There’s a lot on the line for Mike Norvell and the Seminoles this year. After back-to-back losing seasons, Norvell needs to deliver at least six wins, and probably more, to save his job in Tallahassee. Yet, no matter how the season plays out on the field, Ethan Pritchard is the best story of the season.
A 2025 three-star linebacker recruit from Seminole High School in Sanford, Florida, Ethan Pritchard never got to see the field as a true freshman at Florida State last season. In fact, he spent most of the football season in the hospital after he was shot in the back of the head on August 31, 2025, a day after FSU’s season-opening win over Alabama, while driving his aunt home from a family event.
A year after a gunshot to the head, Ethan Pritchard returned to Bobby Bowden Field
Pritchard was hospitalized for six weeks, and there was a chance he would never walk or talk again. Well, almost a year later, he’s doing both, and on Saturday night, he was back at Doak Campbell leading his teammates onto the field for their Week 0 matchup against New Mexico State.
Ethan Pritchard walks out with his team nearly a year after surviving a gunshot wound to the head 🙏@FSUFootball pic.twitter.com/xTO54ukaih
— ACC Network (@accnetwork) August 29, 2026
Pritchard spent much of his recovery in Central Florida. Just weeks ago, Pritchard was still using a walker, but now he is walking mostly independently. He is working with physical therapist Alex Mendez.
Pritchard’s show of resilience will be a memorable moment, and no matter how FSU’s Week 0 game plays out, Pritchard’s return is the best thing that anyone inside Doak Campbell Stadium will see on Saturday night.
Pritchard received support from his Florida State teammates last season. Last season's starting quarterback, Tommy Castellanos posted a vieo of the entire team cheering for Pritchard as he wheeled from Tallahassee Memorial Hospital on a stretcher last fall when he was being moved to Brook Rehabilitation in Jacksonville.
Pritchard was eventually able to join the team in Gainesville for the regular season finale against Florida.
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