Florida State finally looked like the team the coaching staff promised in the offseason.
Ashton Daniels and the offense moved the ball downfield at will as the Seminoles scored touchdowns on three of their first four drives. On defense, Tony White miraculously forced Alabama into three-and-outs on their first two drives. The Noles led 21-6 and had the Tide facing a third-and-17 with four minutes to go in the first half.
Then, the next 34 minutes of game action happened.
FSU’s defense allowed points
on nine straight drives as the personnel melted down and the coaching staff couldn’t adjust. On offense, the Noles finished the game with explosive plays but poor game management, resulting in two touchdowns, two turnovers, and a lifeline for Alabama to get back in the contest at the end of the first half. Ultimately, the performance wasn’t good enough, no matter how the game started.
The Seminoles had an extra week to prepare, while Alabama returned from an SEC road game. But once the Tide got their feet under them and made adjustments, they went on a 37-7 run, with no answers from the Florida State coaching staff.
“We have to be able to get off the field, and we showed the capability early in the game,” a dejected Mike Norvell said after the game. “We allowed too many explosive plays tonight. … As their run game got going later in the game, it did wear on us.
“Not good enough when you give up over 550 yards of offense.”
Of course, as with everything related to Florida State this season, you can’t look at it in a vacuum. Poor offseason personnel decisions left the team lacking depth, especially on defense. The Seminoles held Alabama to 13 yards on 10 rushes in the first quarter and then allowed 124 yards on 14 carries in the fourth quarter.
No example better displayed the lack of bodies than Alabama’s final touchdown drive of the game. FSU pulled within seven and backed the Crimson Tide up to their own 10-yard line thanks to a holding penalty. Kalen DeBoer’s team proceeded to run the ball on eight of the next nine plays, including a 20-yard touchdown run, to close out the game. Once again, Florida State’s defensive line lacked playmakers, with no sacks and only three tackles for loss from the front seven in yesterday’s game, and was worn out by the end.
.“It really has nothing to do with effort or want to,” linebacker Chris Jones told the media postgame. “It has to do with execution. They came out with different things, and we did not execute the right way. … They came out with more of a gap scheme at the beginning of the game. Then, they started running more stretch and outside zone.
“We were in bad spots in a lot of those plays.”
The big-money defensive acquisitions have not delivered for the Noles. The Seminoles brought in new coach Nick Williams to coach the edges and help ease the load on defensive line coach Terrance Knighton. Nobody on the defensive front seems to have taken a step forward this year. The Desir twins, who FSU paid to keep out of the transfer portal, are being asked to play more than they should because of the lack of depth and finished the game with a combined 0.5 tackles for loss and no sacks. Up the middle, Daniel Lyons has yet to take over a game the way the coaching staff hoped, and the players behind him, Kevin Wynn and Jordan Sanders, aren’t providing enough to spell him. The defensive front did a good job containing Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell early in the game with rush-lane integrity, but his 57-yard touchdown run felt like the death blow in the third quarter.
“There was an element late where we definitely got worn down and being on the field,” Norvell lamented. “There were a few times when we had a self-inflicted miss in alignment. There are big plays when no edge shows up.
“I thought we defended the run really well early, and it was unfortunate to see where it went to.”
Even if it was more apparent on defense, Florida State’s lack of offensive depth showed in the second half, too. After Norvell’s well-designed early-game scripts, the Noles struggled to match that impact later. FSU’s offensive line, which inserted Paul Bowling at right guard and kept Nate Pabst at right tackle, struggled to keep Ashton Daniels upright with a clean pocket to throw and create open rushing lanes.
Part of that also fell on Daniels, who struggled to process the field quickly, but the Seminoles still rushed for under four yards per carry (3.6) with sack yardage taken out. Norvell’s offense moved the ball on big plays, as 344 of Daniels’ 377 passing yards came on 10 plays, but the Seminoles lack the talent to push defenses back drive after drive.
“We had some missed opportunities on drives on offense that we have to have. You come on the road in a hostile environment against a good football team, you have to capitalize on those,” Norvell said.
A little over a year ago, the Seminoles convincingly defeated Alabama and made 2024 feel like a blip. Yesterday, the Tide spotted Florida State 15 points and still won by two touchdowns. The program’s decline is obvious, and poor evaluations and portal pickups are a major reason for it.
