It’s not even a joke how bad Florida State’s football team has been doing this season. From the success of the 2023 season came the fastest backpedal in sports history, which really put the Seminoles on a trajectory toward what’s now three losing seasons. So, what actually happened? How does the former ACC champ go 2-10 the very next season?
The consensus among FSU fans is that we’re cursed. Perhaps 2024’s Dog Poop Curse isn’t quite finished with us yet, or maybe a rich Etsy witch is walking around somewhere. At the end of the day, this FSU football team just can’t seem to get it together, and I’m not sure it’ll get better this season.
The Pros
While quarterback Ashton Daniels has seemed shy and cautious in past games, I think his recent shift to throwing the ball could be the silver lining on this cloudy day. Especially since it feels like every team we play can, nine times out of ten, guess what the next offensive play is. Spoiler alert: it’s running back Ousmane Kromah running the ball down the center again. Additionally, when Daniels can get out of the pocket fast enough, he can make some explosive plays, as we saw in the game against Alabama.
The team’s wide receivers are also phenomenal, and frankly over-qualified for a team as bad as this one. Some of the best moments are wide receivers Duce Robinson and Micahi Danzy catching straight laser beams down the field. So, if the team clearly isn’t lacking in talent, what’s actually going on?
The Cons
It’s always been playcalling. Last year the team fired its offensive coordinator, which I thought was warranted, and head coach Mike Norvell took over calling offensive plays. Norvell’s skills as the offensive play caller are under fire a lot right now, but I do think that it’s getting better. His plays are solid most of the time, and I think most of the failures that we, the audience, see result from a collapse of the O-line and quarterback hesitation.
That being said, our offense has put up a respectable number of points in the more recent games.
The defense, however, is delivering about the same coverage as a baby blanket. At the start of the game, you can tell that they have a plan, and I can always depend on seeing some good tackles, but as the game wears on, it just becomes increasingly obvious that there is some miscommunication and confusion between the play calls and the players.
Will it get better?
I honestly have no idea. The main denominator here is consistency, which the team lacks. By no means should a team that puts up 36 points on a ranked team while away only be able to score the same amount in a home game against a lesser-ranked team on parents’ weekend.
The team isn’t performing at a consistent level every week, which makes it so disappointing when our losses feel well-earned, and our wins don’t.
While I don’t particularly like Norvell’s stats right now, the blame doesn’t solely rest on him. Our team goes out and puts their hearts on the field for about the first half, then things go downhill. It might just be an attitude problem; the team’s been beaten down, the defense can’t keep it together to support the offense, and then they have nothing to prove anymore.
Unfortunately, the Seminoles do seem to play better when they’re being booed. Maybe the solution is to develop the quarterbacks that we have now instead of relying on the portal, give Norvell and Tony White the boot, or start over completely. We might need a Chad Powers moment, where Jordan Travis comes back in a prosthetic face and leads us to the natty.
In my opinion, it’s out of our hands. The best thing the fans can do at this point is keep showing up in cute gameday outfits and show their Seminole pride! FSU is more than our football team, and I think it’s about time we start acting like it.
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