GAINESVILLE – Mike Norvell had only a few words to describe Florida State football’s blowout season-ending 40-21 loss to Florida.
A word that stood out, however, was “infuriating.”
It’s a word that encapsulates another dreadful season for the Seminoles. FSU ends the year 5-7 after a 3-0 start that featured an upset win over Alabama in week one.
Ranked as high as seventh in the country after week three, FSU’s double overtime loss to Virginia was the start of a tailspin that saw the Seminoles win just two of their next eight games to end the season.
FSU has now failed to achieve bowl eligibility for the fourth time in Norvell’s six years leading the program.
“Disappointed for every player, and the work that’s gone in and the expectations of our play, and when that doesn’t show up, it’s infuriating,” Norvell said. “I apologize to our fanbase, everybody associated with the university… Deserved better than we just showed.”
The apology is more than likely going to fall on some deaf ears, with frustrations internally and throughout the fan base boiling after an 11th consecutive loss for the Seminoles away from home.
A year removed from making significant staff changes, the Seminoles are back to the drawing board. Norvell promised he would start offseason evaluations of staff and personnel “immediately,” but he was non-committal on what changes he expects to make after the loss to Florida.
With the chaotic schedule of college football, national signing day awaits the Seminoles on Wednesday, Dec. 3. And the transfer portal officially opens in January, though player movement is almost guaranteed to happen before then, so any changes need to be made quickly.
“We’ll meet tomorrow afternoon. We are going to work, we are going to assess, address, and do everything that’s necessary to go get it better, and get it fixed,” Norvell said.
“This is a championship-level program, and we need to be competing for championships. I absolutely believe there’s talent within this team, and there is talent coming to this team and that we will be going to get to add to this team to put us in a position to compete for championships.
“That takes every day, every moment, all work, players, coaches, every aspect of our football program that has to make that investment. It starts immediately.”
While a 5-7 season is an improvement on 2-10, albeit slight, the way things played out for the Seminoles following the 3-0 start was disastrous.
Norvell has consistently praised the young talent on his roster, with players like sophomore Lawayne McCoy (116 yards and a touchdown) and freshman Mandrell Desir (four tackles, .5 sack), two young pieces that stood out against Florida.
From the front office to the roster and coaching staff, Norvell’s Seminoles will look different next season as he rolls the dice on what could be a final chance at redemption in Garnet and Gold.
How well Norvell does at retaining his roster, and crucially, the young pieces he’s spent the better part of the last two months praising, is a question that can dictate the outcome of the Seminoles’ offseason.
“We have to go to work, and we have to go and get it done,” Norvell said. “We have to get it better. I do believe in a lot of the young talent that showed up throughout this year and the ability that they’ve shown. We got to learn from the experiences that we had.
From the players, coaches, everybody involved, we got to take ownership of it and go get better.”
Liam Rooney covers Florida State athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at LRooney@gannett.com or on Twitter @__liamrooney.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Mike Norvell needs to gamble on offseason changes for FSU football
