention.

FSU, which was ranked 16th nationally last week, moved up to No. 14 in Sunday's USA Today Coaches Poll. It also moved up two slots to No. 14 in The Associated Press college football poll released Sunday.

FSU is the highest-rated school in Florida and the second-highest ranked team from the ACC behind Clemson. Clemson is No. 11 in the coaches poll and No. 10 in the AP poll.

The Seminoles beat rival Florida 45-38 last Friday before a sold-out crowd of 79,560 at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Bookend with FSU's 45-3 win at Miami Nov. 5, the Seminoles clinched their first "state title" since 2016 and 15th state championship all-time.

Dating back to FSU's first national championship in 1993, it has swept UF and UM in the same season 11 times. By comparisons, the Hurricanes have four state sweeps and the Gators two.

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FSU finished the regular season 9-3, including 5-3 against ACC opponents. The Seminoles also swept SEC members LSU and UF.

FSU closed the regular season with five consecutive wins. It's the team's longest win streak since it ended the 2016 with five straight victories.

"I am so proud of our guys," Norvell said following Friday's win.

"To be able to get our ninth win, that's something that is not ultimately what we wanted. We wanted to win every one one of them. But especially with how the things went, just to see our guys never give up, to win the last five. It's a special group of young men.

"A lot of those guys helped build and set the foundation for where we're going. This is just the beginning. It's exciting to watch this team compete. It's exciting to watch them

believe. There's a lot of areas we need to continue to improve in. I'm just so excited for what the future holds here."

Going bowling again

FSU, which will return to practice later this week, is now awaiting its bowl destination.

The bowl picture expects to become clearer over the next week, following the release of the College Football playoff rankings Tuesday and Saturday's conference championship games.

FSU was ranked 16th in last week's CFP rankings.

Under conference-bowl tie-ins, the Seminoles have been linked to the Holiday Bowl (ACC vs. Pac-12/Dec. 28/San Diego), Cheez-It Bowl (ACC vs. Big 12/Dec. 29/Orlando), Gator Bowl (SEC, ACC, Big Ten/Dec. 30/Jacksonville) and potentially the Tampa Bay Bowl/Outback Bowl (SEC, Big Ten, ACC/Jan. 2/Tampa).

The ACC has nine bowl eligible teams in Clemson, Duke, FSU, Louisville, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Pitt, Syracuse and Wake Forest

Norvell hasn't been shy about mentioning the importance of FSU returning to a bowl game for the first time since the 2019 Sun Bowl.

"It means everything because it's about continued development," Norvell said.

"When you have those practices, when you have another spotlight and a stage to

be able to go and compete, it's big. We get to go compete to try to get our 10th win. That's very important for us. These guys, you take them one at a time. But we can talk about it now because we've done the things necessary.

"We got one more step."

Reach Jim Henry at jjhenry@tallahassee.com.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Florida State football moves up in USA Today Coaches Poll, AP poll