FSU football: Mike Norvell sets tone on competitive depth

FSU football head coach Mike Norvell made his expectations clear Wednesday when talking about competitive depth. We discuss the impact.

A couple of the things that’s plagued FSU football the past few years is lack of intensity and competitive depth.

Ironically, those two subjects have been at the forefront for FSU head coach Mike Norvell this week. The Noles had their first scrimmage Saturday night at Doak Campbell Stadium.

Norvell seemed pleased with the outing, but that tuned changed Monday when practice resumed after having Sunday off. He cited a lack of intensity, and said the team was “just going through the motions” and challenged them to be better.

That’s what happened Tuesday and Wednesday as the players raised their level of intensity and the team got better according to Norvell as the addressed different schemes, situations, and special teams.

However, the topic of competitive depth came up Wednesday as he was asked what happens if a younger player surpasses an older player on the depth chart. Norvell’s response was what you want to hear as an FSU football fan:

Thoughts

I know we heard something similar from Willie Taggart, but he didn’t uphold the standard of allowing the best players to play. I don’t want to call any players bout, but there were several instances over the past two years of players being on the field when they had no business being out there.

While Mike Norvell has yet to coach a real game to prove what he’s saying is true. I do think it’s noticeable of who’s getting exposure during interview times and who isn’t. Maybe that’s not tied to who’s practicing well or not, but I don’t think it’s a coincidence we haven’t seen certain players in front of a microphone after practice yet either.

I know it’s not tied to seniority, as several true freshmen have already spoken to the press. However, think of which upperclassmen haven’t since fall camp began.

Competitive depth is what’s needed in this program. The days of not bringing everything you have to practice each day look as though they could be over?