After flying high for the bulk of September, Florida State has come crashing back to earth following back-to-back conference losses.
Head coach Mike Norvell met with local media on Monday, saying those results are the product of mistake-laden football from a team that is “disappointed, angry” with the knowledge that self-inflicted miscues are holding them back.
“You come back and you watch the film, you see the opportunities and things that we’ve got to clean up,” he said. “At this point we’ve lost
two games. We have six turnovers in those two games, things we’ve shown high capability of production, and we’ve shown a lot of potential of what we can do. But it still comes down to applying that throughout the course of a game….Now it’s about applying those corrections — players, coaches, everybody involved — to put ourselves in position to go and get a victory this week.”
“We’ve got a talented Pitt team that is coming off their best win this last week. It’s one that’s well-coached. They made a change at quarterback here this last — I guess Saturday. A true freshman came in and played lights out. He was extraordinary.”
“Defensively, they’ve always played to a high standard. A lot of respect for Coach Narduzzi and Coach Bates for the job they do. And this is a team that is very capable. They lost to Louisville a few weeks back when they turned the ball over five times, and I think it was still a one-score game.”
Even after the losses, Norvell insists that his team’s confidence isn’t shaken.
“I go in there, you see a team that is disappointed because of the outcome. I mean, and we should be…I’m not happy with anything that happened in the last two weeks. But, you know what, there’s also the joy for who you get to do it with because you watched them work. You see and believe in what they can do.”
“I think we’ve shown that [we can hang with anyone]. Alabama is a good football team. I know when we beat them in week one, they weren’t, obviously, but now all of a sudden they’re a good team again. And we were dominant in that game. And it could have been worse if we would have been a little bit cleaner in that.”
“But you know what, where we are, we also went on the road and lost to Virginia and we just lost at home to a rival. We’ve earned all of it. We’ve shown all of it….And what that means, where that goes, what that can be for this team, let me see it this week. For us as a football program, that’s what I want on display at noon on Saturday.”
The full transcript and press conference can be seen below.
Mike Norvell game week press conference: Pitt
Opening Statement
Appreciate everybody being here. Coming off Saturday night, disappointing outcome. Obviously huge game. Two talented teams that got to go at it. And unfortunately we just made too many mistakes early throughout.
Minus-3 in the turnover margins. Gave up explosive plays. Had some critical penalties that hurt us throughout. And just unfortunate to play like that at times in that game.
And it’s a team that they played clean. They hit explosive plays and were able to take advantage of some of the mistakes that we had, and you’ve got to give credit to them.
So our football team is — I’d say very disappointed, angry. You come back and you watch the film, you see the opportunities and things that we’ve got to clean up. At this point we’ve lost two games. We have six turnovers in those two games, things we’ve shown high capability of production, and we’ve shown a lot of potential of what we can do. But it still comes down to applying that throughout the course of a game.
So when you play talented and good football teams, you have to play to a certain standard. And those objectives that we know that it takes to be successful, we’ve got to win those areas.
I thought our guys showed great heart, toughness, grit, all of it throughout the game to obviously make it very competitive there at the end. Unfortunately, we needed another drive, but you didn’t — you earn the outcome that we wanted.
And obviously you came back last night and got a chance to watch it, and you see the areas where we have to improve. Now it’s about applying those corrections — players, coaches, everybody involved — to put ourselves in position to go and get a victory this week.
We’ve got a talented Pitt team that is coming off their best win this last week. It’s one that’s well-coached. They made a change at quarterback here this last — I guess Saturday. A true freshman came in and played lights out. He was extraordinary.
Defensively, they’ve always played to a high standard. A lot of respect for Coach Narduzzi and Coach Bates for the job they do. And this is a team that is very capable. They lost to Louisville a few weeks back when they turned the ball over five times, and I think it was still a one-score game.
This is a team, we’re going to have to obviously have a great week of preparation and we’ve got to be able to go out there and play at an elite level for us and obviously to be able to put ourselves in a position to go be successful.
Q. On the depth chart, obviously noticed that Q dropped off and the defense, secondary, got shook up a bit. Talk about Quindarrius status?
MIKE NORVELL: Unfortunately Q suffered an injury early in the game that is going to require surgery. He’ll be out for the rest of the season. This is a young man, he pours a lot into this football team. And obviously it’s unfortunate news for him, unfortunate news for us.
But I know he will bounce back from it, but just one of those things that it does shake up our defensive backfield. He’s been playing as kind of our third corner roll in.
Now it’s open-door opportunity for somebody else, and we’ve got to continue to be better there within our secondary. Gave up some explosive plays the other day that leverage, alignments, things that we need to get corrected.
It’s a group that is continuing to challenge and challenge themselves and obviously from all parts of it, we’ve got to see guys that are going to take a positive step within that group and expect them to see it, whether it’s Charles, Cai Bates, Ricky Knight, all the guys that are trying to push to gain more opportunities.
I think you see Shamar is playing a bit of the field safety role, and I think that’s something he was able to get some good work in and made a couple of plays there in the game there on Saturday. And want to see him continue to ascend, because I think he’s headed in the right direction. But, yeah, obviously it’s a group that has to go take a step this week.
Q. I hadn’t seen Tommy’s emotions immediately after the game. It showed up on the broadcast. Do you like that as a coach, him wearing the emotions on his sleeve like that? Is that something that has value in that way?
MIKE NORVELL: People that care. He cares and for whatever the emotion that’s shown, it’s real for him. That’s where, it’s funny, people can get emotional in moments. But when you make a big investment, a big sacrifice, you want things to look and be a certain way. And sometimes we fulfill that. Sometimes we come up short from that.
But what you can do is you can own all things and you can grow from all things. And I think that’s where, I mentioned it after the game, I know Tom in the locker room, he stood in front of the team and he spoke on just his perspective of things and as I spoke yesterday.
I mean in the team meeting, I love guys that want more for themselves, that are willing to put themselves out there.
On the flip side, Tommy did a lot of good things in some challenging situation the other night. We all have areas, like I said, coaches and players, that we get to grow. But when you have somebody that’s willing to take the reins and say watch this, watch what I will do because I know this is maybe not to the best of my ability and I’m going to do everything I can to make that happen.
Like I said, to say all the time I want an emotional team that will pour everything they have. But obviously being able to control those emotions in the right way, in those type of environments.
Q. Coach White mentioned yesterday that had similar alignment issues that led to some of their big plays. Is it hard to evaluate whether or not, how much of it is just their player being better than your player versus how much of it was controllable and you guys —
MIKE NORVELL: You’ve got to put yourself in position to do what you’re being asked to do. I think those are things that piss me off, like when you don’t — that’s an easy, functional task.
And it’s not from lack of a want to. You get caught up in a moment. You get caught up of, hey, I think this might or that might. And you just gotta trust your eyes, trust your alignment assignment and go execute to the best of your ability.
It’s a talented team we played. But I feel very confident in the group that I get to go coach. They won the game. They made the plays that were necessary to win the game.
We contributed in the ways to lose the game. If you do some of those things, then that’s going to show up, but we have to clean up the things that we can control and then put ourselves in the best position to go be able to answer that question better for what guys are asked to do.
Q. You might have already played your three toughest games of the season. I know you don’t look at a schedule like that. But there is a world, you’re still 25th. If you win out, it’s a 12-team playoff. Is that a message to your guys?
MIKE NORVELL: I’m not even — I could care less about however many next weeks we have. I want this week. I know what we’ve played. I know what it looks like. We’ve played three Top 25 teams. We have two losses and we turned the ball over six times in two losses. We have a top-10 win against a formidable opponent that we didn’t turn the ball over and the punt deal.
But we played a lot cleaner football game and we showed that we could perform at a very high level. Yeah, of all the stuff that’s in front of us, go take care of this week.
Q. Do you worry about confidence, though, when it comes to losing back-to-back games?
MIKE NORVELL: No. Ultimately, I don’t worry about confidence because — I’m in there with the guys and I hear and I see and they understand, these are the things that ultimately we control. Now, I mean, there’s times, if you just lining up and man it’s — and everything is your best and you’re just — I’ve been a part of that. I was part of that sometimes at moments last year. Just being real. And that tests your confidence.
But for us and the situation that we’re in, it’s disappointing because there are controllable factors that we need to be better at. It’s our job as coaches. It’s our jobs as players. You see it. You hold it accountable. Your players are holding themselves accountable to what we need to do. But that’s part of this game.
I mean, first thing I started off with in our team meeting was telling them how much I love coaching them because this is a fun group to coach. They’ve got it. It’s the edge of what they bring, the desire, the passion, the emotions, all of that is there.
You can have all of that, but you’ve got to be able to hone in and just to be able to put it all on display, playing 11 guys playing as one. That’s where it’s like it’s exciting for what can be.
We need to see it this week. But I’m not worried about the confidence of this team because it’s easy to go back and watch and say, well, we’re putting ourselves in a really tough situation because of this action or because of this, your decision or because of that alignment, whatever that contributing factor within a play, not just that, hey, this guy, we’re just not good enough; that’s not the case.
But there’s winning football and there’s losing football. And you’ve got to choose what you’re going to be able to apply in the moment. And obviously when you’re playing good teams, as we have played three really quality opponents this year, you better be on the right end of it.
Q. Following up on that with the confidence with the team, if anybody in particular has really kind of done that especially after two weeks of losses that, like you said the other day, they’re close, couple of possessions. What can that do for a team when their heads are up rather than looking down?
MIKE NORVELL: I think you feel, Darrell Jackson was even remarkable throughout the course of the game. He’s a guy that’s been there, done it. Yesterday in practice — I mean, you see who’s willing to run out there.
Earl Little has been great, another guy there in the defensive backfield. Every play, no matter what it is, he’s throwing all that he has into it. When it comes to the work, when it comes to that investment, I think our linebacking corps, we’ve got some really good leaders in that group offensively.
Tommy, Luke, those guys, they are remarkable. Duce Robinson has been outstanding. You watch Randy working, the things he does. The running back group is a really good group of guys. We have some older, veteran guys that kind of help them through the process.
But you don’t see — I go in there, you see a team that is disappointed because of the outcome. I mean, and we should be. Like every single person. I mean, somebody asked you, how you’re doing. You want to punch them in the face because it’s not good.
I’m not happy with anything that happened in the last two weeks. But, you know what, there’s also the joy for who you get to do it with because you watched them work. You see and believe in what they can do. So that’s where, anybody can get up and give a speech — this is what we’re going to do and this is what it’s going to be — but if they don’t go out there and they don’t make the investment, it doesn’t matter.
These guys they’re pouring it in, they’re hungry, excited to get better. We don’t have to press, even in the coach’s staff, take a deep breath. Make sure we continue to emphasize, hold them accountable to things we know have to get done. And then let’s go see the application of that from our players throughout the course of the week.
And they get to go out there and apply it throughout the course of the game. When that happens, which has happened throughout the course of this year already, we can do great things.
Q. Do you have any updates on Micah Pettus as well as Ashlynd Barker going to be close to —
MIKE NORVELL: We’ll see how that goes. I don’t have any concrete updates on what that status is going to look like right now. It will probably be a little further down the week. We’ll see how they progress.
Q. You talked about Tommy. There were some plays in that fourth quarter, one in particular where he spins out of a sack, a free blitzer and makes a great throw on the sideline. He had some remarkable plays in that game. How do you kind of — you want to celebrate that and let him do that, but also know maybe on first down don’t try to throw that pass into the end zone? When you have a player that talented and that skilled, that thinks he can make every play, how do you curb it so he doesn’t feel he has to make great plays on every play?
MIKE NORVELL: There’s a balance. I’ve coached guys like him, and Jordan was very similar. Jordan had — he could do some things that no coach can draw up of just how to keep it alive. And Tommy had some of those plays there Saturday night that, man, he’s a special playmaker.
But in the moment where you need the spark, this is what I always tell guys, you don’t have to go create the play. If you will just go out there and play the game and let each play come to you, I mean the special plays are going to show up.
And Tommy, right after that play happened, I was the first one to get him on the sideline. And I said, man, what did you see, what did you think? And he knows in the moment, but that’s where it’s just the deep breath and, hey, let’s go play the next play.
I thought his response through the game is growth because there were some times later in the game — I said last week, against that team, finding yourself behind where you are having to go in basically two-minute drill for most of the fourth quarter, that plays straight to their strength. And he made it happen.
For whatever it was there in the fourth quarter, 19 points, I mean, he was able to play composed, react, put the ball where it needed to be, long drive, some great explosive plays that showed up. That’s what you want in a quarterback.
It’s finding that balance and it’s something that a lot of quarterbacks playing in college and even guys in the National Football League, they had to find that within their growth.
I think that part of the emotion that Tommy had coming Saturday is he knows there were a few of those plays he probably tried to do a little too much. He didn’t necessarily need to because all we need is for him to go be himself.
That’s how I feel about this team. It’s whether it goes back to alignment question, whether it goes back to — everybody wants to win. We want to be successful. And the moment you start, this is my job, this is my responsibility, but, but, but… let the special plays be your reaction — let those be the reactionary plays. Let’s put ourselves in position to go do what we need to do, and then your play-making ability will take over when it has to.
Q. People have different opinions because of what the score was going into the fourth quarter, how important those last few drives were. But not just the fact that you guys scored 19 points, but Micahi’s catch, Duce’s catch, a lot of fourth-down conversions, there were a lot of great plays. Do you think those are things the guys will grow from?
MIKE NORVELL: Absolutely. I think there’s things early in the game that didn’t look good on our part that guys are going to grow from. Things that you can — it goes back to the confidence question that you get, this team has put on display some really good things within five weeks. We’ve also put on display some things that can cost you games in a couple of weeks.
You get to grow through all of it. You want to learn all lessons through victory. Yes, we did not do what we needed to do to achieve victory. But they’re going to grow from what we’ve gone through.
And that’s where, I mean, they’re tough, they’re gritty, they’ve got an edge. And I think they showed they’re going to fight until the finish in what we’re doing. We’ve just got to be cleaner in it.
They should have confidence because I don’t care who we play, I mean, we played some talented teams, and there’s not one game that I’ve come out of saying, oh, well, we don’t belong in that. I mean, we’ve got to play our game. We’ve got to eliminate some of the mistakes. And I think we can play with anybody.
Q. I know Duce has been ultra dependable and produced in a reliable. Can you get those other guys, Micahi, Squirrels example, more involved to take some weight off and also force the defenses to look at you a little differently?
MIKE NORVELL: I think we’ve had pretty good balance in it. Duce has done a good job of taking advantage of where the opportunities where the ball’s come to him. And Lawayne had big plays that have shown up and guys have done that.
We had a couple of misses that we’ve got to have on a couple of the drop-back stuff the other day that I think could have been big plays. When the ball comes to you, you’ve got to make it.
Obviously, Duce has done a good job. Randy was our leading receiver in the game. I think whether it’s — the running backs have shown up as being productive, catching the ball out of the backfield as well.
I think we’ve shown a diverse group of talented playmakers that can help impact. But I’m definitely proud of Duce for how he’s playing and being consistent when the ball comes to him.
Q. In this revenue-share world, I think the theoretical hope is that everybody was going to be competing on level ground. People that are judging teams from the outside, do they need to be aware that maybe everybody’s not on equal footing when it comes to putting resources into to getting their rosters for the season?
MIKE NORVELL: However people want to perceive, we live in the reality of what college football is right now, and I think that as this July 1st started the new age of rev share and what that will look like moving forward. So we’ll play it out, and that will be something that probably here in the next few years we’ll have a different scope of what that reality is and how teams disburse resources and all things like that.
But right now you’re still operating with how teams and rosters were created up to this point.
Q. Following up on Tommy and his style of play, he obviously leads with his body and he makes plays happen with his feet. I think this past game and the game before, obviously, he was hobbled a little bit coming off the field a couple different plays. Are you worried at all about injury? Do you think about reining him in with his style of play?
MIKE NORVELL: That’s a good question. When you play with that freedom — he’s free with his body, his legs, all those things, he knows how to make great plays — you want him to be smart. I don’t want unnecessary shots taken.
There’s been a few plays where just you try to give as much sound advice in the moment, or before the moment shows up, of ways to protect yourself and things to do. I think he’s done a good job of that.
There’s some times that he’s not taking just a bunch of vicious hits. It’s more it’s the times whenever he’s gotten the falls to the ground or things like that. It’s just being aware of some of those situations where you can probably be — do the best job in protecting yourself.
Q. It sounds like, correct me if I’m wrong, when you’re watching the film with your team and coaches and you see the plays that could have been made, the message is, guys, they’re not that much better than you; you can play with anyone in the country if you play well? Is that the message? It’s not like they steamrolled you. You had more yards, you had 30 first downs, whatever it was. Is that the message — if you guys play clean you can beat anyone?
MIKE NORVELL: I think we’ve shown that. Alabama is a good football team. I know when we beat them in week one, they weren’t, obviously, but now all of a sudden they’re a good team again.
And we were dominant in that game. And it could have been worse. If we would have been a little bit cleaner in that.
But you know what, where we are, we also went on the road and lost to Virginia and we just lost at home to a rival. We’ve earned all of it. We’ve shown all of it. So we’re capable.
I believe — I’ve got ultimate belief in this team. I’ve got ultimate belief in our coaches. But it’s still about the application.
And that’s where — we’ve been here. We’ve seen it. And there’s going to be ups and downs in games. There’s going to be ups and downs and swings. These guys are — I mean, they’re good coaches, they’re good players you’re going against when you’re playing at that caliber.
So there’s going to be also — there’s going to be plays you lose. But when you look at the differences in the game, man, we’ve got to take care of us. If we take care of us, I’m very confident that we can achieve anything. I’ll say it like that.
And what that means, where that goes, what that can be for this team, let me see it this week. For us as a football program, that’s what I want on display at noon on Saturday. I want our best game of — it’s not going to — no game will be perfect. You’re going to make mistakes. There’s going to be times — but put ourselves in the best position to play Florida State football, to making sure we’re on the football, make sure we’re playing fast, playing physical, communicating well.
And then cut it loose and have fun, because we’ve got some great playmakers that can definitely make it happen
Q. A special teams 2-for-1? Thankfully for the instant replay you got the targeting call. Is Squirrel okay after that hit? I know he didn’t come back in.
MIKE NORVELL: He was at practice yesterday. We’ll see how he progresses through the week. Thank God for replay.
Q. You can’t get fined for that.
MIKE NORVELL: I can probably get fined for a lot of things. You didn’t ask the right questions.
Q. I can try. Jake’s leg’s obviously a great weapon. In the past, Ryan could kick touchbacks but sometimes you would — those shorter kicks to get a return and maybe get field position. Is that something you think about, or is it just put them on the 25?
MIKE NORVELL: I think Jake has done an outstanding job. And I’ve been really pleased with our kickoff coverage unit because you never know. Every kickoff you’ve got to expect the ball to be coming out. Jake’s been remarkable. Brunno, when he’s been in there has been remarkable with those opportunities.
But you’ve got to — when you watch our guys cover, they cover with purpose. If there’s a time or a place that could be a possibility, then we’ll look at that. But I think they’re doing what we’ve been asking them to do and doing it at a very high level.
