Mere minutes after Florida State's 2024 season had come to an end, we saw a different Mike Norvell.
Gone was the coachspeaky, soft-spoken coach who had talked in postgame press conferences in the prior nine losses this season.
In his place was a fiery Norvell who spoke passionately and with conviction throughout his postgame press conference about his fervent belief that he will quickly restore the FSU football program to glory.
"This is done being the way that we played this year. Obviously I take full responsibility in that," Norvell said immediately after Saturday's 31-11 loss to Florida. "Went through the season, a lot of evaluation, a lot of areas where we have to improve and where we have to get better. I'm willing to do what's necessary to make sure that we don't ever have a season anywhere near what we put on display here this year. So to the Florida State fans, the University, past players, even the guys in that locker room, I'm sorry. I'm sorry for what showed up throughout the course of this year. It will be fixed."
That passion was on display throughout his postgame press conference. But it was never more on display than near the end of the press conference when Norvell fielded a question asking him about his confidence that all the young players he wants to retain this offseason will return in 2025 even despite a 2-10 record this season.
"The question keeps getting asked for six weeks. Who is going to stay? At the end of the day, yes, kids can transfer. That's not a secret. Ultimately, if you have a bad season, things don't go the way you want, first instinct is just to run and go, I got to get away from that. We signed up for this together, and guess what? We're all a part of it," Norvell said. "The players that are here, the coaches, we are all a part of what this season was. Ultimately, yeah, we all have to take accountability. What are you going to do to fix it? It's easy to leave, to quit. It's human nature. It's what everybody wants to do. You know what? If that's going to be the driving force, go find an easier situation to go jump into, good luck. You're probably not going to fulfill the things you're capable of."
It was a rant unlike any we had seen from Norvell in years, probably dating back to his 2021 response to a question of how he's messaging to recruits when FSU was 0-4 and he was off to a 3-10 start to his tenure in Tallahassee.
That's fitting as the FSU head coach is now in a moment where his future at FSU is equally uncertain as it was back then in 2021. He has to get across a similar message of hope and optimism even if the results aren't giving any reason for those feelings at this moment in time.
That certainly applies to how he hopes to finish off this year's high-school signing class and how he hopes to attract a big transfer portal haul to the program this offseason. But it may apply even more to the players who just lived this season as members of the team.
There are plenty of current Seminoles that Norvell and his staff probably don't want to return to the program in 2025. But even on such a bad team, there are quite a few younger players who Norvell hopes can still see the vision.
Players like freshman quarterback Luke Kromenhoek, who showed his potential in Saturday's loss if surrounded by better supporting talent on offense, true freshman tight ends Landen Thomas and Amaree Williams, who combined for 244 yards and three touchdown catches this season, and true freshman running back Kam Davis, who had 194 all-purpose yards in nine games.
There are also quite a few true freshman who didn't even get on the field much this season who Norvell hopes will stick around for 2025. He didn't name names, but it's fair to lump guys like the trio of freshman wide receivers, the trio of defensive backs and others into that group.
"I've got a lot of confidence in this group. I got confidence because I am around them. I've around them a ton. We got some players that didn't even play this year I think will be contributors this next season. They just need time," Norvell said. "Guys that played this year that I honestly didn't really want them to play this year because I knew there would be some challenges, but they got thrown into it and had to grow through it. It's just one of those parts of life. Sometimes you find yourself in situations that you just don't want to be in but you get to make the choice to go pour everything you have to be the best you can be. We'll learn and grow from it."
In trying to retain these players, however, Norvell isn't going to stray from his honest messaging or beg them to come back. He doesn't believe he needs to do that or that it would be helpful.
"I'm not expecting a bunch of them to go run away. I'm not. Do I talk to them? Yes. But I don't sit there and say, are you going to come back? Please don't leave. That's not going to be it," Norvell said. "They're too strong for that. They understand what's in front of us. They understand the opportunity. Go be what you came here to be. Didn't show up this year for our football team, but you're here to be a difference maker. Go be a difference...
"I try to go as far from sugarcoating it as possible so they know how hard and challenging we're going to push to go get this right. If that scares them off, so be it. Not one of them has pulled back."
Norvell may point out to some of these players that a few prior Seminoles who transferred out have learned the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the portal grass.
"We've had guys that have left here before. A lot of them thought they were going to go to some great situation in a much better place," Norvell said. "You know what? I usually get a call back a year later seeing if they can come back."
Or he could point to the fact that players who saw the vision before, guys like Jordan Travis, Jared Verse, Johnny Wilson and plenty of others, were rewarded heavily for their faith.
"I'm going to let them know exactly what to expect, too. Just like we did two years ago, three years ago when guys came into this program and said that's what I want to be a part of. That's what I want to be. I want to be that spark. I want to be somebody that's going to stand up and be able to help guide through what was an extremely challenging season," Norvell said. "That's how you become legendary in a place. We had a bunch of guys in these last two teams that left here as legends because of the work and decisions they made. You know what? Carried them really well here and it's carrying them really well there in the next phase in their life, too. We got a lot of those guys, I firmly believe that, on this team."
That makes these season exit interviews which are likely to be held this upcoming week before the transfer portal opens a week from Monday (Dec. 9) so very important for the future of the program.
Bringing in new faces who can be instant contributors will be an important facet of this offseason for the Seminoles. Retaining the players they want to keep is equally or maybe even a bit more important.
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