Florida State wins Independence Bowl over Southern Miss, 42-13: 3 takeaways

The Florida State Seminoles defeated the Southern Miss Golden Eagles in the 2017 Independence Bowl, 42-13. Here are the three biggest takeaways from the ball game.

The bowl season is well under way in college football this December. In one of the bigger pre-New Year’s bowls, the Florida State Seminoles had their way with the Southern Miss Golden Eagles. Florida State beat Southern Miss 42-13 to improve to 7-6. Southern Miss would fall to 8-5 on the year.

Rarely would you find a blue-blood program like Florida State playing a bowl game before New Year’s Day, but this one with Southern Miss was a good watch to say the least. It was a good combination of sound offensive execution and defensive prowess. However, there were a few special teams miscues for both teams.

Here are the three biggest takeaways from the 2017 Walk-On’s Independence Bowl.

Willie Taggart had to like what he saw out of his Florida State offense. Though Odell Haggins was the Florida State interim head coach for the Independence Bowl, his new head coach Willie Taggart should have been very pleased with the offensive effort he saw out of his team. This balanced offensive attack, spearheaded by freshman quarterback James Blackman, was the reason Florida State was able to blow out Southern Miss so easily.

Blackman had one of his better games this season, spreading the ball around to several receivers, including wide receiver Auden Tate, who had three touchdown grabs. Running backs Cam Akers and Jacques Patrick proved to be too much for the Golden Eagles defense. The sheer amount of talent on the Florida State roster prevailed over Southern Miss very early in this ball game.

For a team that lost its starting quarterback, Deondre Francois, in Week 1 and its former head coach, Jimbo Fisher, to the Texas A&M Aggies, Taggart has to be pleased with the team he’ll be inheriting for his first year in Tallahassee. It’s hard to gauge the defense against a Conference USA team, but the Florida State offense was fantastic in the Independence Bowl.

Ito Smith was the Southern Miss offense. Though this was not the result that Southern Miss wanted, senior running back Ito Smith definitely improved his draft stock in this game. He already owns a bunch of school records on the ground, but it looks like his offensive skill set will translate marvelously to the next level.

Unfortunately for the Golden Eagles, they couldn’t really do much else on offense without the ball in Smith’s hands. This is a testament to the amount of talent on this Florida State defense, even if the Seminoles were playing without their best defensive back in Derwin James.

With over 100 all-purpose yards, Smith definitely popped on the television screen for the Southern Miss offense. He is both quick and shifty afoot. Smith showed he can catch the ball out of the backfield and return kicks. Look for him to make somebody’s NFL team better upon his arrival. It was a big day for him for sure.

Florida State should be able to bounce back just fine in 2018. With a coaching staff in flux and a measly 6-6 record, Florida State could have absolutely mailed this game in. Well, the Seminoles did not, as they put on an offensive clinic against a solid Southern Miss team.

Some lesser teams would have gone through the motions in this meaningless bowl game, but not Florida State. You could tell that a down 2017 season was a fluke. No doubt the Seminoles will be back to being a top-25 team next year. Ending the season on this positive of a note is so huge for them heading into 2018.

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Florida State may have ways to go before besting their two biggest ACC rivals in Clemson and Miami next year. However, this Independence Bowl illustrated to us it’s only a matter of time before the Seminoles are back. They were simply dominant over the Golden Eagles on Wednesday afternoon.