Mike Norvell reveals why he took the blame for Florida State's loss to NC State

Florida State coach Mike Norvell isn’t making any excuses about it — Saturday’s loss to NC State is on him. After the Seminoles blew a 17-3 lead in the second half to go on to lose 19-17, Norvell spent Sunday watching film trying to figure out where things went wrong.

Although there were several key moments, the main takeaway for Norvell was that the Wolfpack made second-half adjustments and Florida State wasn’t able to do the same.

“There’s some situational things,” Norvell said. “You put together game plans of offense, defense and special teams, (and) it’s what shows up on film, what shows up in the game. The things of how we execute, that’s all on me. Because it’s my job to have this team prepared. It’s my job to make sure that when we come into the game, they’re confident in the plan, confident in adjustments, confident in the things that we need to do.

“I go back and I look at it and I’m like, ‘OK, if a team makes an adjustment, if a team starts disguising things a little different, where can we get our guys to where they’re playing confident in that?’ That they’re trusting what they’re seeing. The adjustments that we’re making that you can see them be quickly executed throughout the course of a second half or wherever that adjustment needs to be made. And I think we’ve done a good job of that throughout the course of the year, but then what were the reasons that we had the missed opportunities? What were the reasons that those things showed up? Is it something that we did in our preparation? So it’s a big picture approach, but it all falls on me.”

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Even after NC State clawed back to take the lead with 6:33 remaining, Florida State had its chances the win. However, quarterback Jordan Travis threw interceptions on the final two drives, including one with 38 seconds left and the Seminoles in field goal range.

Florida State was outscored 16-0 in the second half, and Travis was just 5-of-13 passing for 64 yards and two interceptions over that span. The loss was the second straight for the Seminoles after they began the season 4-0. Their 4-2 is still the best start for Norvell since he took over in 2020, but he is still kicking himself over the fact that it could have been even better.

“It’s my job to make sure that I’m doing the things necessary that we don’t have a second half where you go out there and have a result of what we put on display,” he said. “I can coach it better. We can continue to grow and help our players in the things that they need to do to be able to execute it better, but it’s the ownership of it all. That’s where I’ve got a lot of confidence in what we’re gonna accomplish and what we’re gonna be able to do, but ultimately what you see, that’s on me to make sure we do a better job.”

Mike Norvell will get his first chance to rectify the loss to NC State when Florida State faces No. 4 Clemson at 7:30 p.m. ET on Saturday in Tallahassee.