FSU football improvement over last three years is staggering

The hype surrounding FSU football is a real thing, despite what rival fans make of it. It’s funny, you rarely see Clemson fans talking about whether FSU is overrated going into the 2023 season.

Oddmakers have FSU at or around 9.5-10 wins, and we know Vegas doesn’t lose often. FSU ranks top 10 in all the preseason polls(they don’t mean much), but it’s rare that many people are totally wrong.

The advanced metrics tell the tale of how far FSU football has come under Mike Norvell, and it’s likely a good indicator of where its going.

Let’s take a look where FSU ranked in Willie Taggart’s final season, and the trajectory under Mike Norvell, according to FEI advanced metrics:

That’s staggering improvement. The 2020 season got impacted by the pandemic, including only three spring practices, no summer, and barely any fall practices. It showed on the field too. One could argue 2020 was rock bottom, and there was nowhere to go but up.

However, we’ve literally seen a steady climb from the bottom over the last three seasons. Mike Norvell is an offensive-minded coach, and the offense was the worst part of the team when he became head coach.

I think there may have been a natural inclination to improve the offense first because of the offensive line and the quarterback position.

However, the receivers and tight ends were not good either. Notice the huge jump from the offense between 2021 and 2022? I think the 2023 season is when we’ll see that big jump from the defense.

They finally have depth at nearly every position and a ton of returning experience. The defense likely would have seen that jump last year if they didn’t suffer several injuries.

The good news going forward is there’s a talent in place to step up in several positions in 2024 and beyond. That means there shouldn’t be a huge drop off after this season.