ESPN published an article this week with college football coaches making predictions for the 2023 season (subscription required).

Among those things that coaches are expecting to see next season is that Florida State will push Clemson for ACC dominance.

“They’re getting a s—load of recruits,” a Power Five coach said of Florida State, via Adam Rittenberg, who authored the aforementioned article for ESPN. “They’ve got dudes; they’re getting better.”

In 2022, Clemson (11-3, 9-0 ACC) captured its seventh ACC Championship in the last eight seasons, while Florida State hasn’t claimed the conference crown since 2014. That’s also when the Seminoles earned their most recent victory over the Tigers.

However, according to ESPN, certain coaches believe FSU is catching up with Clemson in the ACC and could even surpass the Tigers in Mike Norvell’s fourth season in 2023.

“The front-runners are Florida State,” an ACC defensive assistant said, via Rittenberg. “They’ve got all the pieces.”

FSU (10-3, 5-3 ACC) won its last six games in 2022 to reach its first 10-win season in six years and will return quarterback Jordan Travis, among a handful of other standouts, next season. The Noles were active in the transfer portal last offseason and have continued to be.

Clemson, meanwhile, won at least 10 games for the 12th straight season and won at least 11 games for the eighth time in 11 seasons. The Tigers beat FSU, 34-28, at Doak Campbell Stadium in October and haven’t lost to FSU since Sept. 20, 2014 — a 23-17 overtime loss in Tallahassee when the Noles were ranked No. 1 and Jimbo Fisher was the head coach.

“There’s one team with significantly more talent, Clemson, and then Florida State did a tremendous job being the next most talented team,” an ACC coordinator said, via Rittenberg. “FSU did theirs through the transfer portal. Those two are really the toughest teams [in the ACC]. They’re killing it.”

Dear Old Clemson has added the Tiger Sack Pack to our online store.  Save by getting the Two Pack of signed cards from two of the nation’s top defensive ends, Myles Murphy and Xavier Thomas.

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