Adding QB Thomas Castellanos is a win-now move for Florida State

Florida State finished the 2024 season with a 2-10 record. It still pains me to type that to this day. I was ready to fast forward to the offseason after the Memphis game loss.

It was certainly a campaign that you wanted to forget about. However, the result was likely necessary for coaching changes and players exiting the program. With that being said, I do want to wish all of these individuals the best of luck in their journeys (unless they end up at Florida or Miami).

Florida State enters the offseason with several question marks. One of the biggest to answer was who the quarterback was going to be. The Seminoles added veteran DJ Uiagalelei to bridge the gap between the younger options of Luke Kromenhoek and Brock Glenn.

When Uiagalelei suffered a season-ending injury versus SMU, Kromenhoek and Glenn were thrust into action. Neither of them performed well enough to assume that they were starters in 2025. This is considered one of the worst offensive units in Seminoles' school history.

Florida State decided to hire former UCF head football coach Gus Malzahn to be its offensive coordinator. Malzahn tends to run somewhat of a spread option type of offense. Luke Kromenhoek surprisingly entered the transfer portal. The fan base did not enjoy the idea of losing a former five-star prospect.

However, the Seminoles quickly moved and landed former Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos. The Georgia native used to play under Malzahn when he was with the Knights. Malzahn hand-picked him to play quarterback at UCF, while Florida State recruited him as a running back prospect in the 2022 cycle.

Let's face it: Head football coach Mike Norvell has faced criticism for the terrible season in 2024. When you have those types of campaigns, individuals start holding the pitchforks up. As Norvell mentioned before, this was not the standard at Florida State.

Coach Norvell has to understand the fact that he cannot have a disappointing year again in 2025, especially when the Alabama Crimson Tide is coming to Tallahassee. I know that fans do not like the Castellanos transfer due to his passing ability, being careless with the football, a dip in production from 2023 to 2024, being 5'10", and the fact that he "quit" on his team after being benched.

Norvell has gone to someone that he trusts in offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who is part of his coaching tree. Then he allowed Malzahn to grab someone at quarterback in Thomas Castellanos, whom he knows will run his offense.

I believe that Castellanos is the best win-now mode for the Seminoles instead of going through the growing pains of Kromenhoek in 2025 with Norvell's job status in doubt if it doesn't pan out.