From the jump, Florida State head coach Mike Norvell has used one consistent word to describe his desire for his team’s mindset — desperation.
In the first few weeks of the season, that desperation was evident and paid off in a major way for the Seminoles. Desperate to ignite his teammates, Tommy Castellanos called his shot and pulled it off. Desperate to erase memories of 2024’s offensive struggles, Florida State racked up 143 points in blowouts of East Texas A&M and Kent State, setting multiple
school records along the way.
In conference play, though, that desperation has come back to bite the Seminoles. It played a part in last week’s loss to Virginia but reared its head fully against Miami. The Seminoles started pressing after taking a 3-0 lead — from players to coaching staff — digging themselves into a hole that took a miracle fourth quarter to make things respectable.
Gus Malzahn, desperate to try to neutralize the Hurricanes’ athleticism, let it rip on trick plays early but saw each one snuffed out by a Miami defense too quick and too sound to fall for it. The decision to go for it on fourth-and-8 early in the second quarter was born of that desperation, and the failure to convert was arguably the catalyst for the loss. Miami compounded an interception with a major return and followed it up with an explosive touchdown.
The desperation also showed up on defense, with Tony White’s urgency to fix his unit’s rush-defense woes being successful — at the further cost of the secondary, which time and time again gave up back-breakers.
It was also the reason that FSU, down 25 at home with fans streaming out of the stadium, refused to say die until the very last second against the Hurricanes — even if it was too little, too late. FSU’s 96-yard scoring drive featured three fourth-down conversions — impressive even if you want to argue it was essentially garbage time, and equally as frustrating when you consider what the game could have been if FSU’s first and fourth quarters were flipped. FSU proved that it was capable of moving the ball in a methodical manner when playing to its strengths, but gambling on misdirection and mystique early in the game nullified the potential of it playing a factor early on. One would think, after getting Miami uncomfortable and antsy with consistent yardage, the Hurricanes would be more susceptible to trickery late in the matchup when fatigued rather than, say, the second drive of the game. Instead, the bag got emptied early and often with no return on investment.
For better or worse, desperation is the way Florida State has chosen to live this season, evidenced by its choice in quarterback and play-caller. White’s 3-3-5 scheme, Castellanos’ performance and Malzahn’s play-calling are all boom-or-bust, high-variance factors. Sometimes you get a school rushing record; sometimes you get two unsuccessful flea-flickers in one game. Sometimes you go three quarters without a touchdown; sometimes you get a flurry of them in the fourth to make the question of “what if?” linger for the second straight week. Sometimes you shut down what’s arguably the nation’s best running game; sometimes you get shredded through the air.
It’s an approach that’s led FSU to where most expected it to be before the season began — 3-2 with two losses to ranked opponents. With FSU back to baseline as far as expectations, it’s time for the Seminoles to fully lean in on that desperation. While FSU has now fallen short in two major opportunities to separate as a true contender for any sort of championship, there’s still plenty ahead for a team that arguably will be favored in each matchup for the remainder of the season (Clemson and Florida pending).
The pieces are there for the Seminoles to reel off a run now that the toughest part of the schedule is behind them, but as of right now, the consistency in execution is not. After experiencing the consequences of letting that desperation run wild, FSU’s challenge is to now focus it into a desire to once again reset the narrative around the program.
Desperation led to FSU assembling this team and staff, desperation led to FSU’s win over Alabama, and then desperation backfired in FSU’s losses to Virginia. Florida State’s challenge now is to harness that double-edged desperation — reining it in when it wants to poke its head out at inopportune moments and wielding it with the respect that playing with fire calls for.
