Two days after Florida State lost to SMU, I wrote a column headlined “Mike Norvell’s coordinator hires might be the final nail in his coffin.”
My take aged like fine wine.
On offense, former head coach Mike Norvell doesn’t deserve as much blame because no one foresaw Gus Malzahn’s rapid retirement after just one year. On the defensive side, however, it is becoming harder to deny how detrimental the hire of defensive coordinator Tony White was to the FSU program.
Less than two weeks after Norvell and
White were shown the door, Florida State’s defense looks like a brand-new unit under interim defensive coordinator Ernie Sims, an FSU legend. Sims ditched the much-maligned 3-3-5 and shifted the Seminoles to a more traditional 4-2-5 with four down linemen. While the run defense was a work in progress against Boston College, Sims’ first game calling the plays, the switch paid dividends in FSU’s 16-10 road victory over Pitt on Friday night.
Even though the Panthers desperately wanted to run the ball with a true freshman at quarterback and Florida State down two run-stoppers up front in Kevin Wynn and Deante McCray, the Seminoles stifled Pitt on the ground. Florida State allowed only four yards per carry, a number slightly inflated because Pitt QB Corey Dailey ran twice during the Panthers’ two-minute drill needing a touchdown from its own two-yard line. The lack of chunk plays on the ground forced Pitt into third-and-longs and into a dropback passing game, with Dailey attempting 34 passes and the Panthers going 5-for-15 on third down and 1-for-4 on fourth down. However, the most impressive run stop of the night came in the third quarter, when Jordan Sanders blew up a fourth-and-one rush to force a turnover on downs on Pitt’s side of the field. For an FSU team currently ranked 100th in rushing defense, and 48th the year before, Friday night’s run defense shows how much of a difference one coordinator can make.
“We’re thin everywhere, really,” interim head coach Rick Stockstill told local Pittsburgh media after the game. “We were out two defensive linemen again this week, and we don’t flinch. Somebody keeps stepping up, making plays…I thought our linebackers played well. I thought our secondary, our corners really in support, they made some nice plays on the perimeter.”
Adding to Stockstill’s point, Florida State’s run defense wasn’t the only part of Sims’ unit that impressed. The defense played with the right mentality, never let go of the rope, and swarmed to the ball throughout the game. Each player understood their assignment, and there were rarely busts in coverage or players out of position — a staple under White.
Even though the Noles were down multiple starters, Sims found a way to fit the puzzle pieces together, such as playing LB Caleb LaVallee and DL Darryll Desir the most snaps they have played all season, or limiting the snap counts of LB Mikai Gbayor or DL Mandrell Desir. When the Seminoles gave up their only touchdown of the night, nobody on defense panicked, and two drives later, Rylan Kennedy, FSU’s steadiest defensive lineman this season, picked off Dailey.
Under the former administration, traveling on the road, on a short week, and falling behind at halftime were virtually guaranteed to be a loss. Now, the intensity from Sims and Stockstill gives Florida State the confidence they need to get the job done in any circumstance.
“The most talented team doesn’t necessarily always win. It’s the team that plays the hardest, that competes the longest, that’s tougher both mentally and physically. And I thought you saw that out there tonight.”
Of course, Florida State’s defense wasn’t perfect on Friday, and injuries were so bad that Sims needed to use Luke Francis Jr., a freshman OL who came to Florida State via London and the NFL Academy, for three snaps at defensive tackle. But the step forward is long enough to wonder why it took Norvell so long to pull the trigger on White.
It made sense to start 2026 in the 3-3-5 to give White a year to get his players into the system and to give returning Seminole players another layer of understanding. But early in the season, it became clear it didn’t work, yet he kept running the same formation. The most damning sign was the ESPN broadcast repeatedly saying yesterday that Sims did not believe FSU had the personnel to run the 3-3-5 but White never adjusted. Imagine what the season could have looked like without Tait Reynold’s 78-yard touchdown or Isaac Brown’s 97-yard touchdown, because the Seminole defense had players out of position the entire season.
Luckily, the 3-3-5 is now water under the bridge, and with Sims at the helm, the Seminoles can now rely on their defense. Nothing about last night was pretty: the weather, stats, or points scored. But Florida State’s defense was the best unit on the field and carried the Seminoles to a victory, putting FSU one win away from becoming bowl-eligible for the first time since 2023.
