Mike Norvell shares honest assessment of FSU QB room, thoughts on future

Mike Norvell is evaluating everything right now. He has no choice. His Florida State team, a year removed from an ACC title run, is 1-7 and second-to-last nationally with 14.9 points per game.

Norvell’s not ready to give up play-calling yet, but he’s not swatting that idea away, either. He’s focused on doing whatever he can to serve his players and, in turn, help the Seminoles win football games down the stretch of a head-scratching 2024 campaign, which started with FSU ranked No. 10 in the country.

Each of the last two weeks, Norvell has played a pair of underclassman quarterbacks: redshirt freshman Brock Glenn, who replaced starter DJ Uiagalelei after he broke a finger on his throwing hand, and true freshman Luke Kromenhoek, a former four-star prospect and the On3 Industry Ranking’s No. 4 quarterback in the 2024 class.

Neither has found a groove. It doesn’t help that FSU has allowed 23 sacks, the fourth most in the ACC, and, according to Pro Football Focus, dropped 25 passes this season.

Glenn has earned the starting nod against now-No. 11 Clemson, Duke and now-No. 5 Miami. Kromenhoek has played a combined 62 offensive snaps against the Blue Devils and Hurricanes, and he actually outsnapped Glenn in the latter performance, 38-26, per PFF.

The Seminoles lost to Clemson, 29-13, fell at Duke, 23-16, and suffered a 36-14 defeat at Miami.

Norvell was asked this week about how he feels Glenn and Kromenhoek have played since Uiagalelei’s injury, and if he’ll continue playing both of them to get a better sense of the program’s direction at the position heading into 2025.

“Ive been pleased, especially with the situation these guys have been put in. I’ve been pleased with a lot of elements of their game that I’ve seen,” Norvell said. “Luke’s played in the last two games — I think he’s learned a lot even in the last two outings, areas of real strengths and then obviously areas that he’s going to get better throughout it. But I’ve been really proud of him.

“Brock in the Clemson game had some really, really good moments of what he was able to do in response. Same thing there in these last couple games.”

Glenn, a former three-star prospect and the On3 Industry Ranking’s No. 29 quarterback in the 2023 class, completed 23-of-41 passes for 228 yards, two touchdowns and a pick against Clemson. That said, he hit on fewer than half his attempts on the road against the Blue Devils. Not only did he finish just 9-of-19 for 110 yards in Durham, but he also committed turnovers on three straight first-half snaps.

That’s when Norvell first turned to Kromenhoek, who didn’t give the ball away like Glenn, but he didn’t move it down the field much either. Granted he was held back by a pair of drops, but he completed only 3-of-7 passes for 19 yards. Of the five drives he quarterbacked, one led to points, and those points came from a 53-yard Ryan Fitzgerald field goal.

Last week against Miami, Glenn was 5-of-18 for 54 yards, averaging just 3.0 yards per attempt, with the Seminoles’ lone passing touchdown on the day. Kromenhoek, meanwhile, wasn’t much better: He completed 6-of-14 passes for 61 yards, averaging 4.4 yards per attempt. That said, the first-year signal caller did carry the ball 11 times for 71 yards, even ripping off a 42-yard run that played a big role in FSU’s first touchdown drive of the game.

“We’re still working through a lot of just being a young quarterback,” Norvell said. “And for those guys, with every rep that they get, I’m seeing growth. I’m seeing application. I see the potential of what it can be. But they get to go out there, and they get to continue to pour in that work.

“And we got to do our job as coaches and everybody surrounding them to help them be successful in those moments. But I am proud of the work that they are investing and definitely excited about what their future’s going to be.”