FSU football: 5 concerns surround ‘Noles 2020 offseason

FSU football has some offseason questions that are cause for concern in 2020. Here are five of the for the Noles.

FSU football fans seem to be quite happy with the first two months of the Mike Norvell era. He’s put together what looks to be an upgraded coaching staff compared to the last regime.

He had about as good of an early signing period and one could have considering the circumstances.

FSU football fans have bought into what Mike Norvell’s message and vision are for the program. However, it’s going to be a long road back for the Noles to be able to compete with the likes of Clemson who just played for their third national championship in the last few years.

The 2019 season didn’t go anything close to how anyone expected with the Noles failing to meet expectations.

The offense regressed mightily throughout the season as the former coaching staff tried to implement a two quarterback system that failed miserably.

FSU’s defense was abysmal early in the season and it didn’t help they lost a couple of starters for the season due to injuries.

The Noles still looked inept in parts of the game and got rolled by Clemson, Miami and Florida.

Here are five concerns that must be addressed if FSU’s going to get back to elite status.

Strength and Conditioning

FSU football hasn’t been dominant in this area since the 2013 national championship season.

I’ve written about it time and time again, FSU hasn’t gone out and dominated a team in a long time and it comes down to strength and conditioning.

The last strength and conditioning staff were not qualified to be in that position, point blank period. It’s telling Willie Taggart didn’t take that staff with him when he was hired at FAU.

Mike Norvell brought in his strength and conditioning coach Josh Storms who was at Memphis with him.

I wrote about the impact I expect Josh Storms and staff to have on the program. It’s all about getting the players to buy in and put the work in this area in the offseason.

Coaching

This is the area where we could see the biggest difference in 2020 if the new coaching staff are anywhere near as good as we think they are.

Last year’s offensive coaching staff made several strides to improve things on that side of the ball. However, their decision to start two different quarterbacks was costly. They also had some terrible game plans and play-calling was questionable at times too.

How will the new offensive staff work? Mike Norvell and Kenny Dillingham have put up monster numbers at Memphis in the past.

However, Kendal Briles had done the same thing at non-power five schools like Houston and FAU before coming to FSU.

Adam Fuller has dramatically improved two defenses at Marshall and Memphis, but can he do the same thing at FSU football?

Mike Norvell spoke emphatically about special teams during his introductory press conference. Will we see improvements in that area due to better coaching?

We won’t know until the Noles take the field against West Virginia in Atlanta. However, if they upgrade in this area any at all they could surprise some people in 2020.

In The Trenches

A lot of blame was placed on the performance of the offensive line in 2019 and rightfully so. That unit was terrible even though we did see some small improvements over the previous year.

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However, one thing that’s being overlooked is the performance of the defensive line last season. They went into the season thought to be capable of being a unit that was top five in the nation.

They played well at times, but largely underwhelmed much of the year. They were not able to get pressure on opposing quarterbacks which made the secondary have to cover for too long.

The trenches along with quarterback play( we’ll talk about this later) were the biggest differences when FSU football went up against quality teams.

The offensive line couldn’t block anyone and teams could get pressure with three and four men rushing.

The defensive line and linebackers had trouble stopping the run early in the season which was quite embarrassing against the likes of Boise State and Louisiana-Monroe.

The good news is the entire defensive line returns in 2020 being led by Marvin Wilson, Corey Durden and Robert Cooper. The question is who will step up behind them?

Will Janarius Robinson and Joshua Kaindoh finally make their presence felt off the edge rushing the passer?

Competitive Perception

If you ask most FSU football fans if the Noles will beat the likes of Clemson or any top-tier team in 2020 the answer is going to be no.

That is unless the fan is an unabashed FSU homer.

The perception of the Noles among fans and even high school recruits was troubling the last two seasons. The perception is there is a huge gap between FSU football and the top teams in the country.

The honest answer is talent-wise there isn’t a large gap. FSU will have the more talented team in arguably 10 of its 12 scheduled games in 2020.

If that’s the case why would most oddmakers probably put their over/under odds for wins around 7.5?

It’s because the Noles have been poorly coached and have been lacking in the strength and conditioning department.

You get the picture right? Listen, I respect West Virginia but they even worse than FSU football last season.

The sad thing is the Noles will probably only be slight betting favorites on a neutral field when they take on the Mountaineers.

.That’s a problem until FSU football can show everyone they can get back to dominating teams like they used to.

QB Situation

Who is going to be the quarterback of FSU football in 2020? Mike Norvell elected not to pursue a graduate transfer.

He either believes in James Blackman or Jordan Travis or will go with a true freshman in Tate Rodemaker or Chubba Purdy.

Rodemaker enrolled this spring which will likely give him a leg up on Purdy who won’t arrive at FSU until the summer.

I’ve always thought James Blackman has gotten the short end of the stick since he’s been at FSU. He never should have been starting as a true freshman, but I thought he should have started over Deondre Francois in 2018.

Last season we saw him split duty with Alex Hornibrook although the offense was playing decently before they went to the two QB system.

I must confess I had to hop off the James Blackman train after his Sun Bowl performance.

He played about as poorly as one could play and it was clear his confidence was shot. I’m surprised he didn’t put his name in the transfer portal, but the kid is a competitor so you have to tip your hat to him for trying to persevere.

Maybe Mike Norvell believes he can make him a consistently productive quarterback in his offense?

Can Jordan Travis actually throw the ball? We wouldn’t know because Kendal Briles wouldn’t let him throw the ball for some reason. We do know he’s dynamic with his legs though.

IF either true freshman wins the starting job we could see one or both of Blackman and Travis hit the transfer portal.

A good quarterback can hide a lot of deficiencies on a football team. He can make an offensive line look better than they really are. A bad quarterback can make an offensive line look worse than they really are.

One things for sure, FSU football needs to identify who the quarterback’s going to be in 2020 so he can get every rep possible in Mike Norvell’s offense this spring. Like what you read?

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