FSU football: Mike Norvell has seen improvement in team over bye week

FSU football has had a bye week to improve fundamentals and begin preparation for the Pittsburgh Panthers. Did they get better?

FSU football head coach Mike Norvell spoke with media Monday afternoon to provide updates for the first time since October 28.

Norvell spoke on a variety of things, notably quarterback Jordan Travis had a chance to heal during the bye week and will be ready to go against Pittsburgh. It sounds like some players could be in different roles this week as well.

Tamorrion Terry could return for the Noles if things go well after missing the last two games.  Norvell said the team spent the bye week working on fundamentals and he was pleased with the effort and mindset of the players.

The team working on fundamentals has been a common theme from Norvell during press conferences. The entire video is below:

Thoughts

I wrote a couple of weeks back Mike Norvell has to be careful with his words regarding how the team is practicing. It’s not a good look for him to say they are practicing well but go out on the field and look unprepared as they did against Louisville in their last outing.

I’m speaking more about the defensive side of the ball, as the offense played decent in the first half with Jordan Travis being limited and missing Tamorrion Terry.

However, it’s the FSU defense that remains the question mark for this team. It feels the defense is like a poor golf player that hits all his shots well at the driving range but can’t take those shots over to an actual golf course.

The cause of that is poor technique and lack of confidence, and the same seems to be the same for this FSU defense. Pittsburgh isn’t a great offensive team, and the FSU defense needs to find their footing Saturday afternoon in a game oddsmakers feel is a pick’em game.