Courtesy of Florida State Athletics

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – There’s a fresh future ahead for the Florida State football team, one that will likely begin in the coming days when the Seminoles welcome in their new head coach.

Before that, though, FSU had one more chapter to write in its 2019 regular season. And it served as a stark reminder of why the Seminoles are changing directions in the first place.

Florida State matched an early Florida touchdown with one of its own, but otherwise couldn’t keep pace with the No. 8 Gators in a 40-17 defeat in front of 89,409 at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.

Cam Akers ran for 102 yards and a touchdown, while Tamorrion Terry added seven catches for 131 yards to reach the 1,000-yard mark for the season.

Otherwise, the night belonged to Florida, which beat FSU in Gainesville for the first time since 2009.

UF scored on seven of its first eight possessions and converted 52.6 percent on third and fourth downs. Gators quarterback Kyle Trask threw for 343 yards and three touchdowns and was neither intercepted nor sacked by an FSU defense that was beset by even more injuries.

Already without Joshua Kaindoh, Jaiden Lars-Woodbey and Marvin Wilson, the Seminoles lost leading tackler Hamsah Nasirildeen to an apparent leg injury early on Saturday.

Then things got even tougher later in the game when Nasirildeen’s fellow safety, Cyrus Fagan, was disqualified due to a targeting penalty – one of 13 infractions called against FSU.

As a result, the Gators went after FSU’s shorthanded defense and picked up 390 of its 467 total yards through the air. Florida State had a slight window in which to make things interesting early in the third quarter, but two third-down conversions (one via penalty) and a fourth-down conversion put the Gators on top by 27 and FSU never threatened much after that.

While awaiting their new head coach, the Seminoles will also await their bowl destination, which figures to be finalized after next week’s conference championship games.