After entering the week with high hopes, Florida State once again looks like a team that belongs at the bottom of the ACC. Coach Mike Norvell delivered an excellent team performance against Virginia in Week 5 that resulted in a dominant win, but what followed in Week 6 was simply unacceptable at this point.
Louisville recorded 537 total yards of offense, including 397 rushing yards, after struggling on offense and suffering back-to-back losses in the past two weeks. The Cardinals entered the game as a sitting duck, with an injury-riddled roster and more concerns than excitement surrounding the team.
Despite getting out to an early lead, Florida State simply did not have enough to stay ahead of Louisville for the remainder of the game. The loss should, and likely will, be defined as a complete breakdown from the coaching staff as a team in a far weaker position coming into the Week 6 contest, completely dominated.
Winners:
1. RB Ousmane Kromah
It is hard to truly pick out a winner from a game where a struggling team beat up a team coming off of their biggest win of the season. However, the player who deserves recognition in the loss is running back Ousmane Kromah due to his unwillingness to give up.
Florida State has been somewhat of a disaster this season, and watching the team week to week can be difficult. The one shining star through all of the struggles has been Kromah, as his physical running style grants success against virtually every defense. Kromah finished the game with 88 rushing yards and 43 receiving yards, helping the Seminoles move the football down the field single-handedly at times.
Kromah has been a breathe of fresh air this season for Florida State, and without him, the offense may truly have been stranded multiple times. The knee-up, contact-first style of Kromah provides extra yards against any type of defense. Retaining Kromah at the end of the season could become a serious problem, and even with half of the season left, the running back deserves a significant raise for his efforts.
Losers:
4. WR Duce Robinson
Florida State has had plenty of players step up this season, and many of them are players who originally were not expected to do so. The players who were expected to rise, however, have largely been quiet this season. One such player has been Duce Robinson, a dynamic receiver for Florida State during the 2025 season, who has completely cooled off this year.
Robinson has 17 receptions through six games for an average of 49 yards per game, which is a massive drop-off from his 2025 production. Robinson averaged roughly 90 yards per game last season for Florida State, and the team truly counted on the receiver to take another step forward during the 2026 season. It has been a disappointing campaign for Robinson, especially when combined with Ashton Daniels' struggles with passing the football safely.
3. QB Ashton Daniels
The argument could certainly be made that Daniels is not being put into a winning position by his coaching staff, but the reality is that the quarterback is not reaching the level Florida State needed him to. It might seem unfair to ask someone who is arguably playing up to his full potential to improve, but Daniels needs to be better in order for Florida State to be better.
After posting five rushing touchdowns against Virginia, Daniels recorded 45 yards and a score on the ground against Louisville. The quarterback does not need to have a record-breaking performance each game, but the drop-off between his winning performances and his losing performances is far too drastic. Florida State has serious problems with consistency, and Daniels has been the face of those issues.
2. DC Tony White
Does there even need to be a true explanation as to why White is on the losers' list for the Week 6 loss? White proved last week that Florida State genuinely has a defense that can stop opposing teams in a massive way. Directly after doing so, White took the defense back to square one with a perplexing performance on the heels of a dominant Week 5 win.
White has avoided the chopping block up to this point despite an absolute disaster in Tuscaloosa earlier in the season, but the loss to a struggling 2-3 Louisville team is an awful look, even for a team in an ugly coaching situation like Florida State. The decision to fire White might take some time, as sending someone different directly into a challenge against Miami seems unlikely.
1. HC Mike Norvell
The loss to Louisville exposes two big problems for Mike Norvell: A solid team continues to somehow look worse than on paper, and the lack of overall talent will always catch up.
Florida State oversimplified things against Louisville, and the team simply could not find a way to be successful in any aspect of play. Louisville has problems with injuries, making critical errors, and turning the football over, and yet the Cardinals somehow looked closer to the team that absolutely dominated Virginia in Week 5 than Florida State did.
It is exhausting to try to understand what sort of positive impact Norvell brings to the team, because at this point, it is hard to argue that the coach is not actively making his team worse.
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