Florida State's 2014 Win Without Winston Frames Saturday's Clemson Game

The last time Florida State beat Clemson in Tallahassee, the Seminoles did it without their Heisman Trophy quarterback. That was 2014. A look back from Roundtable Sports shows how much has changed in the series since then, ahead of Saturday's meeting at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Jameis Winston was suspended for that game for loud, inappropriate comments and gestures he made at the student union during game week. Jimbo Fisher started backup Sean McGuire. Winston still put on his pads and warmed up anyway, and Roundtable's Tony Thomas writes that Fisher confronted him and sent him back to the locker room. Florida State trailed 10-3 at halftime, tied it 17-17 on a 74-yard touchdown pass from McGuire to Rashad Greene, and won 23-17 in overtime. McGuire threw for 304 yards with one touchdown and two interceptions. The Seminoles finished 13-1, and their only loss came against Oregon in the Rose Bowl.

The series has mostly gone Clemson's way since then. Roundtable notes that Florida State has beaten the Tigers only twice since 2014 and that Mike Norvell is 1-4 against them. This year's Seminoles are led by Ashton Daniels, a graduate transfer who came through Stanford and Auburn. Before the season, CBS Sports reported that Norvell named Daniels the starter going into a seventh season widely seen as make-or-break. At the time, Daniels had a 5-18 record as a college starter.

This matchup tilts toward the quarterback Clemson can't match. According to Roundtable, Daniels has 12 touchdown passes this season. Clemson's entire quarterback room has two, which Thomas calls "the worst quarterback play in the Dabo Swinney era."

What it means for Saturday

Neither team is where it expected to be. Florida State is 3-4 and has lost two straight on the road, 44-20 at Louisville and 43-35 at No. 3 Miami. The Seminoles have also lost close games to No. 19 SMU (27-24) and at No. 10 Alabama. Their three wins came against Virginia, Central Arkansas and New Mexico State, and they scored at least 34 points in each.

Clemson is 4-3 and is coming off a 20-16 home loss to Virginia Tech. The Tigers' offense has had trouble against good defenses. They scored 10 points at No. 11 LSU and 13 against No. 4 Miami, and they lost those games by a combined 69 points. Clemson's best result is a 28-20 win over North Carolina.

The board favors Florida State even though Roundtable cited a Vegas Insider number with Clemson favored by 1.5. Across the 12 venues on this site's game page, the Seminoles are favored by 6.5 at Novig, priced at -100. Hard Rock Bet has Florida State at -5.5 for -110, the best Seminoles spread anywhere. On the other side, the best Clemson price is +6.5 at -110 on theScore Bet, compared with -113 at Novig. Novig has Florida State at -203 on the moneyline and Clemson at +194. The sportsbook hold runs from 3.8% to 6.8% on the spread. The total is 49.5 at Novig, and BetRivers has the under at 50.5.

Whoever wins, Saturday night will look nothing like the 2014 game. Neither team is unbeaten, neither is ranked, and Florida State has a full-strength quarterback for once.