Florida State University
Football Media Conference
Monday, September 2, 2024
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Coach Mike Norvell
Press Conference
Boston College – 28, Florida State – 13
MIKE NORVELL: First off, hats off to Boston College.
They did a good job tonight. They came in, did the things
they need to do to win the game.
For us, I’m just sick how the season started. Obviously
tonight I failed in preparing the team to be able to go out
and respond tonight. And just the things that were
necessary for us, the things we talked about, things we
emphasized, obviously in all phases we were not able to
execute.
I obviously didn’t put them in a position to showcase what I
believe that this football team is, and it’s extremely
disappointing.
And I apologize to our fans, apologize to everybody
associated with the program. I mean, that was extremely
disappointing that we were not better.
And obviously we couldn’t get — a lot of factors go into it.
Like I said, all phases. We just weren’t good.
They had possession the entire first quarter. We went
three-and-out I think the first three drives. Offensively they
capitalized on third downs. Our third-down execution was
extremely poor. They ran the ball. We didn’t.
And we had some missed opportunities. Had some
chances in the game to be able to take a step and we
made mistakes that were obviously extremely costly, and
they capitalized on it.
But comes down to me, comes down to me being able to
prepare this team to go out there and play at the
capabilities that I believe they have.
You’ve got a football team that’s hurting. You’ve got a
football team that — nobody envisions ever being where we
are and having disappointment, having failure.
I do believe in what this team can do. I believe in what this
team can accomplish. I’ve got to get better. I’ve got to
prepare them better. And obviously we’ve got to do
everything in our power to be able to apply the things that
we’re emphasizing throughout the course of the week,
through the course of the game.
And we need leaders to rise up. We need to continue to
push in all areas of what we’re doing, and we’ve got to do it
together.
If there’s going to be — there’s going to be plenty of
negativity around this program. I understand that. When
you perform the way we just did, it’s all part of it. But for a
football team, you’ve got to stay together. And you’ve got
to make sure that you’re there for each other.
We’ve been knocked down. We know how to get up. But
we’ve got to go do that. And it’s one thing to talk about it.
It’s another thing to put it into action and then to be able to
perform in the moment throughout the course of the game.
But I do believe in this team. I believe in what we can do.
And I believe in how we can respond. But obviously
there’s a lot of work to be done because that does not look
like Florida State football with what we just did. Once
again, it’s all on me.
Q. Going back to the spring and really all season, it
seemed like you guys felt like this would be a team
that would be able to really run the football. You
haven’t really run it well. Tonight you had to kind of
abandon it. What do you think has gone wrong there?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously tonight we went into it a little
bit more run/pass, trying to get ourselves in the right
numbers. And we missed some opportunities there in the
passing game. We’ve got to win one-on-ones. Obviously
bunch of different factors kind of tie into that.
But when it comes to the run game, it takes everybody.
And we’ve got to be able to create space. We’ve got to be
able to be on track. We’ve got to make sure that we’re
taking advantage of all positions doing their part.
People are stacking the box. People are squeezing the
box. We’ve got to be able to take advantage of it out on
the perimeter. Had a plan to try to be able to take what
they were giving us. And obviously we did not do a good
enough job and put our guys in a position to achieve
success in that regards.
There’s some things that we’ve just got to be better in our
execution. But we’ve got to find ways to be able to have
success on the ground. For two games, we definitely have
not been able to achieve that to the level that I was
expecting. And, once again, I’ve got to put guys in a better
position than what we’re doing there offensively, in the run
game to be able to create angles, to create space, to let
our guys have a chance to be able to sustain and excel
there on the ground.
Q. With the passing game struggling early on, did you
ever consider making a quarterback change? And
coming out of a bye, will you have some sort of open
competition or will you stick with DJ from here on out?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously we were struggling
offensively. There’s a lot of reasons for that. Obviously
everything that we’re doing we’ve got to push and get
better. That’s what we’re going to focus on doing. We’re
going to focus on pushing to get better, and we’re going to
put our guys in the best position to go achieve success.
And that’s what we’re going to focus on.
Q. (Inaudible) really struggled. How much do you feel
like what happened last season has maybe rubbed off
and/or affected this team?
MIKE NORVELL: I mean, obviously this team is this team.
I know these guys worked hard in the offseason. You
push. You try to prepare to go out there and to try to put
your best foot forward, to play the best football you can
play. And unfortunately we haven’t done that.
And I think that when that occurs, obviously you have high
expectations here. And there’s always going to be and
there needs to be. But when things don’t go how you want
them to go — a disappointing outcome in our first game —
and obviously today it was all the things that can go wrong
basically did.
I don’t know if that’s a carry-over from any part of it other
than starting to press, starting to try to do too much, trying
to — where you want it so bad that there’s times where you
can get to where you almost abandon the training that
you’ve had because you just start pressing and trying to do
almost too much.
I think that’s something that, as a football team we’ve got to
be able to collect ourselves. We’ve got to go and continue
to evaluate what is best. And then we’ve got to build upon
the things that we can do right now and go and get better
from them.
Like I said, I believe in the team. I believe in these guys,
and I do believe in what they can accomplish. But
obviously we’re not putting it on display right now and
definitely did not do that tonight.
I wholeheartedly believed we would come out and play
better. But there were definitely enough mistakes that we
made that kept us from that there in the first half. And then
obviously I thought there were some things in the second
half where we started to press and just obviously did not
play very well.
Q. What didn’t click with the pass game, especially
early?
MIKE NORVELL: There’s not much that did click. We
struggled to win one-on-ones early. There were times
where we were giving up, getting pressure. There were
times where we missed a throw or missed an opportunity
for a catch, trying to get some things to find a rhythm
offensively. We weren’t able to do that very well.
I thought we did get into that a little bit later as we were
rolling, had a couple of explosive plays that showed up.
And we’ve got to be able to start fast. We’ve got to be able
to go out there and compete and to be able to win our
one-on-ones, to be able to execute, going through
progressions. We’ve got to be able to protect. And
obviously we’ve got to have balance in the run game.
I think all that plays off each other. Some of the things we
were doing were run/pass options and they were playing
hard, stacking the box in the run. You’ve got to capitalize
on the perimeter.
When they’re doing that, you’re going to find one-on-one
situations, and we found some. But obviously we did not
do a good enough job of being able to execute in some of
those situations.
Like I said, that goes to am I putting them in the best
position in what we’re doing. And obviously in the things
we’re asking them to do, being able to go out there and
being able to make it happen.
Q. Second straight week where an opposing offense
had a good bit of success on the ground. A little
different this time. Felt a little more up the middle,
direct. I guess, I know there were a lot of people inside
and outside the building that were confident in that
defensive line and what they could accomplish. Were
the problems the same today? What are you seeing
that’s not clicking with that group through two games?
MIKE NORVELL: You know, I’ll have to go back and watch
the film on it. Obviously it was our guys being on the field
for as long as they were. I think that definitely played a
factor in it, especially late, with some of the explosive runs
that showed up.
But it’s not just the defensive line. Linebacker, safeties,
everybody, especially when you get into condensed sets,
you’re going to find condensed sets, unbalanced sets.
Everybody has a role to fill.
And we’ve got to be able to aggressive in our fits. We have
to make sure we have our eyes up. We have to run
through tackles. If you get athletic players — obviously they
have a couple of athletic backs, athletic quarterback — if
you give them space, they’re going to make it happen.
Obviously we had couple just complete bust on the back
out of the backfield that gave up two explosive plays.
Would have had another one, but they dropped it. That
was extremely disappointing. It’s something that we
obviously work a lot, but in the moment we were not able to
execute.
You sit there and you go through — I thought early they
were trying to run the football between the tackles and
whether it was three, four, whatever that might be. But
when you get to third-down conversions, you get into
longer drives, things are sustained in that — and obviously
on the field as much as our guys were on the field, it gets
challenging. And obviously some of those explosive runs
showed up late and it really hurt us.
Q. Going into the season as a team that, you talked
about working very hard and having a lot of athleticism
and raw skills, do you have a sense of what the
disconnect is to where those aspects aren’t translating
over to results that you guys want on the field on
Saturdays?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously that’s going to be something
that we’ve got to continue to evaluate. I mean, like I said, I
believe in this team. Who I believe we are didn’t show up
tonight. That’s on me.
I apologize to everybody, just that’s not good enough. And
for what we saw, obviously there is obviously a disconnect
in how we were able to perform tonight and what we did.
So I’ve got to be better. This football team has to continue
to push to be better.
I can tell you it’s not from a lack of work, not from a lack of
work from coaches, players, everybody involved. But for
that identity that I know we have, we’ve got to be able to
put it on display, in the moment to translate practice to the
game.
And when you’re playing athletic people, sometimes bad
things will happen. Sometimes you get beat on a play.
You can’t allow one to turn into two and then turn into five
and then to let things spiral and go down hill.
That’s why I do think that the leadership and the guys that
have been here, the guys that have poured through, the
guys who have been through so much, you’re standing up,
sticking together and just making the choice to continue to
push to do more.
And I know that’s what I’m going to do and I know that’s
what we’re going to do as a coaching staff for these guys.
And we’re going to put them in the best position to go get
better. And at the end of the day nobody wanted to sit
here 0-2. I sure as hell didn’t want to look like we looked
tonight. It was not very good.
But at the end of the day we have an opportunity to get
better and that’s what we’re going to do. That’s what we
can control. And I still believe in this football team and
what we can accomplish.
Q. You guys lost a lot of talent and leadership from
last year’s team, but you were quite aggressive in
evaluating and plugging those hole going to the
transfer portal. Is it too soon to say some of those
evaluations might have been off, and was there a risk
of it looking like this with how quickly you had
replenish the roster?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously I’ve not done a good job
putting our guys in a position to showcase what I believe
that they are. So I’ll be better.
Q. What attributes of the running game are you
looking to improve the most?
MIKE NORVELL: Once again, it’s a lot of different factors
in the running game. We all have a job. We’ve got to
create space. We’ve got to make sure that at all three
levels we are taking what they’re giving us. We can’t let
somebody put seven, eight people in the boxes and
different sets. We’ve got to be able to take advantage of
space on the perimeter.
But on the flipside of it, we’ve got to do a good job when we
get opportunities of being able to give the backs a track to
run. We’ve got to be in position where we’re supposed to
be.
And always gotta have a one-on-one at some point. We’ve
got to win those one-on-ones, whether it’s in the run game
or passing game. We’ve got to be able to build on that and
we’ve got to establish part of that run game. As we get into
this next week and obviously the next opponent, it’s got to
be something that we get established and build an identity
of who we are up front.
Q. On the fourth down, on the first drive of the second
half, I guess maybe going into the thinking of going for
it there. And was DJ just trying to make a play
because he was feeling pressure? What was the
breakdown on the play?
MIKE NORVELL: It was right at the brink of just
analytically, thought to go — we’ve had success in some of
those fourth-down situations. Obviously, they got a little bit
of pressure. Obviously tried to force a ball. Came out
poorly and obviously was a big play in the game.
In those situations you try to play to put your guys into
position to go achieve success. We are trying to spark
some momentum, trying to spark an opportunity. But
obviously that was a bad decision in that regards,
especially carrying with the results of the play, turn the ball
over and giving them a short field.
But definitely it’s something that was thought through. We
felt in all aspects of what we needed, analytically, what I
thought would occur on the play. Was confident in it. But
definitely was not the result.
Q. With the bye week coming up, you mentioned this
team pressing and kind of wanting it so much. How
important is kind of instilling their confidence, getting
that back over this two-week period heading into this
next game?
MIKE NORVELL: We’ve got to build upon the things that I
know we can do. And we’ve got to build upon just
showcasing our identity and what we’re about. And we’ve
got to work. Obviously we’ve got a few days here this
week, opportunities to go out and work to be better.
We’ve got Memphis coming into town that’s a very talented
team. And right now it really doesn’t matter who we’re
playing. We’ve got to continue to work on ourselves.
We’ve got to continue to push, continue to build that
confidence through the work and then to be able to
execute in the moment.
That’s the — like I said, coaches, players, everybody
involved, you only get so limited opportunities. And when
you get there at game day, you’ve got to be able to go
perform and be your best.
And that confidence, it’s something that you’ve got to earn.
And we work to build it through practice. We work to build
it through competition. And what we try to do, but when
you get out there on the field, that’s where you say trust
your training, you’ve got to be able to put that on display.
It’s the same thing for coaches. And as you’re going
through game plans, you have a sense of what you believe
your guys are, that’s going to put them in the best position.
There’s times you’ve got to adapt, adjust throughout the
course. But also gotta make sure you stay true to who you
are and not press as a coach, too.
And I think there’s times that we’ve done that as well. And
ultimately it’s my job to go get it better. And we’re going to
continue to build these guys up, and you allow them to go
build confidence through the work they’re doing on the
field.
Q. Piggybacking off the confidence thing, with the
third-down struggles today, do you think that’s an area
if a couple of the three-and-outs go your way in the
first quarter you could see more confidence put in
your offense? Do you think that’s something you’ll
look to do moving forward?
MIKE NORVELL: It’s a big point of emphasis for us. It’s
something that I believe that would be a strengths of ours
and how we would operate in third downs. And
unfortunately we’ve not operated as well as what I believe
we could.
It’s offensively, defensively, and we’ve got to get off the
field on third downs defensively. We’ve got to make sure
that for the guys, whether it’s in the passing game, being
able to create the pass rush, being able to be tight to
receivers, got to make sure that we’re great.
Obviously their quarterback made a couple of nice plays
with his legs to extend drives. And for us offensively we’ve
got to make sure that with our playmakers, in those
moments, rise up and be able to keep possession of the
ball, allow us to get into a rhythm.
That’s one of the things that’s hard when you’re not being
successful on third downs and you’re not achieving the
explosive plays within those drives, it’s just hard to get in a
rhythm.
We had the one drive in the first quarter with the
three-and-out. And then you get out there, what, it’s a sight
mistake within those set of plays. Missed opportunity. And
you sit there and find yourself, you’ve had limited
possessions and limited plays as you get through the entire
half.
So obviously we’ve got to make sure we put our guys in a
great position. And obviously we’ve got to be able to have
success on third downs.
Q. DJ missed some throws, but there were some other
breakdowns also, some dropped passes, some
pass-protection breakdowns things like that. But
when the crowd, the students are making chants that
are not supportive of him, how did he handle all that?
When you talked to him between possessions, is the
pressure part of what’s going on?
MIKE NORVELL: That’s part of the game. At the end of
the day, everybody is going to have an opinion on what it
is. And obviously it’s playing quarterback, being the head
coach, being part of a great university, great program with
high expectations.
It’s our job to go and play to a high level. And there’s times
that you might hear things that you don’t want to hear,
might have to go through hard and challenging situations,
and those are all — it’s all part of it.
But I think DJ, he’s mature. He’s obviously been through a
lot. I think that he was very encouraging there on the
sideline with his teammates. Very encouraging there in the
huddle as we were going trying to go push to make the
next play. That’s what you have to live with.
And when you play this game, it can be against you. But if
you be able to go out, execute, control that next play, you’ll
be able to work yourself through it.
But I thought he was fine on the sideline. He was able to
respond there a little bit in that third quarter and have a
couple of explosive plays. Him and Kentron, they were
able to hit some explosive plays. Not enough for us
tonight. We’ll continue to go work, get better as an entire
team.
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