Florida State football hit rock bottom in 2024, losing 33 players to the transfer portal, but saw some improvements in 2025, although they only managed to win three more games. However, they had some embarrassing losses, and most thought Mike Norvell wouldn’t survive the season.
He’ll return, and FSU has added some new coaches, a new General Manager, and an Executive Director of Player Acquisitions to its back-office staff. Nevertheless, FSU has nearly 30 players announcing intentions to enter the transfer portal before it opens on January 2nd. There could be more, but we’ve already explained how the majority of those players have been non-contributors or dead weight on the roster.
The latest few contributed some, but were not difference-makers and could easily be replaced. One former player thinks he could solve most of the FSU players entering the transfer portal:
All I’m going to say if they hired me a lot this portal shit wouldn’t be happening!!!
— COACH ANTONIO CROMARTIE (@CRO31) December 28, 2025
I don’t get all this attention shit about transferring or I’m staying crap. And I get some have to transfer. But some of this ish is crazy!!! Do yall want to play get developed to play at the next level or are your agents making career changes for you!!! So they can get more 💰
— COACH ANTONIO CROMARTIE (@CRO31) December 23, 2025
But, I thought you could control most of the transfer portal stuff? Which is it?
No question, Antonio Cromartie Sr. was a standout player at FSU and went on to have a great career in the NFL. No question he loves FSU and wants to see it succeed as it did in Bobby Bowden’s heyday.
He was a graduate assistant for Jimbo Fisher while at Texas A&M, and hasn’t coached in college since.
There’s likely a reason, or reasons, why legit football programs haven’t been knocking down his door to be a defensive back coach, or even a defensive analyst. He was vocal on social media about Mike Norvell’s staff early in his tenure and admitted he had to apologize for some of the things he said. That likely didn’t do him any favors with Mike Norvell, though Norvell did him a solid and offered his oldest son, Antonio Cromartie Sr., a spot on the team on Christmas Day last year. He appeared in two games and redshirted.
Related Story: Thoughts on FSU potentially adding a JUCO QB from the portal
FSU isn’t the only team that’s losing players to the transfer portal. In fact, several teams have lost tons of starters. It’s the new age of college football for most teams that are not the top teams. Unfortunately, FSU isn’t among that group right now. However, who’s to say the FSU staff wanted to retain most of these players? As far as the secondary, it’s not like those guys were great, aside from JaBril Rawls, and his rumored price tag isn’t worth it. The other defensive backs were recruited to a different scheme and didn’t play well.
So, Cromartie is on social media typing about what he’d do when he’s not informed of what the staff is trying to do. Nobody is outside of the staff, so talking negatively isn’t doing him any favors, and doesn’t make him more attractive to other schools that see his actions.
If I were looking to get coaching at the college level, I'd definitely be mindful of what I said on social media.
If you want to wait and see what they do in the portal, and then provide an opinion or be critical? That makes sense. However, making statements like the one above?. Again, there are reasons he isn’t coaching anywhere.