The 2023 season will always be a memorable one for Florida State, and now there is a physical reminder through Doak Campbell Stadium. But not everything was recorded.
The program unveiled a new plaque honoring the 13-1 team near the Sod Cemetery outside the stadium, featuring the names of every player on the team, the scores of every regular season game plus the ACC Championship and final honors from the program.
“The Coyle Moore Family Trust honors Florida State University and the achievements of the unconquered 2023 Atlantic Coast Conference championship football team,” the plaque reads.
There was only one thing missing: the Orange Bowl score.
In case you needed a plaque to remind you of what happened in the Orange Bowl last season, Florida State was completely destroyed by Georgia after a slew of opt-outs from an undefeated team. The Seminoles were controversially eliminated from the College Football Playoff following the season-ending injury of star quarterback Jordan Travis, and the shorthanded program ultimately ended the season with a 63-3 loss.
So you can probably understand why the state of Florida doesn’t want these numbers near the plaque.
Few artifacts could better represent how the Seminoles view their 2023 team. Every member of the team and their fanbase thinks they have been robbed of a CFP berth. They did the required work and then got punished because their quarterback got hurt. Some even went so far as to claim a share of the national championship.
You can sympathize with that, but it’s hard to deny that using the word “unconquered” in a plaque that purposefully excludes a 60-point loss is quite a swing. The team that faced Georgia may not have been the same as the team that won 13-0, but they wore Florida State uniforms in an officially sanctioned NCAA game. It happened.
Of course, plaques have never been great for capturing nuances.
