Florida State, after forgoing a spring game in 2025, will follow suit in 2026, head coach Mike Norvell confirmed on Friday.
“When you look at spring games, I mean, I’d say probably across the country, that’s probably a more common common theme than — of not having a spring game — than what it was ever before. But there’s a lot of different dynamics with that.
“We get 15 practices. I want to be able to maximize every one of those practices building to what’s going to show up game one here for this fall.
I think that with a lot of the — just the scope of what spring games were or showcases were — you would have a practice where you wouldn’t show much, you wouldn’t do much. You get to certain points where you’re probably holding back on one of those days because you don’t want to show too much for your first opponent or who you’re going to play. There were some elements that were almost unnecessary.
“I understand fans want to be here. It is an experience. But when you look at the process of this team growing, of being all that we can be — we’re going to capitalize on getting three full scrimmages where there’s going to be what we want to do and what we want to be. We’re going to see what that looks like. You are limited with the amount of things that you can do — the number of padded practices, the number of scrimmage days. Being able to capitalize on all those with no self-imposed restrictions are things that I think will be good.
“I’m excited for this team that’s ahead. We do everything in our power to make sure that when we get here this fall, this team is trained and ready to go be everything I know that they can be. We’re going to utilize every one of those days this spring to make that happen.”
The Seminoles, even prior to 2025, have never held a traditional spring game under Norvell, instead opting for a “showcase” from 2021-2024 where the team would hold a semi-regular practice before a competitive scrimmage period to end the event. FSU opted to skip holding one last season due to renovations to Doak Campbell Stadium.
