One of the many great things about college football is that we get a chance to reset our expectations and beliefs each week based on what we see each Saturday. Every week is indeed a season for football teams and their fan bases.

As for fans and for those of us who cover the sport, we live for Saturdays and for those of us that love the sport we also come away from each of those Saturdays with new opinions (some stronger than others) about our favorite team or teams or just college football in general.

Those opinions can make for great water cooler talk, debate and, yes, even arguments. People feel strongly about college football. However, each game has a shelf life of exactly a week, but what we see each week can and most likely will impact what we think going into the next game or weekend of games.

We get a chance to reset our thoughts, beliefs and opinions every seven days. What I think this Tuesday, I may or may not think next Tuesday.

Having provided my weekly introduction and disclaimer for this column here are some things I think, I think about the Florida State football program after it improved to 1-3 on the season with a win over the Cal Bears this past Saturday night in Doak Campbell Stadium.

Won is the loneliest number: FSU secured its first win on Saturday night. But much like Three Dog Night sang long ago, One is the loneliest number that you'll ever do. Despite the Seminoles' win over Cal, that didn't seem to help calm the concerns of the fan base due to the optics of the win. And to be honest, I am conflicted here because there is a part of me that completely understands this and another part that doesn't really understand. And I think I might be the only one that feels this way.

FSU is not living up to the expectations we had for it entering the season. But I think it is accurate to say that we have all had to re-evaluate our expectations for this program after heading into the Cal game after an 0-3 start.

FSU didn't play a perfect game on Saturday night but if you had watched this team's three previous games, you had to know that, one, this was never going to be an optically pleasing win, and two, winning no matter how it looked was the only thing that mattered.

Entering the game 0-3 and with how FSU looked in those contests, the one and only goal was to get out of the game against the Bears with a win to give this team a chance to get its season back on track and possibly have a good enough season to reach a bowl. When you are 0-3 there is no such thing as an ugly win.

This game played just about how I thought it would, a low-scoring defensive struggle where special teams would play a vital role, with one of the team's offenses doing just enough to get a win. That was the case. FSU's is far from a good football team, but they finally got a "one" in the win column and that was more important than how the win looked. Enjoy the wins when you get them this season, most will likely not be pretty.

The next lyrics in the song by Three Dog Night say: Two can be as bad as one, it's the loneliest number since the number one.

If you don't change your expectations about what and who this version of FSU football is, you aren't going to find much enjoyment in the Seminoles' second win of the season. And when there are questions about when that win may come, we might want to enjoy all of them, at least in the moment. We will always have the next Monday through Friday to dissect the optics of it all.

Not your mother's recipe: Sometimes you have tocook with ingredients that you have in the cupboard at the time instead of a fully stocked pantry. And let's face it after four games we absolutely know that FSU's pantry, especially on offense, is lacking compared to FSU's last two teams.

Based off what we have seen the first four weeks of the season, I think we know what the recipe for some success this season is for this FSU football team to possibly find five more wins and get to a bowl game.

So, this is how I see FSU getting to six wins: Play great run defense, and they have shown the last two weeks that they are capable of that, at least against average teams. Two, play great red-zone defense, which it has the last two weeks, and keep teams right at or below 21 points. Be special on special teams and FSU has done that all season outside of one play. And on offense stay committed to the running game and get just enough out of the offense to complement the defense and special teams.

Will this work against Clemson, Notre Dame and Miami? Probably not.

Will it work against SMU, Duke, UNC, Charleston Southern and Florida? Yes, to some of those opponents, maybe to others. But it gives you a shot as it did vs. Cal.

This team has not lived up to the expectations fans had for it coming into the season, especially coming off a 13-1 season. However, based on what we have seen from this team we have to adjust our expectations for this year and this coaching staff and how it can find wins during the last eight weeks of the season. I think the game against Cal showed us all what the blueprint is for FSU to get to six or seven wins. With an offense that hasn't scored more than 20 points but once, and hasn't gained over 300 yards in any single game this year, I don't see any other way as uncomfortable as it may be to adjust my expectations.

Ride or die: It is the elephant in the room and the main talking point after FSU's 0-3 start and remains the question after the team's win vs. Cal. Why is Mike Norvell sticking with DJU at quarterback despite Florida State's implosion on offense?

The answer is I don't know. I also don't know the ins-and-outs of Mike's offense, but I have been around football my entire life and I know what I saw in fall camp. I do know people that know just as much about football as Mike that now think, like I do, it's time to make an adjustment or even a complete change at quarterback. The Seminoles won despite its offense, and its starting quarterback.

DJU seems like a fine young man, but this offense is going backwards with him as the starting quarterback.

At the very least, Mike should go full Billy Napier and give Brock Glenn every third series of the ball game against SMU. Because if you don't play him this week then you have to ride out the next part of the schedule that includes Clemson, Miami, North Carolina and Notre Dame with DJU.

It would be unbelievably unfair to throw Glenn into the Tiger's mouth vs. Clemson if FSU loses to SMU or win ugly with another bad showing on offense and by DJU. You just have to make a change at quarterback after the SMU game.

The questions I get about this situation include the following:

Is Mike's ego so big that he is unwilling to admit he made a mistake and/or thinks he is the guy that can fix DJU?

Is this somehow related to a promise Mike made to DJU or NIL-related?

Is Mike trying to ensure that both Brock Glenn and Luke Kromenhoek stick around for a spring quarterback battle if he gives neither extended playing time this season?

Is he doing it because if Brock takes over this year and the offense plays well, Luke could potentially enter the portal and that hurts the long-term future of the program?

Why doesn't Brock have more credibility with Mike after being fed to the dogs in the Orange Bowl after most of the best players on the team opted out or quit (you choose) on the team in December?

Those are just a few of the questions and scenarios that I am hit with on a daily basis and these questions are coming from former players, football experts and regular fans.

And here are my answers to those questions:

Maybe. Never met a coach that didn't think he put the air into the first football ever inflated.

Lord, I hope not. That would be surprising, disappointed and irresponsible and the culture issues it would create would be devastating. Our publisher Jerry Kutz checked with three collectives who assured him the promise of playing time is forbidden in NIL agreements. The NCAA prohibits under the heading of pay for play.

Maybe. He needs to have more than one scholarship quarterback that has been on-campus for a year or more, unless he hits the portal again. But that would likely put both Brock and Luke at risk of transferring.

Maybe. If Brock were to look like the guy if inserted into the lineup there could be fall out, that's just the nature of the game in the transfer portal era.

Should. Brock showed flashes in the Georgia game despite playing without any of FSU's key skill position players who weren't anywhere near south Beach.

At the end of the day, I think we are all asking ourselves all kinds of questions about the reluctance to give Brock a chance to play and spark the offense.

One thing is for sure, if he doesn't play Brock or Luke this weekend, he owes it to Brock and Luke to ride out the season with DJU as the quarterback for the remainder of the season, no matter what that means.

And I know one other thing, we should all be so lucky to find a significant other or have friends that are as loyal to us as Mike Norvell is to DJU.

Far more of it: One of the reasons FSU walked off the field with its first victory of the 2024 season this past Saturday night was the play of its defensive line. And one of the guys that showed up the most on the defensive line was defensive tackle Josh Farmer. He was consistently good vs. Cal and at times dominant. Unofficially, Farmer had four tackles on the night with one sack and 3.5 tackles for a loss. I think both those numbers might be higher, but I digress. This is the kind of football we expected out of Farmer coming into this season.

FSU will need far more of it from the big defensive tackle and his line mates if the Seminoles want to put together a run over the last two-thirds of the season that might get them to a bowl game. The type of performances moving forward will continue to benefit his team in the here and now and benefit Farmer down the road as it pertains to his football future.

Book Ends: Not unlike any of their teammates on defense the play of defensive ends Patrick Payton and Marvin Jones Jr. has not lived up to expectation in the Seminoles' first three games. However, like Farmer both made their presence felt on Saturday night. Payton was disruptive throughout the night and played his best game of the season. He finished with five tackles, three sacks and 3.5 TFLs. Like Farmer, this is the kind of football that FSU expected out of Payton. And it has the same end game. Payton needs to play likes this consistently for the sake of his team and to improve his stock as he looks to advance his football career.

The expectations for Jones were off the charts when he transferred in from Georgia. The son of the best linebacker in Florida State history, Marvin Jones, was and is always going to have a hard time living up to what his father did in college and there is no shame in that. His dad was one of the best players in the history of college football. This is Junior's first season as a full-time hand-in-the-ground defensive end and he has played like it. However, the deeper FSU gets into the season the better he looks. And while he might have played a great game against Cal, he did end the game vs. the Bears with a strip, sack, fumble.

It was one of the stories of the night and there needs to more chapters like this from the two bookends of the FSU defensive front.

Coincidence, I think not: I am not a big believer in coincidence. The improvement on the defense side of the ball just happened to take place with younger players getting more playing time on Saturday's instead of just getting reps to help manage the workload in practice for the starters.

The defensive line has played better the more FSU has played Sione Lolohea, Daniel Lyons and Grady Kelly. We have certainly seen better play from Josh Farmer, Patrick Payton and Marvin Jones.

At linebacker, the in-game development of Blake Nichelson and Juice Cryer certainly seems to be helping the defense. DJ Lundy has played better since Cryer started getting more reps.

In the secondary, the increased roles of Edwin Joesph, Quindarrius Jones and KJ Kirkland seemed to go hand-in-hand with more motivated performances out of AZ Thomas, Shyheim Brown and Kevin Knowles.

The competition for playing time seems to have only help the offense. Jaylen Early should play significant reps at tackle even when Jeremiah Byers and Robert Scott and maybe you will get better play out of them. I would start inserting Andre' Otto into the game at either of the guard spots, which might get you better play out of TJ Ferguson, Keiondre Jones and/or Richie Leonard.

And with where this offense is, it sure can't hurt to see if you might get some improvement or more consistent effort by giving some of these younger players more playing time.

Pony up: Don't let the 5.5-point spread in favor of SMU or the 66 points the Mustangs put on the board fool you.

I have watched SMU play twice this season. This is a game FSU should win despite its flaws. The Seminoles are much better on the defensive line than SMU is on the offensive line. And while the talent level between FSU's offensive line and SMU's defensive line is closer than the opposite, the Seminoles should still have the advantage.

And as far as the Mustangs point output vs. TCU, 21 of those points were off TDs scored by either the defense (2) or special teams (1). The Mustangs' offense had only two scoring drives of more than 60 yards on Saturday night. Despite the massive point total, SMU ranks 57th in total offense. That ranks behind Memphis, Georgia Tech and just ahead of Boston College and Cal. In total defense, the Mustangs rank behind Cal, Memphis and Boston College and are two spots in front of Georgia Tech.

It's time for Mike Norvell and his staff to pony up and come up with a game plan that gets FSU its second win of the season in a game where FSU should have a huge advantage in the trenches, and against a team that is playing in its first-ever game as a member of a Power 4 conference (at least since 1987 when the former Southwest Conference member received the NCAA "Death Penalty," sanctions that took the school more than two decades to overcome.)

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