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Outclassed

Virginia’s 34-20 loss to Florida State Saturday night in Tallahassee will not shake the earth. The Cavaliers remained in contention against the Football Bowl Subdivision’s No. 2 team into the back end of the fourth quarter — making enough plays to prevent a blowout, but not enough take the night by its throat. The Seminoles came out on top for the 26th time in 26 games. It’s as simple as that.

But is it?

Yes. Florida State is at its core a better football team than Virginia.

Fans and media at present assail Virginia football from all sides. Every week the story is different, but the same. The viewing public expertly identifies the Cavaliers’ problems, citing convincing statistics and the undeniable results of the eye test. Virginia’s play-calling is too predictable, its secondary too porous, its quarterbacking situation too volatile.

Maybe all of those things are true. The general public has long been a source of positive reform. But simply shoring up perceived deficiencies won’t put Virginia in position to really compete with teams like Florida State. To do that, the Cavaliers must take a lengthy step forward.

What I’m interested in is some outside-the-box thinking. How can Virginia become a much better football team while retaining Mike London?

A fact that seems to get lost in the shuffle is that the man has won games before. London won the FCS championship at Richmond in his first season as a collegiate head coach. I’m inclined to think he’s not the critical element holding Virginia back from excellence.

For all the criticism showered on the current Virginia staff, a thorny fact remains: the Cavaliers last won the ACC Championship in 1995. What’s more, they’ve captured the conference title just twice in 60 years as a member of the ACC. With the exception of select years in the George Welsh era, Virginia has never been a conference power on the level of today’s Seminoles.

Florida State has an extra gear that Virginia lacks. This game might have been close, but come decision time, Jameis & Co. repelled another mildly bothersome fly on the wall. Virginia joins Louisville, Notre Dame, Clemson and Oklahoma State on the list of teams to tussle with the Seminoles and walk away the loser by two touchdowns or less.

Some powerhouses dominate the way they should, dictating from the opening whistle, while others struggle to pull away from their competition. Florida State strikes me as the latter. That doesn’t mean the teams the Seminoles somewhat narrowly beat are really on their level.

When Virginia seized an early 13-7 lead Saturday night, Florida State responded with a vengeance, reeling off 21 unanswered points in 11 minutes. Though the Cavaliers pulled within eight on Greyson Lambert’s 23-yard strike to Canaan Severin, the Seminoles shut out the visitors from Charlottesville the rest of the way.

That they managed to raise their game is not surprising. Florida State has a prohibitively athletic roster and is led by a Heisman-winner at quarterback. How such a talented team falls behind in the first place boggles my mind. But to date, the Seminoles have always come out on top.

Watching Rashad Greene terrorize the Virginia secondary and Mario Edwards, Jr. menace the Cavalier backfield, it becomes apparent that few players and teams in college football today can claim such polished skill. Right down to the kicker, Roberto Aguayo, Florida State is scary good. It’s telling that Famous Jameis threw two picks and still came out looking more mature than Lambert on a night when Virginia’s quarterback passed for a career-high three touchdowns.

Virginia fans will bemoan the Cavaliers’ questionable play-call on fourth and seven at the Florida State 12 with time running low in the fourth quarter — a screen to wide receiver Darius Jennings that went nowhere fast. They will lament Ian Frye’s missed extra point, Lambert’s interception at his own three-yard line and the decimated offensive line’s inability to hold back the Seminole rush. But for every complaint about where Virginia came up short, it remains true that even on an off-day, Florida State plays a better brand of football than the Cavaliers.

There are only a handful of teams in the country that can claim to be real competition for Florida State, and most of them reside in the SEC. So Virginia should not feel ashamed for remaining outside the elite. Then again, if being on the outside truly eats at London’s group, they might have hope of improving yet.

Maybe the questions everyone is asking point in the wrong direction. Maybe, instead of focusing on Virginia’s faults, we need to do some comparative work.

And so I submit this question: How can Virginia be more like Florida State?

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