For eight long months, we’ve had to talk about Florida football’s season. After a 5-7 season, we’ve tried to keep our expectations for the Gators realistic and have sometimes been accused of being too pessimistic.

But we prefer to be honest with ourselves rather than lie to the masses, and a big lie concerning our Western neighbors has just been exposed for all to see.

DJ Uiagalelei was the big headline for FSU all offseason, but their defensive line should really be the strength of their defense. On3 ranked FSU’s defensive line as the ninth best in the country, and Peter Thamel from ESPN even went so far as to say that FSU has the best defense in the country. Bud Elliott from 247 claimed that no one from Florida’s defensive line would start on FSU’s defensive line.

At this point, we at Hail Florida Hail would like to point out that we raised questions about the Seminole defense prior to FSU’s opener against Georgia Tech.

“FSU fans have tried all season to write off their loss to Georgia because they were missing their starters, but here’s a fun fact:

Based on the roster FSU released prior to this game, six of Georgia Tech’s 11 starting players played at least 20 snaps in the Orange Bowl.

Of the other five starters on Saturday, four of five had PFF grades below 70 in 2023, three had grades below 60.”

So who was right?

Oh, it was us.

During FSU’s first attack on the defense, they offered less resistance than Bishop SycamoreAs the game progressed, Georgia Tech managed to run right through the heart of what was supposedly the best defense in the country.

And on the final drive of the game, Tech was able to run the clock down to zero and kick a game-winning field goal because the vaunted FSU defense couldn’t get a stop.

FSU spent the entire offseason telling anyone who would listen how they were robbed, and Kirk Herbstreit hates babies.

Maybe they should have spent the off-season building a better defensive line, because now they leave Ireland with two differences:

1. They have the highest losses in the country
2. They failed to become the first college football team to leave their current conference to win in Ireland.