A team most pundits thought was good for seven or more wins is five games in and wondering where it will find its second win.
Yeah, I know Charleston Southern (1-3) will visit Doak on Nov. 23 and Southern is 0 for 23 against FBS schools, but you get the point.
Humpty Dumpty has had a great fall. And Seminole fans are left to wonder how Osceola’s horse and all of Norvell’s men can put Humpty back together again.
We, the media and the fans, are perplexed. And in the absence of credible explanations, it is human nature to fill in the blanks with speculation, which is always darker than truth.
I’ve had a bunch of emails and texts from frantic readers, and a number of Osceola Village posts, expressing grave concern for the future of the program. So, I thought I’d take this opportunity to pose a few of the questions and share some opinions for your consideration.
Why has there been a void of information? Why hasn’t the media asked Norvell the tough questions, especially about not playing other quarterbacks?
I’ve been at this job a long time, through many coaches, so I’ll take a swing at answering this question.
First, let me say, group press conferences are not conducive to honest, in-depth answers. In the days when a reporter could get regular one-on-one interviews with a head coach, or an assistant coach, a trusted reporter was likely to get an honest answer from the coach either on the record or on background. And typically, the background conversation came with an ominous promise: If said reporter should ever quote that coach, said reporter would not need a urologist for birth control.
But even if the coach’s words wouldn’t make it to print, they helped the reporter clarify the problem for his readers and kept them from hopping down darker rabbit holes.
As honest a man as Bobby Bowden was, he wasn’t going to be totally honest with a pack of reporters, because there was at least one he didn’t trust. But when coach sat down with you alone, he would explain it in clear detail.
There are reasons press conferences cause “coach speak,” which frustrates the media and the fans and sires unnecessary and counter-productive conspiracy theories.
Coaches know that any explanation they give in a press conference will be read as an excuse by some reporters and readers rather than an explanation, provide information for opponents, and will be read by their team as well.
Is Mike Norvell the right man for the job?
I think it’s natural and healthy to ask those questions. If your offensive line isn’t playing well, you naturally question the OL coach. Receivers not catching the ball consistently? You watch how the WR segment is coached. Seeing a lack of effort across the defense? You question the defensive coordinator. But when you see issues across both sides of the ball, it’s natural to move up the organizational chart to the top guy.
I do it myself. The buck stops at the top. And while there are issues on this “team” that Mike Norvell must own and develop, I still see him as the right guy for Florida State because he seems to own them and because he has already built teams at FSU that won 10 or more games in back to back seasons.
Most of us thought he needed to find a more-experienced quarterback in the portal last year to add maturity to the room, and he chose DJ Uiagalelei, which hasn’t worked out. He stuck with DJU through four losses. Both those decisions are on him.
There’s a void of leadership and playmakers behind the 2023 team that has also hindered this team. We knew it would be tough to replace the leadership of Jordan Travis and the other nine NFL signees, but we also expected new leaders and new playmakers to step up because Norvell has done it in 2022 and 2023.
In building this program to back-to-back 10-win seasons, we’ve seen Norvell develop a culture of leadership that has been missing thus far this year. It is incumbent upon him to find the future leaders, whether they are freshmen or juniors.
Readers have noted the re-build needs to begin now with a youth movement.
I believe he can use the next seven games, nine weeks counting bye weeks, to prepare for the future by challenging every coach and player, which will help to separate the wheat from the chaff for 2025.
Does that mean a total youth movement? Not exactly. If your veterans answer the challenge, you play them especially at positions where you need the depth (offensive line for example), but you reward the younger players at that position with playing time when those young guys meet the standard set for them.
Playing time should never be given. It should be earned by meeting performance and effort standards at practice and in games. It should not be handed out free like Halloween candy to the youngsters. Norvell needs to field players who are ready to perform on game day as success remains important to team and leadership development and the morale of the players, prospects and fans.
While coaches typically don’t run full contact drills during the season to avoid potential injury, or because the vets are beat-up, old school guys like me think this is a good time to run those drills especially with the younger players in development.
While the daily work goal should be simply to improve, there are winnable games remaining on this schedule that would inject much needed vitamin W, which will bolster the confidence and enthusiasm needed for development.
FSU won 24 of 27 games in 2022 and 2023, so why has there been such a dramatic drop off?
The first time FSU lost a game in this manner was one thing, but after it happened time and time again, you look for a systemic problem. The drop off has been so dramatic that I half-jokingly called the Battle’s End to see if they had missed an NIL payroll.
They haven’t.
So how can a coaching staff that has put together back-to-back, 10-plus-win seasons now find themselves with what looks more like a collection of individuals than a team. I’m sure each of you have your own explanations and I hope you’ll share them on the Osceola Village, but here’s some coaching axioms that are clear in the rearview mirror.
1. The first axiom The Osceola reminded ourselves and our readers of in the preseason was this: You can’t tell how good your team is until you play someone else.
When the FSU offense struggled to move the ball in the preseason, we asked ourself: Is the defense really good or the offense really bad? The Georgia Tech game was telling. Boston College was concerning.
2. The second axiom we’ve been rudely reminded of: Every team dies at the end of every season, and birth must be given to the next team even if it has returning starters.
The 2023 team, which went 23-4 over two seasons, was special. They were a band of brothers who fought through a couple of losing seasons to forge leaders who also had play-making ability like Jordan Travis and Jared Verse. Mike Norvell hit a high percentage in the transfer portal with Verse, Braden Fiske, Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson among 10 NFL draft picks. But when the 2023 season was over, that team was dead and gone. And a new team had to be born.
3. Another coaching axiom: Leadership matters and the best teams are player-led.
The 2023 team became player-led during the 2022 season and caught a break when the above-mentioned draft picks chose to come back in 2023. This 2024 team isn’t player-led on either side of the ball yet. Coaches are still doing too much leading while working to foster a player-led team.
This axiom came to life for me during the Dynasty Era when the defense was just going through the motions at practice. Rather than rant and push the players through it, Defensive Coordinator Mickey Andrews gathered up his assistants for a Power-Ade break under the old oak tree on practice field three. The move confused the players who had already taken a break. Eventually, a player wandered over to ask Andrews what was up. Andrews said “We’re chillin’.” Then he said, paraphrasing: “You all will never be as good as we want you to be. You will only be as good as you decide to be. Get with your teammates and decide how good y’all wanna be and then we’ll coach you to be that good.”
4. Here’s a coaching axiom you may like: It’s not the Xs and Os, it’s the Johnnies and Joes. Or as some say: You can’t take a mule to the Kentucky Derby.
As you looked at the 2023 starting lineup, it was very clear a lot of players would be drafted. If you look across the starting lineup of this 2024 team, you have a hard time counting five let alone 10. Alex Mastromanno, Ryan Fitzgerald and AZ Thomas are three who come to mind but not many others have bolstered their draft status thus far this season.
“Why has the performance of the 2024 team dropped so far from 2023?” The answer may be in the performance of the Johnnies and Joes, which begs many other questions the Osceola will continue to cover.
5. Here’s a coaching axiom former defensive coaches have led me to embrace: The quarterback is the face of the team and his performance affects the attitude of every position group.
DJ is a quiet guy, reserved and faithful and I wonder if six months was long enough to establish him as the face of program, especially when he wasn’t able to have the instant productivity to inspire his teammates to rally around him.
Jordan Travis was a transfer, too, but the Louisville signee went through years of the CLIMB with teammates. Jordan had skin in the game. Offense, defense, all looked to him as their leader. Jordan was a playmaker – at practice and in games -- whose teammates knew QB1 could turn a would-be sack into a first down or touchdown. Even the defense knew to keep heart as FSU was never out of a game with Jordan’s ability to light the scoreboard. He was the glue guy, the face of the program, and that’s been missing.
Yes, Cam Ward and others are proving portal quarterbacks can win their first year, so signing the right portal fit at QB is more nuanced and riskier than any other position. Unfortunately, it has not been a peanut-butter-and-jelly fit between DJU and FSU.
Lots of people ask: “Why does Mike Norvell prioritize the transfer portal and not high school recruiting?”
Old news. While Norvell did use the portal heavily back when FSU coaches lacked established Florida relationships, I don’t think the take that he prioritizes the portal over high school recruiting was true in 2023.
As the Osceola staff will tell you, Norvell brings in thousands of high school prospects each year, whether on official or unofficial visits or to summer camps. In my opinion, FSU’s priority is on pursuing the 4- and 5-star high school prospects, and select 3-star guys, and then uses the portal when they are unable to sign the high school guys they’ve targeted.
Are there exceptions where they prioritize the portal at a position(s)? Sure. Could this be a year they take a dozen portal players? Perhaps, but I believe their priority is high school prospects and portal players are the fallback position.
I’ve had a number of letters regarding the topic of fans booing players at games, and chose one to share from Rhett Fischer, a former intern of mine at Seminole Boosters.
“I am a definite Seminole for life. Graduated In 1998. I have a dad who played back in the early 1960s. I remember sitting in front of my radio as a kid and finding myself in tears when Florida State would lose, just as I would in each of their three Nattys,” Fischer opened.
“My dad always taught me how to be a grateful fan. I would watch as he would thank, and fist bump, the visiting fans for coming to Doak and wish them well in both victory and in defeat.”
Fischer’s first childhood memory of Doak was hearing FSU fans booing when opposing teams came onto the field.
“I was always appreciative of attending games at Doak and would be confused as to why our fans would boo when the visiting team came onto the field. After all, if it weren’t for them, who would we have to play? Why not just be excited they’re here instead of expressing our distaste in their arrival coming on to the field?” he wrote.
Now, as an adult, Rhett wonders again. “Lately boos have become a familiar aspect of each of our games. But now those boos are for our boys in the Garnet and Gold. Aren’t we all in this together, win or lose?” he asks.
Society has certainly changed since social media became a thing, and fans can now vent their spleens on message boards, which is certainly everyone’s right and a form of therapy. NIL has also exacerbated the feeling among fans on those message boards that the players are no longer amateurs.
“I personally have never booed a player and cannot imagine I ever would,” Fischer wrote. “However, now that these players are making more than some of our season ticket holders, there is a temptation to boo. I get it and completely understand there are more than a few who feel this way now that NIL has been mandated but what does it say about us? What does it say to visiting fans and recruits?”
For Rhett and so many other Florida State fans, Seminole football has always been a gathering place, a uniting space, in a divisive world. “Let’s remember football is about family, tradition and friendship and we are on this team together,” wrote Fischer.
While disappointed with the recent losses, Fischer espouses another of my favorite coaching axioms: Tough times don’t last. Tough people do.
“Life would be boring and success less rewarding if we didn’t go through some tough times,” he wrote. “Football is very cyclical in nature, just as life. Try not to give up. Try not to feed on the negative during this difficult process, or to give up on the men and women we’ve chosen to lead and represent this beautiful university.”
Please share your thoughts on any of these topics in the Osceola Village and feel free to send me emails jkutz@theosceola.com you’d like addressed in future mailbags.
Follow The Osceola on Facebook
Follow The Osceola on Twitter
Subscribe to the Osceola's YouTube channel
Subscribe to the Osceola's podcasts on Apple
