TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — The worst baseball season in Florida State’s history is now over.
The Florida State baseball team is staying home for the playoffs for the first time in more than 40 years.
The Seminoles beat Louisville 6-2 on Saturday to end the regular season with a 23-31 record. This was the first time in school history that the team had a losing record. This also meant that the 2023 season was over.
The Seminoles will miss the NCAA playoffs for the first time since 1977 in Link Jarrett’s first year as coach.
From 1978 to 2022 (there was no tournament in 2020 because of COVID-19), Florida State made 44 straight appearances in the NCAA tournament. This was the longest current streak in the country and tied with Miami for the most consecutive appearances in college baseball history.
To give you an idea, the last time Florida State didn’t make the playoffs, there were only 34 teams in the field of 64. In Jimmy Carter’s first year as president, “Star Wars” was the most popular movie in theaters, and Rod Stewart’s “Tonight’s the Night (Gonna Be Alright)” was the most popular song.
Even though Florida State won its last two games of the season against Louisville, it ended with a losing record in Atlantic Coast Conference play for the first time since it joined the league in 1992. The 9-21 record is the worst in the league, so Florida State won’t be playing in the ACC tournament.
The fact that Florida State’s records have gone down in the first year of the Link Jarrett era may be the most surprising thing.
Jarrett was hired away from Notre Dame after longtime assistant-turned-skipper Mike Martin Jr. was fired. He was brought back to his alma mater, Florida State, with the goal of bringing the school its elusive national title.
Jarrett went to Florida State and graduated in 1994. He was the starting shortstop for the Seminoles under longtime coach Mike Martin, who left after the 2019 season as the all-time wins leader.
Jarrett was a candidate for the job that went to Martin Jr., his former friend, and roommate.
Notre Dame went 86-32 under Jarrett, with a 41-17 record in 2022. During that time, the Fighting Irish had the best record in the ACC at 44-21.
Before becoming Notre Dame’s coach, Jarrett was the head coach at UNC Greensboro for seven years, where he led the Spartans to a 215-166 record and the Southern Conference championship in 2017.
When Jarrett was introduced as Florida State’s new skipper last June, he said, “I know what our fans expect, and we expect to compete for ACC and national championships.”
Even though the Seminoles had gotten worse in the last few years of Martin’s time as a coach (despite a surprise trip to the College World Series in his 40th and final season), they had never been this bad.
But all of the trips to Omaha, Nebraska, without winning a title (Florida State holds the NCAA record for most College World Series appearances without a championship) and the lackluster postseason play since that 2019 trip were enough for Florida State athletic director Michael Alford, who played college baseball himself, to make a change.
Jarrett, who grew up in Tallahassee and wanted to win a national championship with the Seminoles, was Alford’s and Florida State fans’ first choice when he was hired in late 2021, but the shift has mostly been disappointing.
Florida State had never lost more games than it won in its first 74 years. Before this year. That goes all the way back to 1948 when Florida State’s first team ended with a 9-8 record.
This season started out with hope. The Seminoles started the season 6-0 and played their way into the top 25 rankings, but after 14 games, when they were 11-3, the wheels seemed to fall off.
When Jarrett lost his ace for the season, it all started. Wyatt Crowell, a left-handed reliever, started the season in the bullpen and made his only start against Pittsburgh in March. Then he stopped pitching and had surgery in April, which ended his season.
Soon after, the Seminoles went on a 10-game losing run, which was the worst in program history. During that time, rival Miami swept them for the first time since 2001.
By then, the signs were clear. This team was going to be the worst ever.
The most loyal Florida State fans never gave up hope that Jarrett could turn things around, but that didn’t quite happen.
Now, the Seminoles will go back to Tallahassee, where they will try to start a new streak in 2024.
