Florida State University
Football Media Conference
Monday, September 30, 2024
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Mike Norvell
Press Conference
MIKE NORVELL: Disappointing performance, the things
that go into the preparation and work, try to be the best you
can be. Good week of preparation in regards to adapting
to some of the changes and the storm all things there.
There in the first half, I thought we showed well in some
areas, had a couple mistakes, things that cost us. Got
down inside the five-yard line, weren’t able to score. Had a
bust in a coverage which we allowed an explosive
touchdown. We didn’t play as good as we could but we’re
still going into halftime, it was a five-point game.
You know, coming out in the second half, a disaster play
on the drop ball, tip ball interception. You know, that gave
them a short field and obviously a quick score. I didn’t
think that we responded as well to adversity as what, one,
we need to, and as what I believe we are capable of.
We got to a point where even when we scored it went to a
12-point game. We came out, I felt that as a momentum
boost. I felt like we went out there and we got a
three-and-out, and then you know, the call on the face
mask, which, you know, is what it is. I mean, it was — that
was the game-changing play for us. Got stopped.
Obviously whenever that extended, the drive, and really at
that point, that was probably the most disappointing aspect
to the rest of the game. Because I didn’t feel that we rose
to the level of response that was necessary. And you
know, it was really kind of a gut punch in that situation.
They went down and were able to score.
Obviously we had — they had the two scoring drives there
and then we had the Pick-Six and it just kind of all built
upon itself on that, and it was — that’s the things that as I
talked to the team yesterday, you go back and watch film, it
was the lack of response there in the second half when
things didn’t go the way that we wanted, the way that
obviously we needed it to go and that’s where you’ve got to
have guys that step up and who is going to take control of
that. You talk about leadership and what is that and what
does that look like.
In those moments, the leaders go make the play. They go
stand up, give all that they can, and go execute in the
moment. That’s what was lacking. We’ve seen that in the
past. We’ve seen that even the week prior to finish the
game. We saw that in tough and challenging situations
where guys answered the call. They were put in the
moment and went and made the play. We didn’t have
those plays made there in the second half when things
didn’t go well. It was a disappointing outcome.
Obviously coming back, we have to go get better. This
week, you know, we’ve got a great challenge with a team
that’s playing probably as good as anybody in the league,
probably as good as anybody in the country right now in
what they have done. Right now we’ve probably played on
the complete opposite spectrum of that. We have to have
a great focus on us and a great focus on our improvement,
from the details, the work, the response, all the things that
are critically important for us to go and get better.
I mean, I’ve said multiple times throughout, I thought our
guys came back, and last night, it was a good workday.
You know, I thought the ownership of action, the things that
showed up and occurred, and then the willingness to go
jump on a practice field, we got back at five in the morning
on Sunday morning, so it was an early morning, obviously
a short rest but I mean, they came out and they pushed. It
was a good start to the week but you know, it’s the
application, all things throughout the week and making
sure that we’re doing everything in our power to go be our
best come Saturday night.
That will be our focus and so we’re going to do everything
we can to put our guys in a position and then to be able to
go out there and execute in the moment.
Q. How is DJ health-wise and how did Brock look
when he was out there to you? What’s going to go into
the decision-making process this week?
MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, DJ, something we’re going to
evaluate throughout the course of the week. You know,
kind of go — see where it goes from there.
You know, I thought Brock, going into, in all reality, I said it
after the game, after the interception, just kind of where the
game, I decided I was going to make the change.
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Obviously DJ did have the injury there, as well. But just
wanted to see that opportunity for Brock to go in and have
a chance to execute. I thought he did some good things.
Had a nice throw that we didn’t finish on. I thought he did
miss one of the vertical shots that had an opportunity that
was a touchdown play.
But overall operation of what he was asked to do was
good. I mean, it wasn’t shocking to me. Brock and Luke
both do a great job in how they prepare. They really try to
prepare as if they are going to play every play in the game.
If you do that and then when you get in the game, it’s
usually going to translate a lot better for you. I thought he
was ready for the moment, and obviously those guys both
have to go and prepare at an elite level this week and we’ll
see how things play out throughout the course of what this
week holds.
Q. You guys played a good bit of depth in that game
and especially some young guys that had not gotten
burned previously. How much do you continue to
push and get more guys out there and see what they
can do?
MIKE NORVELL: It’s going to be a continued push to put
best guys that can go out there and be productive and be
able to make plays there in the moment. There are open
doors of opportunity and there’s a lot of evaluation, and you
know, I mean, it is an absolute push at every position for
guys to raise the level of productivity and for guys that are
looking for more, they have got to go earn more. Anybody
can talk about it and sit there and say, well, I want to be
playing, or this guy should be in or that guy should be in.
But ultimately, they have to show that they are prepared for
that in the way that they work throughout the course of
practice and then if they do a job that shows — that builds
confidence in their teammates and in their coaches and in
everybody that they are ready for that, then that door
opens. You’ve got to go perform.
I thought there was some good things. I thought there
were some good plays and there was also some moments
where some of those young guys can see the areas of
improvement and that sense of urgency for improvement is
there. Obviously we’ll build upon it.
Q. When you played Brock, was it because of DJ’s
hand injury or just time?
MIKE NORVELL: I was going to — when we had the
Pick-Six, I mean, that was going to be an opportunity for
Brock to go in there and it was 13 minutes or something in
the fourth quarter, I believe. I was making the change at
that point.
I’ll say this: It was — there’s a lot of things that we go back
and look at in the game, and you know, DJ did make a lot
of good throws throughout the course of the game, some
good decisions, he made some poor decisions and a
couple bad throws that you know, it’s — but you’ve got to
surround and you’ve got to help the quarterback position.
I don’t think we’ve done a good job of that consistently, and
you know, at the end of the day we all have to have
ownership in that, and so you know, for what that was, I
mean, it was. You know, from protection to finishing plays
and catches when you get the opportunities and then
making sure that the quarterbacks are making the right
reads, putting the ball where it needs to be and playing at a
high level.
So it is all things but you know, at that point, I mean,
definitely you’re going to make the change there for that
game.
Q. In the second half when your team doesn’t respond
like that, is that more of the coaches’ messages falling
flat or the players not playing with the right attitude?
MIKE NORVELL: A coach’s message doesn’t really
change here. It’s go be the best you can possibly be, and
you know, you go and respond. Don’t be driven and
affected so much by the circumstances; it’s still about the
opportunity.
You know, if you’re a real one, you’re going to rise up. And
I say that in all — and I believe we’ve got a football team full
of real guys, and guys that have done it before.
But if you get caught up in the circumstance, right, you put
yourself in a position, right, to be, to be swayed by the
emotion; and you know, nobody wants to be down. I’m not
sure wants to be put in tough situations. Nobody wants to
have anything bad ever happen to them. But when it
shows up, I mean, who are you? And the real ones, they
rise up and they go make the play. They want that. They
are willing to step forward. They are willing to take the
brunt of all things and still just put themselves out there,
and that is a challenge.
I told the team right there after the game, I told them again
last night, that’s leadership. Because you know, a leader is
not affected just by the swaying of the wind, because that,
then you’re going to be — you’ll up some days, you’ll be
down some days. You know, hot and cold.
But if you’ve got a purpose and you’re an absolute —
knowing what you think you are or say you are, then go be
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it and be it consistently throughout the course of the game;
whether you’re up, whether you’re down, let that show up.
If you get discouraged or disappointed because the
outcome is not where you want it to be and you hold back,
there’s the hesitation. And there’s a lot of things that go
into that, whether it’s the fear of failure or the fear of
disappointment of coming up short. But that’s part of it,
right.
Ultimately, you’ve got an opportunity, you go out there and
you go make the play. You take all the things that you
have worked to do and you put them into action in those
moments, and you know, it’s our job as coaches to help put
those guys in the best situation to help showcase that to
help them in that response but yeah, I mean, that’s where
we all have to get better, and you know, as a coach, as
players, I mean, you know, in those moments, that’s where
we have to be our best. And we have to be the realest to
who we are and what we’re all about.
You can play back the reference and look back, you know,
a year ago, we won 13 games during the season and a
championship, and four of them we were down ten points.
What happened in every one of those opportunities? Well,
the real ones stood up, and some of those guys that are on
this team right now were those guys.
But now, as we — and I said this, you know, throughout
preseason and all of it. It’s like, watching a team, you
always — you build it, you put it together, and the
excitement about what the potential can be, and I am the
ultimate optimist. I mean, I see what people can do. I see
what I believe they can become. I see what I feel and what
I have a sense of the potential of a group. But it still comes
down to the moment of truth.
I was asked the question, maybe in the opening press
conference, what’s your concern? It’s in the moment of
truth, what’s it going to look like. Because you still have to
have those guys that step up in that moment and be what
they are capable of being. You have to have coaches,
players, everybody involved. Like when it doesn’t go the
way that you necessarily want because it shows up in
every game, every year, very rarely, will you look at a team
that wins a championship and see just the smoothest of
rides. Because that response has to be a part of building
the core of it. And I don’t think we’ve handled that very
well.
You know, it’s not from a lack of want-to, but for whatever it
is, to make that connection, to go execute then, to be able
to make the catch, make the block, make the tackle, you
know, to make the throw, whatever that part of it is, and
now we’ve seen flashes of it, right. I have seen some
positive responses. It’s just not being consistent enough
for us to play the way we are capable of, and that’s what
we have to work on getting better at.
Q. The change on the depth chart with the co-starters
at quarterback; that because of the uncertainty of DJ’s
status or is there a world where change is made
independent of injury even if DJ is good to go?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously DJ, it’s one of those — I really
don’t care about a depth chart to be honest with you. It
really means nothing. To put a status — DJ couldn’t first
name the game, one he couldn’t finish the game. I said
that I was going to put Brock in at that moment, too, but
obviously right now there is a little bit of uncertainty in
status. We’ll see what that looks like as the week goes on.
But doesn’t really matter what I put on a depth chart.
Q. Another depth chart question, I’m sorry. I had to.
You’ve got three tight ends. Obviously the
interception, Kyle bobbled it but Landen gets his first
touchdown. What did you see out of those guys in the
tight end room to lead to that decision?
MIKE NORVELL: You know, that’s a position where we
have to be better. You know, you look a year ago, I’ve got
confidence and belief in Kyle, I do, and you look a year
ago, you look for percentage of opportunities and targets
and catches and guys making the play, you know, he was
as good as anybody we had. And we had some really,
really good pass receivers last year.
You know, this year, there’s been some struggles. There’s
been some tough moments. There’s been — that was
obviously a huge play in the game and you know, there’s
nobody more disappointed than Kyle.
But right now, it still comes down to production, to
execution, and so the doors of opportunity are there; guys
have to take advantage of that. Obviously really happy for
Landen to be able to get that first touchdown. You can go
through the game and there’s still some things that he’s
going to have to take some great strides in to continue to
be what I know he’s capable of.
But you know, that position has to go and get better, and
you know, so you can see it across the board in this
wonderful depth chart that we put out. There’s a lot of
positions that have to be better. We’re not playing very
well.
I mean, did I suggest put an “or” on everybody but you
know, it’s not — at the end of the day, we’ve got to go do it.
The belief that I have in the guys that I get to coach, that’s
unwavering. Because I am around them as much as
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anybody. So with that, it’s what you do in the moment.
That’s where we get to prepare our butts off and go push to
be better, and then when we get out there on the field,
better has to show up. And if it doesn’t, there’s got to be
somebody that takes advantage of the opportunity and
goes and helps this football team win games.
Q. I want to preface this, I’ll start off with an individual
player but it’s about the position group. I was
watching Darius before the game and he seeped to be
very animated, like he was trying to get guys fired up
and he was the one that was giving the speech before
they went in the locker room but then he has a false
start and Maurice had some bad snaps and that
offensive line, would you think that that would be a
group that the team could lean on. What do you think
has gone wrong for that group?
MIKE NORVELL: There’s been a lot of change in
availability, guys that have played, where they have
played, what they have done. We do have probably the
two guys that are — with JB being out, he did get to play
there in the last game but with Darius and Maurice, those
are two guys that have played well here and have played
at a high level. They have to be it.
I’ve got, once again, just preface the last question I just
answered, I’ve got the ultimate confidence in what they can
do but in those moments, they have to, as the leaders, I
mean, it’s got to show up.
I think that’s where — that’s a responsibility, it’s a challenge,
it’s all of it. But they are built for it. They have lived
through it. They have been through it and it’s what this
team needs.
And guys that have been out and been productive in
critical, challenging, hard situations, well, we need that
now. That is where the — it’s like put your finger on why.
That’s what’s — you get frustrated with as a coach of, you
know, the things you’re looking at through preparation, the
things you’ve done that even these individuals have been
very successful with.
Now it’s, you know, what are the squeaks; what are the
things that — where we can eliminate some of those
mistakes because they are amplified mistakes when it
comes from them. If it’s a first-year starter, somebody
that’s new to it, still some things that they are working
through, that’s another part of the challenge to them and a
challenge to us.
Because we’ve got to make that connection, and I would
tell you, if I sat there and watch these guys and I felt that
they were pulling back or it wasn’t — I mean, you
mentioned, like in pregame, Darius doesn’t even like to
talk. I mean, he’s not — doesn’t really just enjoy doing that.
But he wants it, and he wants it for this team and he’s
willing to try to push, to try to encourage. But then in those
moments, you’ve got to stay focused on those little things.
I’m grateful for him, willing to take those steps. Now it’s
about just control things we can control as well and
continue to bring both because that’s what this team
needs.
Q. On the interception return for a touchdown, a few
players seemed to be hustling. Did you see that
enough widespread from everyone responding to the
miscue there?
MIKE NORVELL: I mean, were there guys that accounted
for those, yes. It was not uniform of what it was, and you
know, obviously those are things that every play would be
great.
But I did, you know, you celebrate the guys that are putting
on display what the expectation is, and that’s wherefore us,
you’ve got to continue to push that standard. Obviously
there’s accountability in all things, and how we play in the
good and how we play in the challenge, like I said, it’s a
reflection of the identity.
Q. I see Leonard not on the depth chart after he didn’t
play. What is his status and the two guards that got in,
Bryson and Andre, how did they perform?
MIKE NORVELL: I meant to mention that in the opening
but Leonard will be out for rest of the year. He’s got an
injury he’s been dealing with, and it’s kind of got to a point
where it’s greatly affecting his ability to be able to go out
there and play. So he’ll be out for the rest of the year
unfortunately. And then, you know, obviously with the
opportunities of Otto and Estes, those guys, obviously
Bryson has been in the program for a long time. He had
an injury coming out of spring, basically missed the
majority of fall camp, and so he had to — he’s had to work
himself back into it. I thought he had a really good spring.
But you know, our guard play has not been as good as it
needs to be. That’s the reality of it.
Those guys are going to push for opportunity and we’ve got
to go get better, and I thought Andre, he’s still young and
still growing in a lot of areas but I mean, you felt his
presence. He moves well. He plays with physicality.
That’s with those guys, every chance they get to step on
that field, they have to go play confident, play fast, and be
able to transition those techniques and fundamentals that
they work on in the course of action.
Q. Two weeks in a row — is there one thing you can
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point to of what you guys need to do on the defensive
side of the ball?
MIKE NORVELL: We have to help eliminate the
explosives. I think it was five different plays where — a
couple coverage issues, and just to be real, we have to
make sure that we set the edge and guys are aggressive to
setting the edge of a defense because too many times the
ball got outside when we have people that are in position
and need to go force to get it back to everybody else and
just the — just a little bit too much hesitancy when it came
to that. I did — they are with the negative, there also some
guys that I saw that played at a higher level and some guys
that were more sure tackling, playing aggressive and
playing with more confidence in the things we were asking
them to do. We have to build upon that with all 11 guys
that are out on the field.
Q. Aside from the quarterback situation, how many
different things have you guys tried to do offensively?
It feels like from week-to-week there have been things,
tweaks you’ve put in. Are you finding anything that
you feel like this offense can do or do you have to
keep trying new things?
MIKE NORVELL: I think even in that game the other day,
you see the opportunity. I mean, you see the opportunities
for — whether it’s for the explosive, for the routine, whether
it’s — but it’s the — we have to eliminate the self-inflicted
issues. And I mean, whether the first — I guess second,
third down, we have the snap. We got — we had a couple
missed assignments of things ad nauseam that you go
over and it’s executed in practice and even when it’s been
a mistake, you go back and you hit again, and if it shows
back up further then that’s where you have to look at where
is the disconnect. Is it focus? Is it understanding?
Whatever that is. But as say — somebody that has a
history of being on the offensive side of the ball, you look,
are we creating space, or we creating opportunity,
numbers, leverage, those things that are important.
And then for guys, we had a couple explosive plays that
got called back for whatever — for holding penalty or we
get, you know, dropped ball or a missed opportunity or
something that’s — those are the things that we have to be
able to finish on; and which you know, it’s one thing if I had
never seen them do it. But it’s also, you’ve got to carry it
over.
And you know, we are going to continue to adapt and
adjust. Our performance on offense has not been good
enough. But when you have those opportunities and you
have the space, we’ve got to capitalize on that; and the
play-making ability, which I do think we have, it’s got to
show up.
That’s one of the things we’ll continue to push towards but I
do believe that it is there and I do believe there are
capabilities of what it can be. We have a great challenge
this week against a great defense to try to go put it into
place, and that’s what we’ll work towards this week, and I’m
excited to see our guys respond to it.
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