Florida State University
Football Media Conference
Saturday, October 5, 2024
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Mike Norvell
Press Conference
Clemson 29, Florida State 13
MIKE NORVELL: First off, thought it was a hard-fought
game. Credit to Clemson. They did a good job making the
plays when necessary and throughout the course of the
game I thought. Obviously as we went through it, they
were able to hit some explosive plays. They did a good job
of negating our run game.
Offensively they did a good job of being able to work and
eat up a lot of clock there in the fourth quarter to try to put
the game away with a big run and obviously a couple of
plays there on the perimeter.
Just disappointed in the result. Disappointed for our guys.
I thought they played hard. I thought they did fight. We
had our opportunities, but you know, it’s absolute minimum
expectation here, and we have to go and make — we’ve got
to get the job done.
We had mistakes that as we had momentum were good
plays. We would have a good stop. We would have a
penalty that extended a drive. We had a couple of
negative plays there offensively that put us in way too
many third and long situations.
We became just totally one-dimensional, and having to
drop back, which obviously presented some challenges
there for us in protection. But just disappointed that some
of the easier things that we can control we did not do a
good enough job with. We had some bad snaps. As I
mentioned, some of the penalties. We had a couple of
communication busts that when you’re playing a good
team, obviously it gets magnified that much more.
I thought our guys battled. I’m proud of some of the plays
that we were able to make and some of the — I thought
blocking the extra points — or I’m sorry — blocking the field
goals was something that was really impressive. Big stops
in the moment.
We talk about owning the football, and we had the
interception, but it was something that was a
miscommunication and what the receiver is doing.
Obviously, Brock is trying to throw the ball on time, but that
was a big play with a turnover there. Then I don’t think we
created a take-away, which is something that we continue
to emphasize.
We had a few potential opportunities, but didn’t finish the
play. We’ve got to be better in that regards. Just like I told
the team, we have to do the simple things better. That’s
coaching. That’s players. That’s all ownership for all of us
as we try to continue to emphasize the fundamental
approach and continuing to put ourselves in position.
Again, what’s frustrating is there are guys that have played
a lot of ball, and they’re having some plays that are really
costly in moments. It’s not from a lack of want-to. It’s not
from a lack of their work, but just in the moment just
unfortunate things that are happening that are hurting us
overall as a team.
Like I said, we all have to get better. You are going into a
bye week. We’ve got a lot of work to do, and so we’ll be
back in tomorrow, learn from mistakes, continue to
self-eval of where we are.
I was proud of some of the young guys that you see that
have stepped up and taken advantage of opportunities.
We’re going to continue to push opportunities because at
the end of the day we left too many plays out there on the
field that we’ve got to be better at.
So whatever that takes, whatever that’s got to look like,
we’ve got to get it done.
Q. What were your general thoughts on Brock’s play,
how he handled the offense, how command of it was
he in, and just how they were playing for him?
MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, I thought he did a very solid job.
He put in a lot of work in his preparation. I appreciated his
energy. He showed toughness throughout the course of
the game. Made some really good plays.
Obviously there’s a few just like in the course of all games
that you would like to have back, but I mean, I felt his
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presence was be really good. Very encouraging to the
guys, even after a bad play.
We also have to make plays around him as well, and we’ve
got to be able to get the run game going and established to
take pressure off the quarterback and obviously take
pressure off the offensive line there in some of those
situations with the pass rush.
But I thought he did a good job, and we’ll be able to go
back and watch a lot more of the finer details and just
areas of where we’re going to continue to grow and get
better.
Q. Can you take solace in what the red zone defense
was on a night where you give up 500 yards of total
offense?
MIKE NORVELL: This is an offense that’s been playing at
a pretty high level. I thought our guys — there were some
unnecessary big plays that we gave up. I did really like the
way that they battled down in the red zone.
Obviously there are still plays that we’ve got to be able to
finish on, but I thought it showed grit in how those guys
were able to respond in challenging situations.
Q. You said that the tight end room had to be better
earlier this week. Landon comes up and leads the
team in receiving and Amaree makes the touchdown.
What did you see from those young guys at the tight
end role today?
MIKE NORVELL: A couple of guys tried to take advantage
of the opportunity, and there’s still a lot of areas where
those guys have to grow in what they’ve got to do, but you
saw them take positive steps.
Obviously there will be a lot of things in the run game that
we get to continue to coach and understand and
communication. Some of those things hurt us throughout
the course of the night. So, I mean, it’s a challenge to
them to continue to make sure they’re spending that time
just to build their confidence there in the moment.
But, yeah, there were definitely some positives from that
room that we’ll be able to take and for all those guys to
grow from.
Q. You’ve talked about kind of with those young guys
wanting to see certain things in practice before you
feel comfortable putting them in the games to he so
how they handle that. With the spark some of those
guys and Brock somewhat brought at times tonight,
maybe are you thinking about using them earlier or
maybe not seeing if they can bring something earlier in
the season?
MIKE NORVELL: Are you saying do I regret? Is that what
you asked?
Q. (Off microphone).
MIKE NORVELL: There’s a lot that goes into it. You can
always — I promise you, we want to do everything in our
power to win a game. We’re working our butt off to make
sure that we’re doing that.
And, yes, it’s the balance of things that help you operate
and making sure that we can — we had some mistakes that
showed up because of maybe not as experienced in
communication or situations and things where we are
going to have to be better.
Those guys are growing through it, but I’m glad that they
did what they did with the opportunity they had tonight.
Obviously we have to continue to grow them throughout
practice.
Q. After SMU you said that you needed your team to
have a better response, but you guys obviously were
down 17-0 in the first quarter. What did you make of
the slow start, and how come you think the guys came
out so flat?
MIKE NORVELL: I don’t think they came out flat. I don’t
think they came out flat. I don’t think we executed as well
as we needed to.
Obviously we gave up a couple of big plays. We had a
turnover. I think our guys were excited for the opportunity
to play. Obviously we didn’t start the way we wanted to,
but I wouldn’t say that we came out flat. We just didn’t get
off to the start that we needed.
I thought our guys did fight and respond, and we have to
be better in how we start games.
Q. Is there a way — you look at Cade. He had 11
rushes. I think Brock had three real rushes and maybe
only one of them was an actual called rush. Is there a
way to get his legs more involved to try to help this
running game get going in any way?
MIKE NORVELL: That’s something we’ll continue to
evaluate. We did have that as a thought. There were
certain looks that we wanted to be able to try to create that,
but unfortunately we didn’t get to that as much tonight.
We’ll continue to evaluate all those things.
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Q. I guess just with the running game struggles, is it a
combination of several things, or have you isolated, or
is it different things in different situations?
MIKE NORVELL: There are combinations at times. Like I
say, there wasn’t just one specific problem, but there’s
been times that we’ve had leverage issues. We’ve had
obviously things in our technique. We’ve had track issues
at times.
Obviously we have to give credit. They did a good job in a
couple of pressures of forcing the TFL with corner cat I
know on one that got us in that moment, but it’s still gets to
all three levels.
There are certain times where they’re forcing — I say force.
They’re adding an extra hat to a scheme that we might
have that might force the ball out on the perimeter, and we
have not been as good as we need to be whenever that
ball does get into the perimeter to force teams to soften up
on the edges.
So those are all things that we can — it all benefits each
other. If you can take advantage of playing a game
horizontally whenever you have numbers, obviously it
loosens the box, and it takes a little bit of pressure off
those guys up front, but it’s a lot of factors. Being able to
create movement, create space. Sometimes that we’re on
the right guys, but if you don’t create space, not a big area
to run. Just too many no-gain or one-yard gain runs.
Q. So Clemson has scored at least 40 points in their
last three games. How are you feeling right now about
Florida State ruining that streak and the confidence
that must give your team?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously we’re here to win the game.
We did not perform well enough to do that. I thought our
guys, they responded in challenging situations. I thought
they fought throughout the game.
I was believing throughout it that we were going to find a
way to make that next play, but unfortunately they did what
they needed to do to get the win. But there were some
good moments in the game and some good things that we
could take from it individually, but also just situationally.
We’ll continue to work and be better.
Q. The time-out on defense near the end of the first
half, I know you often — pretty much always are
valuing trying to steal that extra possession and get
the ball back you do what you can with the one-minute
drill. Is it just that is your mindset? Regardless of
anything else, you’re not going to change your
thinking on that based on how your team is performing
in a given moment or a given season?
MIKE NORVELL: On trying to create extra possessions?
Q. (Off microphone).
MIKE NORVELL: Trying to maximize possessions.
Obviously we knew we were going the ball there in the
second half. If we can get an opportunity to get another
possession, we get an opportunity to double up at the end
of the first half, and the second half it’s something we’ve
been very successful at throughout the years. You know,
you still have to push and fight to go win the game, and
that’s what we’re trying to do.
We’re trying to maximize every potential advantage or
potential opportunity to do that, but unfortunately they were
able to get down and go score there late. We weren’t able
to answer it there coming out of the second half.
Q. Considering Brock’s last two starts and just the
almost impossible situation he was put in with those
two, how much can it help him moving forward? I
know he didn’t win. I know it was only 13 points, but
he made some real plays in real moments, third down
throws, fourth down throws, runs for first downs, to
get him that confidence moving forward where he
could be the guy in this program for a year or years to
come.
MIKE NORVELL: Well, yeah, I think with each experience
to see growth, to see improvement. He’s very confident in
what he does. Even in some of those challenging
situations, after an interception where there was a
miscommunication, there wasn’t a sense of panic with him.
It was ownership in both him and the receiver, and now
let’s go get it fixed and get better.
I think that he has a great demeanor about him. I’m proud
of him for how he prepared and proud of Luke for how he
prepared. There’s even times going into it potentially
getting him an opportunity throughout it. Obviously the
game, how it played and the sequence, I elected not do
that for this one.
I’m excited about that room. I think those guys — you see
Brock with now I guess it’s his fourth game under his belt of
experience, but I thought he did some better things than
what he showed in his last start. I fully expect him to take
some positive steps moving forward because he shows
flashes of what he is capable of.
Q. Seven penalties tonight. You mentioned a little bit
earlier. How much did that slow you guys down, and
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what were some of the reasons for the penalties
today?
MIKE NORVELL: It’s disappointing. I don’t know. The
focus and emphasis on situational penalties on third
downs, we signal it to them. We remind them. The first
day it’s one of the first things we talk about in fall camp of
points of emphasis, and every day that we practice we
emphasize that.
It’s a lapse in focus, not intentional. Nobody ever wants to
do that, but that’s where we have to be better.
When you sit there and see that, when that shows up, it’s
extremely challenging. We had a couple of holding calls
that put us in long yard situations. Had a couple of bad
snaps. It’s somebody that doesn’t ever have those. We’ve
had three bad snaps in the last couple of games, and I
couldn’t tell you how many we had in the last year and a
half, two years.
Those are frustrating things that have showed up that we’re
still working every day to be better in those situations and
to focus on those fundamentals, but it’s got to show up in
the game.
Q. With another off week ahead, just kind of what’s the
approach in terms of I’m sure guys are beat up, but
also probably mentally fatigued over the first half of
the season. What’s the approach this week?
MIKE NORVELL: I mean, obviously there’s going to be —
guys will get a few days off. We come back with a Friday
game, so it’s going to be a little shorter coming back that
next week, but we’ve got to be able to rest the bodies.
We’ve lost a lot of guys this year with injuries to different
line-ups and what that’s looked like. We try to get guys
back and healed up if possible and then continuing to grow
and develop the guys that we have for our next game.
I guess, like I mentioned, there’s a lot of evaluation of
continuing to see what are the things that we’ve done that
could bring spark, that could bring positive execution there
in the moment and that can allow this team to put itself in a
better position to go win games? That’s what we
absolutely have to get done.
It’s disappointing in the outcomes that we’ve seen because
I believe we’re better. For whatever reason, those
mistakes and obviously some guys take advantage of
opportunities, and some guys have not.
As coaches it’s our job to evaluate it and put our guys in
the best position with the players that we have. I do
believe in those guys, and I believe in what they can do.
We’ve got to do a better job as a staff in making sure that
that shows up on game day.
They will get a little bit of time off. We have a lot of work in
recruiting here with going out and seeing games here this
week at the end of it, but it’s going to be a big push on
continuing to emphasis on fundamentals and the things
that are hurting us in the course of these contests, and I
want to get better at them.
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