The 3-2-1: Where does FSU go after learning lessons from game one?

1 -- Mike Norvell and his staff now know what they're dealing with

There's a reason coaches say the most improvement a team makes is between the first and second games. Well, there are a lot of reasons, actually. But one of the biggest is because coaches often don't know exactly what they can expect from players until they see them in a real game situation.

With the scoreboard turned on. With fans in the stands (even when those stands are less than a quarter-full). With television cameras documenting the action.

Coaches can try to simulate that environment all they want in practices and scrimmages, but Game Day is different. Always has been and always will be.

And I think that issue was compounded for this staff by not having a real spring practice. While it's fair to point out that all schools had their springs cut short by the coronavirus -- I believe Georgia Tech got in six practices -- it's also important to acknowledge that those circumstances were much more challenging for first-year coaches.

As mortified as you were watching that game unravel -- seeing the Seminoles get dominated in the second half at home by an average football team -- I imagine Norvell had the exact same feelings. You could almost see the revelations washing across some of the coaches' faces on the sidelines: "So this is what we're dealing with?"

I think that was especially true with quarterback James Blackman. Nearly every time Blackman came to the sideline after another failed series, Norvell would stop him and ask one or more questions about what he was seeing during the plays and why he made the decisions that he made. And while it's impossible to know what was said, I'll make an educated guess that Norvell was not getting the responses he hoped.

Early in the game, when the plays were scripted and had probably been repped a zillion times in practice, Blackman looked fine. But once things started getting messy -- the way they do during football games -- he was the same guy we have watched for most of the past four years. I don't think coaching is going to change that.

Can Norvell and offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham find a way to get more out of him? Is there a key to fit this particular lock? I'm sure all of us on the outside are skeptical.

We've tried to excuse away some of his struggles by saying he's had to deal with three head coaches and four offensive coordinators in four seasons. But another way to look at it is there might be a problem if none of these different coaches has found a way to fix some of the same recurring issues.

It wouldn't be fair to say that James Blackman is the reason FSU lost that game. There is plenty of blame to go around -- for the players and the coaches. But it's really hard to overcome bad quarterback play, especially when a team isn't especially dynamic at other positions on offense.