Coming off a 35-point victory last week, Mike Norvell and Florida State (4-5, 1-5) build on its performance against a Clemson team (4-5, 3-4) reeling from back-to-back home losses. Instead, the Seminoles
started sloppily and never found their footing in a double-digit defeat, 24-10. After FSU’s third-straight loss on the road this season, head coach Mike Norvell met with the local media in Clemson to dissect what continues to go wrong for his football team.
“Both teams came out and played hard; it was a fast and physical game,” Norvell told the local media at Clemson after the game on Saturday. “Unfortunately, we had too many missed opportunities. Looking back throughout it, that first drive, defensively, we missed a lot of tackles. We were a little sloppy in some of our fits…I thought our defense settled in as the game got going.”
“Offensively, really struggled to get things started, sustained. We just weren’t good enough. We had five-plus drops, which is very uncharacteristic of what this team has done…We were not good on our conversion downs. Things that we had been really good at over the course of the year did not show up tonight.”
Later on in his press conference, Norvell detailed why the offense never found its footing against the Tigers.
“We could not get ourselves into a rhythm because of a lack of getting some of those plays that were left out there. We got to have them. We were playing a defense that was very aggressive in what they were doing. But, when someone is going to heat you up and bring that type of pressure, it creates space, and we had space.”
“There were too many things that we left out there.”
Most concerning for Norvell, he believed that FSU would put its best on the field on Saturday and stated that nothing gave him “pause” coming into the game or during practice.
“I was excited for what I expected to see tonight. There was nothing that came out of the practice that gave me pause of what would show up. I felt that the guys were going to go out there and showcase us, and like I said, there was opportunities, but we weren’t good enough tonight.”
After Norvell’s press conference, quarterback Tommy Castellanos spoke with the local press in Clemson and took accountability for the defeat.
“Our job is to keep fighting, keep finishing, and to play better. I apologize to the community, the fans, and my teammates. We got to play better for the defense. I feel like the defense played outstanding tonight. We had a lot of times where they got off the field and we had to capitalize and play complementary football, and we didn’t do that.”
The full press conferences of head coach Mike Norvell and quarterback Tommy Castellanos can be found below.
