Florida State University
Football Media Conference
Saturday, November 1, 2025
Tallahassee, Florida, USA
Coach Mike Norvell
Press Conference
Florida State 42, Wake Forest 7
MIKE NORVELL: Just to start off, so very proud of our
players. Grateful just for their work, for their performance
tonight. Grateful for our fans, wonderful homecoming
crowd. We felt a lot of energy tonight. Seminole Heritage
celebration, just a wonderful partnership we have with the
Seminole tribe of Florida.
You just look up in the stands, and just seeing an excited
fun celebratory Florida State crowd, I know it’s been a
rough month leading up to this game, and obviously have
had to face some disappointments, but like I said, our
players, they’ve been putting in the work. They’ve really
poured into each other, poured into the staff. Our staff is
continuing to pour into them.
Just to see that show up tonight and to have a dominant
performance, one that all three phases had an opportunity
to make great impact, I just loved the joy that they had.
I know we’ve talked throughout this year and used the term
complementary football. That’s what it looks like. When
you have each other’s backs, regardless of what happened
on the previous play, seeing guys that just continue to
focus on doing their job, in the moment, the one play, and
they answered the call.
All in all, it was just a great night. Like I said, I’m proud of
the guys and what they were able to do, and hopefully we’ll
just continue to push so that this next week we can go take
another step and continue to elevate our game in the way
that we play.
Q. You talked about players pouring into coaches,
coaches pouring into playoffs, we just talked to
Tommy, Earl, Ja’Bril, Duce, and they all talked about
how much you did for them not just this month but
throughout this season. When you have that team and
that relationship with these guys and you’re able to do
what you did today after the last month, what does it
mean for you personally?
MIKE NORVELL: I mean, pouring into people, it’s because
you love them, you believe in them, and that doesn’t — just
because you love somebody and you work for them and
you just try to make all the investment, it doesn’t mean
you’re always going to get exactly what you want, but are
you willing to be consistent with it, or is it just whenever
you have the positive results you’re going to be positive or
negative results you’re going to be negative.
I am grateful for the opportunity to coach these players. I
know what we ask them to do. I know what we ask them to
do on the field; I know what we ask them to do off the field,
in the classroom, the challenge that they must embrace
being a part of this program.
When you come up short in games, when your record is
not what you want it to be, the identity is going to be put on
display. I don’t just say it because it sounds good; they’re
my heart. They’re family to me, and they said yes to being
a part of this program, and we said yes to them.
I think it’s a team that is very capable, and just to see them
continue to try to grow and to be better and to go and
showcase what they’re able to do, even with a lot of
challenges and probably a lot of things on the outside that
make it difficult in today’s age of college athletics. I think
you see that across all of college football.
That doesn’t change how I feel about them, and it definitely
is never going to change what I’m going to pour into them
to help them go and allow their identity to be put on display
like it was tonight.
Q. You touched on it, and Tommy said that they hear
things that are out there and they see things. It’s
probably never been tougher in college football than it
is right now. How do you think they’ve been able to
block some of that out, and did you see signs of that
over the last couple weeks that okay, they’re still right
there?
MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, I know I say it, but you see it in
the work. You see it in the meeting rooms. When you
come up short, it’s going to be sad. It’s going to hurt.
You’re going to have those emotions. But it’s still about
guiding individuals yourself through those emotions. To be
able to make it a positive, to make it something that you
can respond to and show that that’s not going to detail you
from ultimately where you want to go.
For this team, I saw it in the work. I saw it in how they
competed with each other. I saw it — I’ll mention that we
did a lot of good-on-good work, just the competitive spirit,
the drive, guys that were pushing to try to take their game
even to another level.
Even in the swings of practice where it was maybe good
for the offense or good for the defense, the energy, the
investment into that next play was what gave me a lot of
confidence in what would show up here this week.
But you’ve still got to go do it. There’s plenty of detractors
that can keep you from it and there’s all the distractions in
the world if you’re willing to listen to them.
Obviously as a player, coach, anybody in today’s age, you
can’t bury your head in the sand. It’s going to be brought
to you or you’re going to have people that are going to all
have an opinion of things.
But what you do with it and what you do with your moment
and how much you’re willing to pour into those that you get
to do it with, that’s what makes it special.
Like I said, I saw it in the work, and I saw it in how they
approach the meeting room. I saw it in the gratitude they
had when they moved into that facility. We’ve got a great
team, and like I said, even after a disappointing outcome, I
love coaching this team. They put on display what I
expected them to do.
Q. You mentioned during the bye week that guys did
some self-scouting. What did you learn about the
group in that? What did you apply, and what did it
produce tonight for you?
MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, when you go back and you look at
a course of a season where you’re — essentially you’re
seven games into it as you’re going through and you see
how there’s not just one area or one focus or one thing that
was keeping us — there were different things that showed
up at inopportune times. Some things we could control,
some things we couldn’t control.
You try to get a sense of guys that you’re seeing that
progression throughout the season. Sam Singleton is one
that comes to mind. Even the way that he’s gone through
practice, just the confidence that’s growing in him for what
he’s being asked to do, how he’s being asked to do it. He
got to start tonight, and he made the most of it.
We’ve got a very talented group of backs, and I think you
saw guys that all made plays at different times, and they’re
going to continue to make plays.
But it’s still about trying to put guys in the best position.
There’s always plays that you’d like to have back. There’s
things that you make adjustments to throughout the course
of the season, so when you get to do those self-scout
opportunities — we try to do that week to week, but really
just taking a deep breath during the bye and seeing it,
man, we are close.
Even though the results did not play out the way that we
wanted them to, there was a lot of belief that man, if we
would kind of take a deep breath and control what we can
control, I thought that we would have a great outcome in
the game, and obviously they did that.
Q. When you end a losing streak like this — a win is a
win, one point or 35 points. But what do you think it
does say about this team that it was one of your most
dominant wins since you’ve been here when you look
at the overall stats? What does that say about the
potential of this team and the way they responded to
the bye week and the loss at Stanford?
MIKE NORVELL: Yeah, I think it speaks to their character,
their identity, how much they believe in each other and how
they were willing to work. That’s a Wake Forest team that
— I know I mentioned it at Monday’s press conference; that
is a team that’s played really well. They really played to
win against Georgia Tech; obviously they beat SMU, which
I think SMU had a good win today, too, so that was a team
that was very capable. But we went out there and we
played Florida State football.
It was our players. I thought our coaching staff did an
outstanding job of putting them in a great position to play
fast, to be able to adapt and adjust throughout it, but yeah,
I do think it makes a great statement for just the character
and the belief that those guys have in what they can do
and who they’re doing it with.
Q. When you say it’s a joy to be able to watch those
guys have fun just given what the last month was,
what this could have been, for it to be fun, what did
that mean to you to see them enjoy themselves?
MIKE NORVELL: Because it tells me that it really comes
down to they truly care about who they’re playing with, who
they’re getting to play for, the coaches. We were flying
around with all that we had this week just trying to show
appreciation.
Right before the pregame meal, that’s all I really said to
them is just I’m grateful for you. I’m grateful for the work
that you put in. I’m believing in what that performance is
going to equal. But regardless, I appreciate you and I
appreciate who you are.
I think that when there is that relationship between player
and player, between offense and defense, coach to player,
coach to coach, that’s what makes this game and this
journey so worth it. It was fun watching them compete,
and then obviously just seeing them go out there and play
the way they did, just proud of them.
Q. You spoke briefly about Sam Singleton, but just
following up on how he has not only performed but
having to wait his turn and having to be in that mixture
of these running backs, what does that really tell you
about him waiting his turn and about his character?
MIKE NORVELL: Well, obviously every player wants it all
yesterday. Everybody wants the immediate, the fast, the
feel-good, all those things. But Sam, what I’ve really
appreciated about his journey is man, he understands
exactly where he is. He understands the things that he
needed to continue to grow and be better at, and every
single day — he’s been here for a few years, and I cannot
think of a day where he hasn’t showed up and just poured
it in. These last few weeks, and you can go back and you
can look at spring, there’s a flash; he would have his
moments. Fall camp, there would be a flash.
But now it’s really starting to take hold. There was no
hesitation tonight. He was confident. He trusted his eyes.
He trusted his feet. I thought Coach Malzahn and
obviously the offensive staff put together a great plan of
being able to create some space against a good Wake
Forest defense, and the players took over from there, and
Sam was a guy that definitely took advantage of it.
He knows there’s still a lot of areas that he’s got to grow
and get better, but it’s also a lesson to a lot of guys that are
on our football team. It’s just you stay the course and
continue to control you and those areas of where you can
get better, and great things can happen. It was a great
game for him, but I think it’s just the beginning for what’s
ahead.
Q. Duce had five catches, but I think three of them set
up touchdowns and then he had the one touchdown
himself. You’ve got some great receivers, but that
performance and just what he’s meant to this team,
can you measure it?
MIKE NORVELL: Just another guy that’s really coming
into all that he can be. He’s a dominant player. Gus and I
were talking before the game, man, we’ve got to give him
opportunities. Wake Forest, they’ve got a couple really
good DBs, and I think No. 3 is a guy that — he’ll play at the
next level, and he’s a real one. But still, give our
playmakers opportunities to go do that.
Duce answered the call. Another guy that shows up, good
day, bad day, whatever it is, you’re going to get all of him.
He pours into this team, and you can — just like we were
talking about with Sam, you see the confidence of being
able to be a go-to guy regardless of the situation that we
find ourselves in.
He showed up and is just continuing to get better.
Q. You talked about the three phases of the game and
the intensity they played with. Then you have what
many consider the fourth phase of the game which is
the sideline. In spite of everything that’s happened
over this last month or so, there was an incredible
amount of energy radiating from that sideline that
manifested itself on the field and in the stands. What
do you attribute that to despite the adversity?
MIKE NORVELL: I’m going to tell you, I appreciate that
question. That’s the question of the night right there. That
was the thing that I was probably going through it all, and
the players talked about it. Even when we were breaking
the rock, we had a couple players that — Edwin Joseph
gave a shout-out to the sideline because they felt that.
It’s one of the things that we’ve had games a couple times
this season where it was a bad play, something didn’t go
the way we wanted it to, and there would be almost a
momentary silence. It’s just what we’ve got. You’re on that
sideline, you’re together, you work together, you buy into
the talents and abilities of each other, and it was an
absolute point of focus that regardless — there were some
guys that didn’t even play a snap tonight but that made a
huge impact.
I talked to them on Friday after our practice, and everybody
had a job to do. Sometimes you want your job to be a
different title, sometimes you want your job to be a different
role where you get more and you get to play and you get to
do this, but tonight, everybody had a job and a task that
they were responsible for. I think every member of our
program answered the call and did their job tonight, and
that energy was incredible.
I thought the players on the field, really they were fueled by
it, and that’s why you saw some great complementary
football that showed up. It has to be real because that’s
where you’ve got to dig deep and bring to the joy of once
again who you get to do it with and what you get to
represent, and I thought our fans were great with that, too,
and you really felt the energy of the homecoming crowd
and obviously all that that meant tonight.
Q. Only four penalties tonight coming off 13 against
Stanford. What can you say about the penalty
discipline tonight and how important that’s going to be
going forward?
MIKE NORVELL: That’s critical, and we know coming off a
couple games where we did not live up to the standard of
what we expect, and there’s still a couple tonight that,
hmm, it was what it was. But I thought the guys, you felt
their — they had great intent in the discipline that was
necessary.
At the end of the day, I thought it played a huge part of
tonight’s game, and it’s absolutely going to be a top priority
for us to make sure that we’re owning the football, which
we came out, I think we were plus one in the turnover
margin. We were able to be the most disciplined team and
the fewest penalties tonight. Those are going to be great
avenues for success if we can continue that.
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