Coming out of ABC’s first commercial break in the first quarter, the network flashed Florida State’s 2023 snub and the crestfallen look on the players’ faces before quickly turning to Alabama’s SEC championship victory the day before. A banner below a side-by-side frame read “FSU – first undefeated team left out of CFB playoff.”
Five hours earlier, the College Gameday crew scoffed at the Seminoles. Reece Davis and Kirk Herbstreit laughed at FSU fans still despising the show. A few minutes later, Nick
Saban rolled his eyes at Tommy Castellanos’ pre-season comments and stated, “I always loved it when somebody came out and said something like that.”
Saturday’s jabs were a piece of the punching bag the Florida State program had become. Since December 2023, the Noles were raked over the coals and smeared through the national press. Their cataclysmic campaign a season ago proved all the naysayers right and left FSU staring into the abyss with no way out. For virtually 18 months, the Seminoles were forced to take their licks.
But as the Alabama players stated at SEC Media Days, “All disrespect will be addressed.”
For 51 minutes (not counting the opening Alabama drive), the FSU football program got off the mat and punched the bully in the mouth. Behind a dominant offensive line and a ferocious front seven, Florida State shut the water off on the Tide and poured it on, blow after blow, until Mike Norvell’s team knocked out the heavy favorite and re-announced himself and his program to the national stage.
As FSU grew into the fight, so did a Tallahassee crowd that was every part of Saturday’s victory. Despite concerns about the wine-and-cheese atmosphere inside Doak Campbell due to renovations and reduced capacity, for three and a half hours, rain or shine, Doak Campbell transformed into a cacophony of noise. Alabama took three false start penalties and a delay of game while being forced to burn two early timeouts in the second half. After a season ago where the fanbase did not hold a connection with the football team, Saturday became a rekindling between the two.
“It wasn’t about Alabama tonight, it was about us,” Norvell quipped at his post-game press conference, “It was about this team, the players that I get to coach, the work they poured into it… My focus not at one point was ever about (Alabama). It was just about this team going to be what I believed it could.”
Most people (especially myself) did not believe Saturday was possible. Besides facing the mighty Alabama, every coach and player came into this season with a question mark. Which year was the anomaly for Mike Norvell, 2023 or 2024? Had Gus Malzahn lost his touch after multiple down years at UCF? Can Tommy Castellanos prove that what happened at Boston College was a bad situation, not his fault? The list goes on. But Norvell, who always held a knack for motivating players, pushed all the right buttons, and an emotionally invested FSU football team took the fight to Alabama. Every time a play went against them, as Norvell instills, his players responded. The game could have gotten away after the opening drive. Instead, Castellanos led a beautiful drive to tie the game at seven, helped by his best throw of the game. After a bonehead special teams turnover in the third quarter, the defense picked up the team and forced a turnover on downs with a crucial fourth-down stop. A season ago, that team quits. In 2025, this team answers.
“Tonight wasn’t a perfect game. Not one player played a perfect game tonight, but they poured it all in. You felt the competitive spirit. You felt the response. You felt the way they came together. All three phases had a great impact in getting that win.”
As Norvell said, the Noles did not shoot 100% from the field. There were face-in-palm moments. But that’s what made it even more special. Through the rain on Saturday, through the heartbreak and the frustration from 2024, through the pain of the playoff snub, Florida State finally rose from the ground and said — enough.
Three Thoughts
No. 1: Coordinator Curtain Call:
Norvell deserves a ton of credit for Saturday’s game, but his best decision may have come nine months earlier. The head coach did not what most coaches never do: look introspectively, realize personal shortcomings, and find the solution. After a horrible year offensively, Norvell ceded play-calling duties and hired his former mentor, Gus Malzahn, to reshape an anemic offense. On defense, Norvell went outside of his coaching tree and hired an up-and-coming coach to run an unconventional defense.
These are clearly early sample sizes, but Norvell is already receiving a return on his investment.
Offensively, Malzahn virtually pitched a perfect game. His play-calling creativity kept Alabama off balance all game and allowed FSU to play on its terms. FSU ran on 49 of their 63 plays, while averaging over 4 yards a carry. The offensive coordinator, as he his known for, left no run scheme unturned. He utilized Castellanos’ legs early and often, and the quarterback led the team in rushes and yards with 16-78. He found a way to get the ball on the edge, and track star Micahi Danzy ran for 56 yards with a touchdown on runs all outside the tackles. Malzahn almost always put multiple tight ends on the field, and Randy Pittman, who played for Malzahn at UCF, became the unsung hero for his run-blocking and ability to spring multiple plays out of the backfield. Malzahn called himself an “old ball coach” at his opening press conference and said he just wants to get back to coaching football without the added layers of being a head coach.
After a game where FSU went 7-14 on cash downs (3rd and 4th downs) and averaged 16.9 yards per completion, the trade-off worked out for everybody.
On the defensive side, almost no one outside the building knew what Tony White’s defense would look like, and after the first drive, it appeared neither did the players. But the defensive coordinator adjusted, and similar to Malzahn, leaves Saturday with an almost spotless report card. White’s defense, which loves to create havoc on cash downs (3rd and 4th down), held Alabama to 8-22 on those plays Saturday while forcing them to go 1-5 on third downs of nine yards or more. Of course, a defense cannot get teams to third down without getting them off schedule. Alabama appeared to be in full control of the line of scrimmage after their opening drive, but White started stacking the line of scrimmage and shut down the Tide rushing attack. Alabama ran for 58 yards in the first quarter — and 29 the rest of the game. White found a way to negate a powerful Crimson Tide offensive line and put the game into Ty Simpson’s hands. With Simpson forced to throw, White also took WR Ryan Williams out of the game and held the phenom to five catches on 30 yards. It was a masterful gameplan and made the Tide one dimensional and devoid of ideas.
White and Malzahn each created an identity for their side of the ball in week one and established a play-calling rhythm that made sense — a far cry from the 2024 choose-your-adventure style of play calling. Florida State outclassed Alabama on the field, but also ran circles around them off of it.
“Gus, Tony, they did such remarkable jobs and obviously kept our opponent off balance in what we were doing. It was physicality tonight.. (They) really did a great job of making that the priority.”
No. 2: “ I thought we were the most physical team on the field.”
Norvell mentioned the word “physicality” four times during his post-game press conference, sending a clear message about his team’s game plan and their ability to execute it.
As mentioned, Florida State mauled Alabama on both sides of the line of scrimmage. Offensively, the Noles rushed for 230 yards without one offensive lineman earning a holding penalty. FSU’s revamped offensive line knocked Alabama back play after play while only allowing three tackles for loss the entire game, and generating seven “big plays” on the ground (rushes 10+ yards), including two touchdowns. A year after the offensive line was arguably the worst unit on the team, Florida State invested in the portal and reaped the benefits. The defensive line told a similar story. FSU racked up seven tackles for loss and three sacks while holding the Tide to just three yards per carry. The most telling stat of how much FSU owned the line of scrimmage is Florida State still won the time of possession battle even after allowing an 8:50 minute drive in the first quarter.
“I thought (the offensive line) were great. For the first time for those guys playing together, we’ve talked a lot through this off season, and a lot of those guys were out at different points in the spring. So really this fall camp, it was a push just trying to get as much as we could for those guys to be together. Communication, I thought they did an outstanding job in the summer for the time that they spent away. Luke Petitbon, his leadership in that group, it was awesome.”
No. 3: Getting it right
For all the talk of how much the first-year transfer additions lifted Florida State to victory on Saturday, plenty of homegrown talent stepped up. On the defensive side of the ball, Earl Little Jr., who Norvell called a “monster,” and Justin Cryer led the team in tackles while making an impact greater than the statsheet displays. Little Jr. was a heat-seeking missile from his safety spot and virtually hit anything that moved. Cryer made one of the best plays of the day with an open-field fourth-down tackle, but took ownership of a leadership role in the offseason and forced his will onto his teammates and opponents. On the offensive side, true freshman Ousmane Kromah dazzled in his first action as a Seminole, as he led all running backs with seven carries. Jaylin Lucas, sans the special teams fumble, became the gadget-guy difference-maker the Seminoles badly missed a season ago and popped one of the most explosive plays of the day with a 64-yard catch in the third quarter. All offseason, these players heard about how they contributed to the worst season in program history.
On Saturday, they took their first step towards rewriting their story.
