FSU football head coach Mike Norvell spoke with the media for the first time since FSU Athletic Director Michael Alford released a statement on his job security on Monday afternoon. Norvell handled the situation fairly well, all things considered, and said he still believes in this team and all of the other things you’d expect him to say.
One narrative from the Stanford game was that the players had quit or didn’t want to play anymore for him. There’s likely some truth to the latter, but I never thought the players quit in the game. The defense actually got enough stops (finally), but it was the offense that kept shooting itself in the foot with penalties or failing to execute.
Thomas Castellanos, Randy Pittman Jr., Duce Robinson, and others played in that game while hurt, when they easily could have found an excuse to set that one out. Castellanos is frustrating as a player because he misses so many opportunities in the passing game, but nobody can question his toughness. He put his body on the line, literally, several times in that game.
Micahi Danzy made an incredible contested catch to give FSU a shot to tie or win the game on its final drive. Did a few players likely decide to give half effort at times? Probably, but the overwhelming majority of the players played with good effort, but failed to execute, or made too many mental errors. There were guys still trying to make plays late in that game, which is the frustrating part. Why don't they play like that all the time, as they did against Alabama?
Sometimes it's easy to throw a label on folks when you have expectations for a team, and labeling someone a quitter is arguably the worst I can think of. I’ve seen teams quit. FSU quit against Boston College in 2017.
They quit in the second halves of several games last year and got blown out every time. This team isn’t quitting, yet. All four losses have been by a touchdown or less. They are just terrible at executing and playing complementary football, which is something we pointed out a few weeks ago. It’s something Mike Norvell mentioned at his presser today, and that’s one thing he’s been right about.