Rece Davis Warns Rest of College Football About 2-10 Program

Jul 19, 2025 9:40 PM EDT

Rece Davis, the host of ESPN’s “College GameDay,” is not letting a 2-10 record from one major college football program affect how he discusses them as we approach the start of the 2025 season.

This season will be here before we know it — with the first matchup of Week 0 taking place on Aug. 23. A week later, in Week 1, we’ll be treated to plenty of big-time matchups, including Ohio State-Texas, Clemson-LSU, Florida State-Alabama and Notre Dame-Miami.

All these games should be good ones. But if there’s one that has the potential to get ugly, it’s surely that FSU vs. Bama game taking place in Tallahassee at 3:30 p.m. ET on ABC.

However, Davis has a different view on that one, saying the Seminoles should actually “threaten” the Tide in Week 1.

“Florida State is going to be so much more improved,” Davis said.

Because of that, and because he expects a close game, he thinks the narrative afterward will center around whether Kalen DeBoer is truly fit to replace Nick Saban.

“Because they will threaten Alabama, it’s going to be — instead of Florida State being improved — is this really working at Alabama?” Davis said.

FSU, which had a fantastic 2023 season met with historical levels of controversy, fell on its face in 2024, going 2-10 with quarterback DJ Uiagalelei under center. Alabama, on the other hand, went 9-4 in its first year under DeBoer. But still, it’s Alabama, and right now it just feels like the Tide will return to their old selves.

FSU finished 131 (out of 134) in the FBS last season in scoring offense, averaging just 15.4 points per game. That prompted Mike Norvell to hire Gus Malzahn as his new offensive coordinator.

Defensively, FSU finished No. 87, allowing an average of 28 points per game. Norvell brought in Tony White as his new defensive coordinator.

Former Boston College quarterback Tommy Castellanos is expected to play behind a much sharper offensive line than FSU had last season. And running backs Roydell Williams, Kam Davis and Samuel Singleton should combine to be good enough, writes Pete Fiutak of College Football News.