How’s that for a statement? No. 8 Florida State scored 31 unanswered points in the second half to blow open a 17-14 halftime game and defeat No. 5 LSU 45-24. The story for the Seminoles were the new additions on offense as wide receiver Keon Coleman, a Michigan State transfer, caught 3 touchdown passes and tight end/H-back Jaheim Bell, a South Carolina transfer, caught a touchdown pass and rushed for another. Quarterback Jordan Travis recovered from an inconsistent first half to finish with 342 passing yards and 5 touchdowns (4 passing).

Let’s break it down in this week’s Stock Report.

Player of the Week

Let’s go with Coleman over Travis mainly because Travis had a couple of rough segments and needed Coleman to help him get back on track. The Michigan State transfer had 9 catches for 122 yards and 3 touchdowns in his first game as a Seminole. With Coleman, Bell and Johnny Wilson (7-104) on the field together, LSU had to pick its poison.

Coleman looks like a legitimate top-end NFL prospect at wide receiver. He’s big (6-4, 215), he’s strong, he’s a natural playmaker and he’ll fight for the football. He could be FSU’s first 1,000-yard receiver since Tamorrion Terry did it in 2019.

Freshman of the Week

Nothing much to speak of in terms of productivity from freshmen. FSU is a veteran squad with years of experience at every position. Rodney Hill is a redshirt freshman and had a very nice physical run late in the 4th quarter that set up Bell’s short touchdown run. Hill had 5 carries for 29 yards.

Biggest surprise

Well, you can’t expect a receiver to catch 3 TD passes like Coleman did, but let’s reward one of his position-mates. Wide receiver Kentron Poitier showed good flashes last season and word coming out of the spring was that the redshirt junior was ready for a bigger role in the offense. But with the additions of Coleman and Bell, the return of Winston Wright from injury and the long-awaited enrollment of Destyn Hill, it appears that Poitier is going to be a forgotten man.

Biggest concern

It seemed like LSU had wide receivers running open all night and had the Tigers executed better, they might have been more successful. FSU’s defensive line and run defense played solid with a couple of exceptions, but the pass defense left a lot to be desired. LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels threw for 347 yards, but he missed 2 wide open receivers that would have gotten big plays and had a possible catch-and-run touchdown dropped by Kyren Lacy. It’s a concern, but also understand that FSU won’t face many teams with the wide receiver depth or quarterback play that LSU had.

Developing trend

Florida State should be ranked in the top 5 (as high as No. 3 in my opinion). If the Seminoles move up as expected they would play their first game as a top-5 ranked team since the beginning of the 2017 season.

Key stat

The Seminoles were 9-of-14 on 3rd down. Many of those were 3rd-and-long and the offense handled them beautifully.

First impression about Week 2 vs. Southern Miss

Everything right now is pointing to the showdown at Clemson on Sept. 23rd. The Seminoles only have 2 ranked opponents on the current schedule and they just disposed of 1 of them. Expect the focus to be on the running game against the Golden Eagles with Trey Benson getting more snaps and more carries.