National signing day is always a chaotic day for college football coaches.

It's a day spent constantly on the phone with recruits trying to pull off that incredible late flip of a prospect (or five) while making sure you finish the deal with your top commits and sign them.

As far as NSDs go, Wednesday was probably Mike Norvell's best of his FSU tenure. He flipped five prospects from other schools on Wednesday while losing just one.

Locking up the 2025 signing class was hardly the only thing on Norvell's Wednesday itinerary, however. He said in his press conference Wednesday that he also had season exit interviews with about 15 current FSU players that day to determine their future with the program.

"There's some real conversations happening," Norvell said. "Some guys are going to be going to explore other options and going into the portal themselves. This is one of those things that's kind of a fluid situation on what your roster is going to look like, what it's going to be."

With FSU expected to go heavy on transfer portal additions this offseason, it's fair to wonder how many players, especially upperclassmen who haven't yet established significant on-field roles, could explore opportunities elsewhere this offseason.

While exit interviews are a customary end-of-season tradition for Norvell and his assistant coaches, it sounds like this year's batch are playing out quite a bit differently. Coming off a train-wreck of a 2-10 season this fall, it sounds like the meetings have been much tougher and confrontational in terms of how all-in each FSU player is to fixing the myriad problems that popped up this season.

"There's some extreme challenge that's being issued in our meetings. Like I said after our last game, it's getting right. This is going to be like you're either in or you're not," Norvell said. "There's going to be a sense of desperation when it comes to our daily focus of what it takes to go win and to get this program back. That's what these guys that signed today are signing up for. That's what the guys that, as we go into pursuit for any other additions into our program, man, it's going to be a heck of a ride. I'm very, very excited about how my meetings are going, just the edge, the mindset, kind of the thrust of energy that has come into the program. This is going to be big. The real ones will be here and that's what it's going to take."

Coming off a season where the on-field effort of the FSU team could be called into question at times, it sounds like Norvell may not allow some players to return to the Seminoles in 2025. Others who still want to be here may have to prove it in the spring.

"Some of them, they don't have the choice. They don't have the choice. If I haven't seen it in any action or I don't believe it, then they're not going to be here. That's that," Norvell said. "I know they have it in them and I've seen the flashes of it and now it's time to take that step and it's time to prove it with the words, you'll know through spring. Thank God there's another opportunity (transfer portal window) at the end of (spring) for those that change their mind or maybe can't live up to it. They'll have a path to do something else."

Even with how surprised Norvell was about how this season went, it hasn't shaken his confidence in many of the players he assembled on his roster. However, it seems to have driven home to him how important this offseason will be in terms of players retained, players added and how actions mean much more than words around the program this offseason.

"I believe in the players I have. I really do. We've got a lot of great, great young men and they're pissed off with what we've done. We all have ownership in it and it's time to go get it right," Norvell said. "We can sit there and talk about it. We can sit there and try to say all the right things, but it's going to come down to the actions. For the class that we put together, for the work that we put into recruiting, for the work that we're putting into our evaluation, the work that those players are putting into the off-season program that is ahead, it won't be hard to spot because, if it doesn't show up, then they'll choose to go do something else."

Full transcript/video of Norvell's NSD press conference

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