Mike Norvell admits FSU's confidence is shaken

The Florida State Seminoles dropped another game over the weekend, their fifth in a row, to fall to 1-8 on the season. With that loss, head coach Mike Norvell continues to look for answers as he tries to turn the season around as much as possible.

One major problem that Norvell has run into is the confidence of FSU. Following the game, Norvell even admitted that he feels the team has had its confidence shaken.

“Yes. I mean, I do,” Mike Norvell said. “I think that just the response when there’s a negative that shows up — that’s the thing that I was probably most disappointed in today was when there was a couple of negative plays that happened, just not seeing the spark, not seeing just that response that we’re accustomed to, that we train for, that we emphasize. I do think that the course of the season has shaken our confidence in a lot of ways.

Coming into the 2024 season, there were massive expectations for FSU. The Seminoles were expected to compete for the ACC Championship again and, in turn, compete for a spot in the College Football Playoff. However, after getting upset in Week 0 against Georgia Tech, Mike Norvell and the Seminoles have struggled to find any consistent success, only beating California in late September.

“It’s something you try to — you guys are at practice. Some of the things that show up in the game — and we’ve got some young players that are playing. We’ve got mistakes that are made across the board. But a lot of it I do think is showing in the moment when you’ve got to believe and trust and have faith in those things that you’ve trained to do in that moment of truth on game day, that that’s what shows up,” Norvell said.

“We’ve definitely not been consistent in that, whether it’s a doubt, a hesitation. Those are the things that get magnified on that stage, and that’s what you build for. That’s what you work for.”

Mike Norvell is in his fifth season with FSU after spending four years as the head coach at Memphis. Before this year, he never lost more than seven games in a season. He’s never before had a five-game losing streak.

“I’ve been doing this long enough that I’ve seen the response from the challenges, and obviously I’ve seen carrying momentum when things have been really, really good,” Norvell said. “And right now we have to get that back because I do believe that we have got some really good players, I think guys that are very capable, and we’re not showing consistently what that is within this team. Obviously, that builds upon itself throughout the course of a game.”

Florida State has now finished its ACC schedule this season at 1-7. Now, Mike Norvell will try to lead the Seminoles through their final three games, all of which are non-conference matchups. That starts with Notre Dame on Saturday.