Observations from FSU's listless first half against Stanford

Well, that was a half of football and, despite not showing much effort, Florida State only trails 13-10 to Stanford on the road. Things were looking bleak until Tommy Castellanos scrambled for a touchdown near the end of the half. 

The offense looks very basic, as if Gus Malzahn brought just four plays with him. Defensively, FSU has been scrambling, but the unit did tighten up a little in the second quarter.

​Another slow start on the road

I was curious to see what FSU team would show up on the farm. And it's a team that doesn't exactly look excited to be on the field and doesn't seem to be taking any of this seriously. The defense was a step slow to react for most of the first half and, offensively, it took way too long to get the ball to Duce Robinson.

Castellanos, however, still cares

OK, the eye black is a little ridiculous, but there's no issue with the effort from a clearly compromised Castellanos. He decided to take matters into his own hands and make a dangerous dive in the end zone to give FSU's only touchdown of the half. I don't know if it will motivate this group, but it should. 

Same silly mistakes

The penalties... Edwin Joseph jumps offsides on a field goal attempt that gives Stanford a first down and leads to a touchdown. These things are so avoidable, and yet they continue to happen over and over and over again. It happens so much that when Mike Norvell talks about his process and structure and all the other keywords he throws out there, it just rings hallow. 

Stanford is really banged up

It looks like the starting quarterback, Ben Gulbranson, is done for the game. Stanford's starting right guard was taken out of the game. The Cardinal is running backups in the secondary. They have nothing to offer and there's no way this FSU team should lose this game....even with the half-hearted effort the Seminoles have shown through 30 minutes.

Fans are still done with Norvell

This just isn't working for FSU fans anymore. They sat through a 2-10 and were promised better. They really haven't gotten better and at this point I think they would hold a bake sale to raise the buyout money if necessary.