As FSU football creeps towards the finish line on a disastrous 2024 campaign, it appears Mike Norvell (and at least some staff) has already started game planning for 2025.
Mike Norvell spoke with the media at his weekly press conference on Monday, giving thoughts on the Miami game and previewing the upcoming game against North Carolina. I'll post the entire video below, but these statements stuck out to me:
Norvell: "This is going to be a critical offseason for us. There's a lot of work that has been going on throughout the course of the year preparing for next year and what the future is."
— Curt Weiler (@CurtMWeiler) October 28, 2024
Mike Norvell on Monday morning.
— Dustin Lewis (@DustinLewisNG) October 28, 2024
"This is going to be a critical offseason for us."
"Come December, we have a plan." #Noles
Norvell says the staff spent a lot of time during the last bye week looking at the personnel, state of the roster and where FSU could need to add.
— Curt Weiler (@CurtMWeiler) October 28, 2024
"I'm excited about a lot of our young players...But I know we have a few positions where we need to add an elite player."
The bye week was a couple of weeks ago, so it was already apparent there are major roster holes they need to address in the offseason. I assume that he's referring to the transfer portal when talking about adding an elite player to a few positions.
I say that because FSU needs elite players at defensive end, defensive tackle, offensive line, and wide receiver. Those positions rarely have freshmen to make an impact, and most of the top players FSU had committed in its 2025 recruiting class have already de-committed.
The good news is that the money they allocated to those top freshmen can go to transfer portal players. FSU has a track record(before this season) of evaluating and getting great portal players. Jermaine Johnson, Jammie Robinson, Johnny Wilson, Trey Benson, Jared Verse, and Tatum Bethune are great examples.
However, they can't afford to miss on players this go around. They have several portal players who have been non-factors in 2024. I won't name them, but we know who they are. FSU has a solid core of young players gaining valuable experience this year, which should help their development for 2025.
Will Mike Norvell make any coaching changes? I think his signaling they'll use the portal again hints at some changes that will come in that aspect. As he said, we'll have to wait until December to find out to what extent.