FSU football's 2025 season opener—dominating Alabama—was both a gift and a curse for Mike Norvell. It combined the unveiling of renovated Doak Campbell Stadium with a win over Alabama, following a 2-10 2024 season.
That win sent expectations soaring, and the next two weeks didn’t lower them because FSU played like prime FSU.
It’s almost like if FSU had lost the Alabama game and won the next two against cupcakes and won against Virginia, the expectations wouldn’t have gotten so high.
FSU defensive coordinator Tony White took solace that FSU wasn’t getting blown out like they were last season. It’s true, all four losses have come by one possession, but two of those losses were as double-digit betting favorites. That’s not good enough, even after a 2-10 season, because FSU has more talent than three of the teams they lost against.
The segment we want to highlight starts at the 6:20 mark. Tony White implies it’s a lot of noise for these players to hear how bad they are, how bad the coaches are, with the expectation to practice hard and play hard. He talked about how the defensive players are battling to give FSU a chance to win the game.
It’s almost like he was taking a shot at Gus Malzahn and the FSU offense for only scoring 13 points. Which is fair, but the offense has played well enough in two of the losses to get wins as well.
Here’s the thing: these players get paid a lot of money, and some of that is from fans contributing to The Battle’s End and Seminole Boosters. The fans have a right to be critical when the players are getting paid, most of them A LOT of money. Now, anyone sending death threats is out of line, and it’s sad that’s happening to Tony White if true.
However, there is a noticeable difference in the FSU defense since he admitted he spoke about the UCLA job on the phone with some folks. There’s no way to prove that’s the catalyst, but the defense has been much worse since that moment, and losing close instead of getting blown out isn’t good enough at Florida State.
We’re sure hearing how bad you are as a coach gets tiring, but the only way to change that is to get your defense to play like it did in the first three games. If that happened, FSU would be 6-1 at worst right now.
FSU played in a way agaisnt Alabama that FSU fans hadn't seen since the 2023 season. We realize some guys are playing hurt, and we commend them for laying it on the line. However, the fact fans know the level of play we saw against Alabama is in there, and most of the players choose not to play to that standard for whatever reason has been incredibly frustrating.