FSU Football: #5 FSU 39, Virginia Tech 17 Postgame Press Conference

Florida State University
Football Media Conference
Saturday, October 7, 2023
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Coach Mike Norvell
Press Conference

Florida State 39, Virginia Tech 17
MIKE NORVELL: Start off, first off, proud of our players.
They came out 22-nothing, lead in the first quarter.
Second quarter, you had some adversity that you struck in
a couple different ways.
You know, had some drives extended due to penalties, had
a few drives stall out there offensively. We talk all the time
about our response. Coming out in the second half we
wanted to — talked about finishing strong and obviously the
opening kickoff of the second half did not go the way we
wanted, but you saw the tremendous response from our
football team.
Two plays later, big run by Trey. Obviously just the guys,
the determination, the belief, defense doesn’t give up a
point in the second half. I was really proud of them for that.
It’s a team coming in off their best game. You could seat
identity of what they’re trying to do. Present some
challenge with their quarterback. You know, I thought our
guys did a really good job there in the second half.
We were better in our third down, fourth down situations.
Still really good in the red zone situations, you know,
forcing the field goal there early.
You know, offensively I think we scored every time we had
the ball down there, something we need to continue.
There were some negative plays, things we’ll have to get
better at, but I was really proud of our guys for their
response and being able to finish.
And what an incredible crowd, a sellout crowd. It was
awesome being back at home. Hopeful we can continue
that again for next week with another sellout. I know there
is very limited tickets, so hopefully we can put together a
streak when it comes to that.
But really excited about our just our fan base, being at
home, letting our guys go out there and play at a high level.
You know, just like I said, proud of our players. Trey had

a big day. You know, it was good to get him rolling.
Obviously we didn’t have a ton of offensive snaps. I think
61 snaps. That’s going to happen when you have the
explosive runs.
But I did think we played with better tempo throughout, and
definitely excited about the continued steps that I’m seeing
from this team.
Q. Obviously Trey gave you a great day, but in
general, the running attack, Jordan also getting
involved in it, just how pleased were you coming out of
the bye?
MIKE NORVELL: It was good. We talked about wanting to
be able to establish the ground game. We take what
teams give us, and there were some opportunities that
were created. I thought our backs ran really hard. I
thought the O-line created some good seams for them to
run through.
I tell you, there were some unbelievable blacks. Keon
Coleman had a couple great touchdown springing blocks
on that. It’s one thing to see a great player, which he is,
and just talk about what he does, catching the ball, but that
block that he had on the long touchdown was just
awesome.
So proud of him for that. But being able to play without the
ball, and I think we had a lot of guys that were really doing
a good job there. It takes all 11. Jordan, you know, got an
opportunity to pull the ball. He had some space there. I
thought he did a great job managing the game and the
things we asked him to do.
Didn’t turn the ball over offensively. That’s something that
we really harp on and know the importance of that. Our
guys have been doing a nice job with it and something
we’re going to have to continue.
Q. Trey, it’s taken him a while to get going. How did
he handle that the last few weeks? The way the run
game wasn’t performing, did he get frustrated?
MIKE NORVELL: No, Trey is incredible. I mean, in all

things. Even in the Clemson game we didn’t have the
success in the run game, but he impacted that game and
he did it as a pass receiver.
He had three big plays in the game catching the ball out of
the backfield. He’s going to do whatever is necessary to
help this team win. We’ve got a lot of guys that are like
that.
So he maintains focus on improvement. I loved it. He
trusted his speed. He saw a couple seams and he hit it.
When he gets in the open field it’s a lot of speed and power
running down the field. Proud of him for that. Great player
and just a great teammate and young man.
Q. Coach, what is it about Trey that makes him so
special?
MIKE NORVELL: He’s got the combination of all the things
you want. He’s big, he’s powerful. Obviously he’ll run
tough in between the tackles, but also has homerun hitting
speed out when he gets out there on the edge.
I think he’s improved his game as a pass receiver, which
we’ve seen already this season, in his willingness to the
dirty work as a blocker, too.
Talk about a total back, I mean, there are a lot of guys
situational. He can really do it all. He embraces that in his
work ethic and the things he does. And he’s unselfish,
which when you have a humble and unselfish player, he’s
there when another back is in there, whether it’s Rodney,
LT, whoever it is, he’s the one that’s there cheering them
on louder than anybody.
He’s just what we want our program to be built like and he’s
a great leader for that.
Q. Two questions about Johnny. First off, him getting
in the end zone twice, two big catches to get the ball
rolling. How is he after that? Do we know at all?
MIKE NORVELL: No. We’ll see. Obviously wasn’t able to
come back. We’ll see what that looks like as we move
forward to this week. Man, what a great start to the game.
Johnny has been really good for us this year.
Coming into the game I think he was over 300 yards
receiving. Being able to see him do that was big, but made
a couple really good plays.
It was good to see Destyn catch a big ball there that we
needed. We had a couple missed opportunities, things we
have to continue to get better at, but I thought Jordan really
did a nice job of operating, and even some of the times

when might have got a little bit of pressure, he stayed
patient and didn’t try to force things.
You know, I think that was a great response from him,
which helped push our offense.
Q. Coach, talk a little bit about the offensive line
rotation.
MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, well, a little bit shorthanded.
Bless Harris was not able to play today, but you saw
Darius Washington getting the start at tackle. We knew
rob Scott would be in practice this week. Probably wasn’t
ready for whatever it would be, 60, 80 plays, but we know
we wanted to get him in. It was good to see him get in
there and get some productive work.
Obviously Meech and K.J. being able to get work there at
the guard spot, I like the growth with our offensive line.
Going to be great when we get all eight of them going, but
good seeing some young guys get in there and some good
plays there late.
Got a really good group and guys that are growing, being
developing, working hard in practice, but it’s good to see
the depth that has been developed and created, and I think
we’re seeing that across the board.
Good to see them get back out. Be able to work a little bit
of rotation there at safety. Conrad Hussey made some
really big plays, true freshman. Blake Nichelson got in
there as a true freshman. I was really proud of those guys
coming off the guy week, being able to make a positive
impact for us.
You know, thought it was a good game for that.
Q. You mentioned a couple players that were out. You
got Ja’Khi Douglas and Kentron back. What kind of
impact do they make being back today?
MIKE NORVELL: I mean, just continue to add to the
playmaking ability of what we have. Obviously those guys,
it’s been a challenging first month of the season for them.
Getting them back in it and just building that confidence of
all the things they can do, I think it’s going to continue to
grow with time.
I love the depth that we have there at that position. I think
we have some great playmakers, guys that just like today
when Johhny went down, obviously you saw Kentron,
Hykeem Williams, really those guys stepping up. I don’t
know if it showed up in pass receptions, but it’s going to.
Those guys are going to be great players and continue to
work and develop.

Q. You talked about the adversity of the second
quarter. Seemed like there was some frustration from
defensive players, particularly saw some from you.
How do you think they handled…
MIKE NORVELL: My frustration?
Q. How do you think…
MIKE NORVELL: Because I was frustrated.
Q. How do you think they handled the adversity of
how things played out and how big was halftime for
recentering?
MIKE NORVELL: I’ve got to do a better job in some of
those situations. I was frustrated and there is some —
obviously we’ll go back and watch film and learn and teach.
Some of the things that showed up, I mean, I want an
explanation, and so I voiced an opinion. I got to do a better
job of making sure even in voicing that opinion that as a
leader of this football team, I have to make sure our guys
are staying focused on things they can control.
There are times that I’m going to voice my opinion. I’m
going to state exactly what I believe and what I saw. You
know, we’ll see what it says come Monday on some of
those thoughts. You know, it’s all part of it.
Our guys, they always talk about having each other’s back.
We got to have our players’ back and they have to have
mine sometimes. We can all continue to grow and be
better. I love coaching this team. I love their response. I
know you all hear me say that a million times that’s what it
was today. That’s what I was proud of.
We talk about wanting to start fast. We’ve not been as
good as we needed to be. That first quarter was a great
fast start. Now, second quarter wasn’t as good as it
needed to be. Provides opportunity for continued growth,
but to see the defense pitch a shutout and have some big
plays there offensively in the second half, that was a heck
of a way to finish.
A lot of good things to be able to build upon. This is
coming off a team that just played their best game in
Virginia Tech. They’ve got some good players. They got
guys on the defensive front. It was good. It was a good
test for us, and proud of our guys.
Q. In that second quarter, you guys could not have
been more dominant in the first quarter, did you sense
any of what you saw at BC in the second quarter, or…

MIKE NORVELL: There were some penalties that
extended drives with the interception that was overturned
that would’ve been a huge play in the game.
We had couple other things that showed up. We had —
one of our drives offensively we had a penalty that negated
what would’ve been a conversion. Obviously all things that
we can be better at, we can continue. But I didn’t feel like
— our guys were playing with an edge.
It wasn’t some of the things we saw earlier early in the
season, you know, there wasn’t a comfort level. They were
playing hard. They were playing fast. We had the pick
there, 22-nothing. It’s about to go a whole other way.
But he landed on him, so something we have to continue to
teach the best way we can teach and go from there.
Q. This wasn’t the question I was going to ask, but
was the explanation that he landed on him? Was that
the penalty?
MIKE NORVELL: (Smiling.)
Q. Okay. Here is the question I was going to ask.
Getting that kind of production out of Jared, obviously
been very good all year. Two monster plays.
MIKE NORVELL: Absolutely.
Q. What’s it like it see him do that and impact the
game like that?
MIKE NORVELL: Jared has been probably in the last two
games coming into this one probably been as good as he’s
been since he’s been here. It’s one thing you get caught
up on — you know, stats sometimes will lie to you and
sometimes they’re good and sometimes they’re not as
good.
But I thought he played these last two games as good as
he’s played. Today, you know, just continuing to build
upon that and the production showed up, two sacks.
Obviously huge plays in the game.
Great energy for our defense. Big plays, big situations, so
very proud of him for staying the course. There are things
from today’s game he’ll still grow and learn and get better
from a because that’s the mindset he brings.
I think we’ve seen that from a lot of guys. Our defensive
front is doing a lot of great things, and you see the depth.
Josh Farmer is playing at a high level. Fabien, you see
him getting back into form. Dennis Briggs is out there

making good plays.
Braden Fiske, Malcolm Ray, Gilber Edmond flashed a
couple times today. You know, really kind of challenging
him to take that next step. I thought he did.
Obviously Byron and then Pat has been coming off this
Boston College game, I think he responded. Clemson
played great, and I saw him do some really good things
here today. Just shoutout to our defensive line for the work
they’re putting in, obviously the production they’re having.
Q. I know that the time you spend on special teams, I
guess what was the issue or what VT did or didn’t do
on the kickoff return?
MIKE NORVELL: Obviously some mistakes on our end.
We had bad leverage, didn’t set the edge where we wanted
to. They’re on it and ran a field return. It’s something that
we practice for and actually expected, but couple guys took
wrong leverage angles and got pinned and just created too
much space.
So we spend a lot of time, take a lot of pride in our
coverage units. For that to happen, we will get it fixed. But
that obviously was a huge play, and I’m grateful for all the
— all players in helping bounce back and have that kickoff
team’s back and being able to finish that game.
Q. You are mentioned earlier that the young guys
getting in there. I think Coach Fuller said during the
week they wanted to force Blake and Conrad in the
game. Is that kind of within the mindset of like what
maybe they can do for you towards the end of the
season?
MIKE NORVELL: More what they can do for us now. We
think — we’re not going to put somebody on the field if we
don’t think they can help us win football games today. This
is not a feel-good, oh — no, you got to go earn it. We got
really good players that are growing and developing that
have yet to get on the field but are going to have incredible
careers here.
Those guys have shown, whether in practice, whether
continued growth, opportunities they’re getting out there on
the field that they are deserving, and as they continue to
produce and grow they’ll get more.
But I’m excited about this class that we just brought in.
Really excited about that group. Got a lot of great players.
Like I said, some of them that are not even playing very
much right now or at all, but have incredible futures. That’s
all part of that growth.