Florida State’s Halloween night against Clemson started with little rhythm and ended with the Tigers taking control late for a 36-24 win at Doak Campbell Stadium.
The loss was FSU’s third in a row and dropped the Seminoles to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in ACC play. Clemson moved to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in conference play.
The first quarter was messy from the start. The teams opened with three straight three-and-outs, including two by Florida State, before a 19-yard punt from Daniel Hughes handed Clemson a short field at the FSU 30-yard line. The Tigers wasted no time, as Tait Reynolds hit Christian Betancur for an 18-yard touchdown to get on the board first.
Florida State answered after another stretch of stalled possessions. Ashton Daniels found Micahi Danzy on a 46-yard touchdown to tie it, but Clemson closed the quarter with a 35-yard field goal from Nolan Hauser and a 10-7 lead.
The second quarter brought a little more back-and-forth. Gabe Panikowski drilled a 35-yard field goal to pull FSU even at 10-10, but Clemson responded with another Hauser field goal, this one from 35 yards, to go back ahead 13-10.
Then the half unraveled for the Seminoles. Daniels threw two interceptions in the final five minutes.
Jerome Carter III grabbed the first one, and Clemson turned that into a 51-yard drive capped by Reynolds’ 4-yard touchdown pass to Olsen Patt-Henry. It was Clemson’s second passing touchdown of the game, matching its season total entering Saturday.
Less than a minute later, Daniels was picked off again, this time by Elliot Washington II. That turnover set up a 50-yard field goal by Hauser, and Florida State went into the locker room down 23-10.
Clemson kept adding to the margin in the third quarter with Hauser’s fourth field goal, a 46-yarder with eight minutes left in the period. Florida State had a chance to answer after Daniels converted a fourth-and-3 run, but Darien Mayo forced a fumble and Jaheim Lawson recovered it for the Tigers.
After the teams traded punts, Hauser struck again from 49 yards out with 11:04 remaining, giving Clemson its fifth field goal of the night and a 29-10 cushion.
Florida State finally found the end zone again at 8:52 of the fourth quarter. Daniels finished a 5-play, 75-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown run, and the Seminoles added a two-point shovel pass to Desirrio Riles to cut it to 29-18.
That opened the door for a brief surge. FSU forced a three-and-out, then needed less than a minute to cover 54 yards, with Daniels throwing a 41-yard touchdown to Jasen Lopez. The two-point try failed, but the Seminoles were suddenly within five at 29-24 with 5:30 left.
Clemson shut that down quickly. Reynolds broke loose for a 79-yard touchdown run on third-and-long to put the game away.
Florida State still had one more drive, but with 63 seconds left Daniels threw his third interception of the night, and his fourth giveaway overall, with Washington picking him off in the end zone.
In Other News...
Florida States Reset Just Got Even More Painful After Norvell
Florida States coaching reset picked up another jolt this week as the program moved on from defensive coordinator Tony White and safeties coach Evan Cooper in the wake of Mike Norvells dismissal. The changes are part of a broader overhaul after a frustrating 2026 season that has kept the Seminoles searching for answers, with the recent loss to Clemson only adding to the sense that the slide had become too much to ignore.
Rick Stockstill will guide the team as interim head coach for the rest of the season, but the bigger story is how quickly the staff has been stripped down around him. For a program trying to steady itself after a run of losses, the departures on defense only deepen the uncertainty and leave more questions about what the Seminoles will look like once the season finally ends. [Read more 🡒]
Mike Norvell Sounds Off On What Cost FSU Against Clemson
Mike Norvell did not need much time after Florida States loss to Clemson to zero in on what went wrong. The Seminoles head coach pointed to turnovers, poor field position and special teams mistakes as the kinds of self-inflicted problems that can swing a game against a quality opponent, even when the effort is there. He said he appreciated the way his team kept battling late, but the frustration was clear because the standard in a matchup like that has to be cleaner execution from start to finish.
For Florida State, the bigger concern is that the issues Norvell identified are the ones that tend to linger if they are not corrected quickly. He also touched on injuries, individual performances and the teams mindset moving forward, all part of the postgame inventory that comes after a loss with missed chances attached to it. The Seminoles now have to turn that disappointment into something more useful, because the margin for error in games like this is usually too small to survive repeated mistakes. [Read more 🡒]
Florida States Defensive Reset Just Claimed Another Assistant
Florida States defensive overhaul picked up another jolt this week, with safeties coach Evan Cooper and defensive coordinator Tony White both dismissed from the staff amid a 3-5 season. Cooper had come to Tallahassee ahead of the 2025 campaign after coaching at Nebraska in 2023, part of a staff built to steady a defense that had shown flashes even as the unit struggled to find consistency.
The move leaves the Seminoles continuing to sort through a reset on that side of the ball, with the coaching changes underscoring how much has gone wrong during the season. Even with some individual defensive successes along the way, Florida State never got the collective results it needed, and the latest staff shakeup only adds to the uncertainty surrounding what comes next. [Read more 🡒]