It began with Florida State fans in attendance at Doak Campbell Stadium begging for the lights to turn on. And it ended with many of them, likely, wishing they never had. The Seminoles kept it close on the scoreboard but failed to cash in on all of SMU’s mistakes, and as the long night after a lengthy power outage delay finally came to a merciful end after midnight, the heat cranked up another few notches on Mike Norvell.
Norvell’s one of the biggest losers of the night, no doubt, but it wasn’t an evening entirely devoid of winners on the Florida State sideline.
Winners:
2. Quindarrius Jones
One of SMU’s four turnovers in the game was a forced fumble and fumble recovery by cornerback Quindarrius Jones. A week after hauling in his first career interception, Jones is proving to have a nose for the ball, and with Ja’Bril Rawls continuing to struggle opposite him, Jones is becoming an even more vital piece of Tony White’s defense.
1. Ousmane Kromah
Sometimes Ousmane Kromah gets a bit overzealous trying to bounce outside and hit a home run, and occasionally, he doesn’t appear to have great vision, but those are pretty small nits to pick, particularly for a Florida State program that hadn’t seen a player rush for over 100 yards since Lawrence Toafili did it in the 2023 ACC Championship Game before Kromah did it in Week 0. Then, in Week 1, he did it again.
Kromah can make defenders miss in a phone booth at 6-foot-1, 216 pounds, and this year, is showing off the breakaway speed he was missing in 2025. He’s a difference-maker in the backfield, but unfortunately, it’s not a big enough difference to turn this team into a contender. In fairness, I’m not certain prime Adrian Peterson would do that either.
Losers:
5. Mandrell Desir
Darryll Desir was out with an injury, so even more eyes were on his twin brother on Monday night into early Tuesday morning. And Mandrell, who had 6.5 sacks last season, gave Florida State next to nothing on the defensive line.
Tony White attempted to move him around, frequently allowing him to mug up over the center on obvious passing downs to use his perceived speed and quickness advantage, but every time, he got stood up, with poor hand usage, an inability to convert speed to power, no discernable pass-rush plan, and a high pad level that more than once left him on the ground, where spent far too much time as a freshman last year.
4. Ashton Daniels
Florida State did not convert a third down until its 10th try, which took place deep into the third quarter. Ashton Daniels did not surpass 100 yards passing until the fourth quarter. He finished the night
3. Tony White
Tony White came into this game with one clear objective: fix the communication issues in the secondary. Now, literally nothing worked in his favor in that regard. There was no in-helmet communication to start the game because of the power outage and three players in his secondary and one linebacker were out with injuries. But still, giving up a long touchdown for SMU’s first score on a blatant coverage bust was a familiar and frustrating sight.
Then, White’s defense proceeded to allow Kevin Jennings to throw for 430 yards with a combination of poor coverage, a lifeless pass rush, and sloppy tackling. White was brought to Tallahassee to fix the defense after 2024, but it’s been almost as bad, and he’s not on the chopping block with Mike Norvell, and could even be the first to go.
2. Chimdia Nwaiwu
The Stephen F. Austin transfer looked rough against New Mexico State in Week 0 and played just as poorly against SMU before offensive line coach Herb Hand and Norvell finally pulled the plug in the third quarter.
Then, after Nwaiwu went to the bench, Nate Pabst slid out from right guard to right tackle, and Paul Bowling entered the game, Florida State’s offensive line looked significantly better and helped the offense convert its first two third-down conversions of the game.
Nwaiwu whiffed badly, giving up an ugly sack before getting the hook, and though it seems clear Florida State would prefer Pabst to play inside, it may be Nwaiwu’s last play for a while.
1. Mike Norvell
Since the start of last season, FBS teams with a -4 turnover margin or worse were 1-43 (per Brandon Marcello). That record technically stands because SMU got a turnover on the final play of the game as FSU attempted to lateral its way into the end zone, but SMU belonged in that company with an ugly win. Kevin Jennings threw a pick in the red zone, had a muffed punt, and along with the turnovers, missed a field goal early.
So, with all the SMU miscues, Florida State had +15.3 turnover luck points according to Gameonpaper, a 9.80 special teams EPA, compared to SMU’s 2.75, and a 5.3 penalty EPA to SMU’s -2.76, and LOST. That should have probably been impossible but the Seminoles gave up 565 total yards and 8.7 yards per play.
If there hadn’t been so many already, I’d say this is the game that made it clear Florida State needs to fire Mike Norvell.
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