FSU football: Mike Norvell speaks challenges post CFP committee snub

FSU football head coach Mike Norvell spoke with the media for the first time since getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff Committee a couple of weeks ago. The Nole held an open practice for the first time as they prepared for the Georgia Bulldogs in the Orange Bowl. Mike Norvell looked visibly tired but spoke about how many of the young players have stepped up. Several FSU starters have opted out of the Orange Bowl or entered the transfer portal. There's a handful remaining that will likely opt out and declare for the NFL Draft or possibly enter the transfer portal. Norvell spoke about the challenges of dealing with the emotions of winning the ACC Championship, getting snubbed, and conducting in-home recruiting revisits within a 24-hour window.

That would have been an incredible amount of things to juggle had they not gotten snubbed but getting on the road almost immediately and trying to communicate with the current roster effectively seems impossible to manage. We're talking about teenagers and guys who worked so hard for a common goal to have it snatched away, and there was nothing they could do about it. It's like the first 13 games didn't matter, so why should this Orange Bowl game? However, Mike Norvell did typical Mike Norvell things and re-centered the conversation around the positives while acknowledging the last two weeks have been the hardest two in his coaching career.

The coaching staff has been trying to identify who will play in the Orange Bowl, finalize the 2024 high school recruiting class, conduct transfer-portal recruiting, and deal with players on the roster toying with entering the transfer portal. They get paid a lot of money, and I don't feel sorry for them because they signed up for it. However, their lives can't be too fun right now, while still dealing with the stinging of what happened a couple of weeks ago.