Florida State's 2017 season will be a doozy

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 12:21 p.m. ET

Fansided, Shannon Sickmon/FanSided via Saturday Blitz

Florida State Seminoles’ head coach Jimbo Fisher has got an explosive season coming up in 2017. If he can pull it off, we may be looking at the best FSU team in history–and that is saying something.

So they released the upcoming college football schedules, and Florida State pulled the short straw. (Or a big pile of awesome, depending on your point of view.) The ‘Noles have Alabama as their first game of the season. Oh, and then they have to play the Miami Hurricanes a mere two weeks later. Yikes.

I would feel sorry for any team that has to start off their season playing the Crimson Tide. The ‘Noles have national title ambitions in 2017, and that game could be the harbinger of their year. It’s not that Alabama is unbeatable. Clemson and Ole Miss proved that. Jimbo Fisher’s squad always has firepower, but Bama generally has the equivalent of an AC-130 gunship. If Jimbo Fisher can take down Alabama, though, the Seminoles should have an amazing season.

Regardless, the game is going to make for an epic opening to the 2017 CFB season for several reasons. Both teams should start off the season ranked in the top five in the preseason polls. And yes, that is a huge deal–the last time any two teams ranked in the top 5 played each other in the season opener was in 1989 when Notre Dame (No.1) played Michigan (No.2). The Seminoles also had a nasty rivalry game opener in 1988 when the number-one ranked ‘Noles played sixth-ranked Miami.

And think about this-in the past six years, Alabama and FSU have either won the national championship or played in the national championship game. Both teams boast some of the most talented teams in college football, and Fisher definitely can beat up on SEC teams. Fisher was a former assistant to Nick Saban at LSU, so he is familiar with Saban’s shock-and-awe style of football. Fisher is 9-1 against the SEC at Florida State.

In addition, the game will be played in the splendid new Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. Atlanta is friendly ground for both teams, so expect a sellout crowd. This will be the inaugural game at the stadium-what an inauguration! As an Atlanta native, I can attest that the new stadium will be all kinds of cool.

In short, the 2017 opening weekend may be one of the best in college football.