Mike Norvell reveals key to continuing hot start at Florida State

Mike Norvell and his Seminoles pulled off one of the bigger surprises in Week 1, with an impressive showing in a 24-23 win over LSU. But what’s the key to continuing the hot start at Florida State?

For Norvell, it’s a simple answer.

“I believe it’s how you work,” he said on Monday as he met with the local media following a bye week. “It’s the mindset.”

The Seminoles have not been a particularly mentally strong team over his first two seasons in charge, and Norvell even admits that to a certain extent. So how does Florida State continue its current surge?

More importantly, when will fans begin to know if Norvell has the program finally turned around and headed back in the right direction? A marquee win is a definite start, but doing it over an extended period will be the challenge.

“Everybody’s going to say the right thing, but is it consistently showing up on the practice field?” Norvell wondered aloud. “Is it showing up in the meeting rooms? Is it showing up in the classroom? Are you willing to push sometimes on the things you might not even think are important? Are you willing to give your best?”

How can Florida State maintain its hot start?

To Norvell, the answer to how he keeps things rolling with his squad is pretty simple. It isn’t necessarily about what happens on Saturdays.

As evidenced by the slew up upsets so far this season, Saturdays can be a bit of a crapshoot. But they’re usually a crapshoot because someone let things slip during the week.

“When you show up to play in a college football game, I don’t care anything that’s happened before, you get one opportunity,” Norvell explained. “There’s teams that are very talented that have been beat before by less talented teams. We’ve experienced that in my time here in the past, and that’s where we talk to our players. It’s got to be your mindset. What is your objective? What are you there to do for that given day and what have you done to prepare to be your best in that moment?”

The Seminoles spent their bye week working on physicality, with a focus on technique and fundamentals.

Rested and recharged along with his team, Norvell now gets a chance to see how much his message has really begun to sink in. Three years into his tenure the time for showing real progress is now.

A Friday night primetime game at Louisville will be revealing. Hot starts can fizzle fast if you let them.

“There’s no question there’s a lot of parity in college football, but you’ve got to bring your ‘A’ game,” Norvell said. “I don’t care who you’re playing, when you’re playing. It’s critically important.”