Florida State head coach Mike Norvell was at the podium on Monday. Of course, the first thing he mentioned was the firing of athletic director Michael Alford.
"First off, with the news of today, definitely wanted to start off just thanking Michael Alford and Laura, for all the work and the time that we get to spend together over these last few years. Two of the best people I've had an opportunity to be around. Took care for who they work with, care for the student-athlete, coaches, definitely you're grateful for him and their family. In today's age, there's a crazy world in college athletics. I definitely appreciate the relationships and the people that you get to do it with."
He also mentioned the challenge of playing the Alabama Crimson Tide
this weekend.
"Obviously, as we move forward into this week, all of our focus is going to be on this game. It's a big game. It's our first road game of the season. It's going to be a wonderful opportunity for our team to go show their growth, coming off a disappointing result a week ago, an opportunity to go out there and be on an incredible stage against a very talented football team, top 10 team, wherever they're ranked at in the country. I mean, they definitely, very skilled, talented, and a well-coached team, and it's going to be a great challenge for us."
Norvell talked about several other things as he and FSU prepare for a must-win game against Alabama.
On Bruce Warwick being the interim athletic director
But Bruce is a wonderful person, extremely hard worker. He does look at things with a great big picture perspective. He's been involved a lot with kind of our upper management within the athletic department, just as things have been over the last few years. I think Bruce will do a great job in that role. I know he'll put everything he has to the tasks that are in front of him, but also for us within the day to day operation, we've got some really good staff members that have great experience that can kind of help.
Can mend where there's areas where Bruce might not be as active on what a day to day was with Jeff Kupper, with Isaiah Phillips, we've got some guys that are really very in tune to all things that we're doing. Everybody's going to pick up slack a little bit in certain areas, but we're going to move forward with all focus into this week and make sure we're getting the job done.
On what FSU needs to do against Alabama to get confidence heading into a tough ACC schedule
For us, our focus is all on this, on this week, you build confidence through the week of work last week, this week to all the things that we've done from January. We had a disappointing result last Monday night, it's something that nobody wanted. Nobody, when you go into games, you don't think of, ‘hey, things will happen this, that way or that way’, but you do get to respond to it. It doesn't change my perspective on my belief for this football team.
We just have to be better. I think our guys have taken the right approach of that since Monday night finished, now you build confidence through work. We know this team, we played this team a year ago. Obviously, new personnel, just like we have some new personnel. They've done a good job in their roster construction. When you see a talented team that start off the season, you're a very high level, for us, it's just about us going to play our game.
We've got to make sure that we can clean up the areas with communication, some alignment things, all the things that are in our control, we need to make sure that we're on top of, then you get to go out there and put on display all of who we are. Whether it's offensively, defensively, special teams. I mean, I have a lot of belief. I have a lot of confidence in what I know this team can do, because I've watched them for the last nine months. Now we get a great opponent and a great stage to go showcase all of who we are and the confidence comes through all the things that you've done in your preparation and I believe in this team.
On addressing the team after firing of athletic director Michael Alford
We started off this morning early, and that's something that hasn't been addressed up to this point. Right now, our focus has everything to do with our preparation for Alabama. Today is the players' day off. I mean, I'll absolutely talk to them about it tomorrow when we get them all together. Michael (Alford) was very active and he's around, obviously, players, it's, when you get news like that, it's always going to have an impact.
Right now, I mean, everything's about the preparation for what's ahead here on Saturday. That's going to be our focus. That's going to be our work, and we're going to move forward with that as fast as possible, making sure that we're doing everything to put our players in the best position and our players are putting themselves in the best position to go be their best Saturday.
On keeping Ashton Daniels confident
You learn from experiences, you sit there if things don't always go exactly how you want, sometimes because of circumstances that you find yourself in, it's still about getting up and going and taking the steps that are necessary. There's plenty of times that you see guys get knocked down. If you stay down, if you hang your head, if you get caught up in whatever the situation is, and you don't have the approach for your improvement and your growth, then that's where that can continue to linger.
One of the things that I was most pleased of last week was Thursday's practice, a very competitive day. We try to get a lot of good speed work, a lot of situations. Some of the areas that even that I've challenged him with, I saw him take hold of that. In all things that we do, it's about trying to put our players in the best position to go be successful. There's going to be ups and downs. There's going to be things that show up, but how they handle themselves and what they're able to learn through those experiences is what's most important for their future performance.
I was really pleased with Ashton and how he went about last week, the ownership he takes and the things that he can control, and then obviously, on the things that he can't control, continuing to make sure that he's ready in all those moments for him to do his job. I think he's done a really nice job in the last week of that, plus everything he's done since he's been here to be able to earn that opportunity.
On Alabama's defense
They're fast, they're explosive, they've increased their size from what last year's defensive front was to this year. They've done a good job of being able to address some needs. You could see their confidence in the defensive backfield. I mean, they've been able to, in the first two games really play a lot of man coverage, they've been able to match up. Guys are playing at a high level, they're able to get an extra hat there into the box.
You're gonna have to win one on one, they're going to mix good pressures. They don't tip a whole lot of what they do pressure-wise. I mean, you got to be able to play with great eyes, you gotta play with great detail. It's still going to come down to a bunch of one on one plays. It's good on good. Talented, talented players, trying to create space and when you get the opportunity, you got to go make it happen. But we have to maintain balance. It's a game that, it's not going to be one of those 3 yards in a cloud of dust type of game. You're gonna have to have some explosive plays. You're also going to be able to, on the flip side of it, you can't sit back and drop back every, every rep in this game because if it's a must-pass situation.
I mean, these guys, they've got, they've got some, talented pass rushers, they can get home, you got to be able to have balance. That'll be the big, big part of our focus as we go in is make sure we're, we're putting our players, in a great position to be successful. When you get your one on one, whether it's in a run block, whether it's in a, pass protection, a route, being able to locate a throw. I mean, we gotta, we gotta go make it happen.
On Alabama quarterback Keelon Russell
Just watching two games, you see the threat. I mean, he's a guy that can throw the football, he can make a lot of different throws. If he gets on the edge, he brings his feet into the equation, I mean, he's a scary football player. I say that in a very respectful way. He's a guy that, you got to be able to account for him. You got to make sure that you can try to get him out of rhythm, but even when things break down, I mean, you better play with great pursuit.
You better make sure that if you're in coverage, things happen to break down, we're gonna do a great job ofsticking on very talented receivers that are out there on the edge. You can see his playmaking ability. And it's one of the things that they love about him is that, even when it doesn't always look exactly how you might draw it up, he could still make a lot of great things happen. It's gonna be a great challenge for our guys, but, I can tell you, they're excited for our opportunity to get back on the field.
We just faced a very talented quarterback that could extend plays, that could throw the football, that did some really good things. And there were some times that we weren't as good as we needed to be throughout the course of a game. Learn a lesson. Go apply it against another very talented team and quarterback. That's our focus this week.
On getting Duce Robinson more involved and what Ashton Daniels needs to do to help with that
I think it's both. You want to make sure that you're putting him in a position to be able to get favorable matchups. Favorable space, making sure that if there's coverages that are trying to roll to individuals, how can you move them around to make sure he's getting opportunities, and then when he gets targeted, give him the chance to go do what he does as well as when the ball comes his way, he's got to go be it too.
It's really everybody involved in that. There's some times that we also got to make sure that we're giving Ashton time to get the ball to him. There's a couple of times last week that was where we were going and unfortunately, just didn't have the time to get the ball out. But that's something that we're working hard at and I'm excited to see our guys take that to the field here this week.
On if Alabama is doing anything different defensively from when they faced Ashton Daniels last season
They do what they do defensively. Obviously they've got a wide variety of things that they can pull from, but I think that's what Coach (Kane) Wommack…you see his variations in each game, he knows what he's going to try to take away from certain players.
You can see how he's trying to disrupt rhythm, timing, if they can, if there's, if there's certain things that they try to do to contain certain individuals, I mean, that it definitely shows up. And I mean, he's a really good football coach and he's got really good personalities that he’s utilizing. You see, a lot of the carryover from, we've watched, a ton of film on them, just summer and then already you hear this, this week, in just our preparation over the last 2-3 years.
We understand that, we understand that this is going to be a, a game that, there's going to be a lot of things that carry over that look the same, but obviously, we got to go out there and we got to be prepared for, for all the different varieties. They've played Ashton, we've played them. There's great familiarity, but it's going to be a heck of a battle.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: Everything Mike Norvell said about playing Alabama this weekend
