What Florida State coach Mike Norvell said after losing to Notre Dame

Once again, Florida State coach Mike Norvell was forced to step in front of a microphone to try to make sense of yet another debilitating loss for his Seminoles. The latest was a 52-3 drubbing by Notre Dame in South Bend. FSU is now 1-9 this season, marking only the third time in program history the Noles have lost nine or more games in one year.

“You get the choice of where you want to go from it,” Norvell said. “If you pull back and you stop then you’re going to stay exactly where you are. If you’re willing to push forward, if you’re willing to take a terrible result and work to make a correction and work to push to try to be better then the open door of opportunity is there for you. And you’ve got to make the most of that.”

Here are some of the other things Norvell said after losing to Notre Dame.

Opening statement

“Disappointing outcome, performance, really all three phases. Got beat. They did a good job in their execution of their game plan. They did a great job creating explosive plays. We lacked them offensively. Gave up too many TFLs. Third down, once again, were a challenge for us. Had opportunities. Thought there were moments and times we had space but not able to finish plays.

“Defensively, gave up the explosive play. I thought their quarterback did a really nice job extending plays. We knew coming into the game he was a talented runner. There were times when he hurt us with his legs, then obviously they were able to hit some big plays in the passing game.

“On punt, it’s probably the worst performance we’ve had. A few things schematically that allowed pressure and a few things individually we got to be better. we got beat in one on one situations. It’s been a unit that’s been a strength for us but tonight was definitely not good enough and obviously it hurt in all three phases.

“Really disappointing outcome. For our football team, we all expect better. We all understand that that’s no way acceptable for what it needs to be and what it has been even in the very recent past. We got to get better. We got to continue to work. A lot of young players had a chance to play tonight. A lot of guys that have been forced into the lineup. We’ve had multiple guys that have been down with injuries. Getting really into our depth. Had a few more guys go down tonight, and that adds to the challenges. It does open a door of opportunities for others to be able to come in and to be able to try to show where they are and you try to spark continue opportunities moving forward as we have a couple games left in the season.”

On calling timeouts and having an extra man on the field allowing Notre Dame to score before halftime

“Obviously, knowing we were getting the ball back to start the second half, we were trying to give ourselves an opportunity to see if we could get an extra drive. For the first timeout, obviously for their conversion and being able to keep the drive going, and they had the fourth down. Sent their field goal unit on, called a timeout, we tried to set up a possible block in that situation. And then as they subbed and they brought their offense back on the field, we had one of the unique personnel guys, we actually had two offensive players on the field with a long field goal and a possibility of a return. When we ran the defense out we didn’t have the proper communication to get those guys off or get both of the guys off. Obviously disappointing that result showed. They still converted on the fourth and 10 that allowed that drive to continue then they scored the touchdown on the next play.

“Obviously an awful outcome for what was trying to be a calculated opportunity to get another possession to see if we could, whether it’s a field goal in an 11-point game, going into half, knowing we were about to get the ball. It’s one of those things where you think in your mind, ‘What’s the best position we could try to put our guys in?’ I know we haven’t done well offensively. I know we haven’t been a good offense. But you have to be able to think of the opportunity of what it could be for a drive, for a series. We’ve had our moments. Obviously that did not work out the way anybody wanted. That’s where we have to be better.”

On keeping it close with Notre Dame for a while before things snowball, just like in previous games

“There’s been a variety of things. Turn the ball over in some of those situations where you’re trying to be aggressive. As the time gets less, you’re trying to be aggressive to have a fast score. It does stack upon itself if you don’t have that success. They get the ball back quicker. Special teams, they get the punt block. They had a couple different things. The pick six, things where it did snowball there at the end. It’s not something where you say, in the moment, I’m watching the effort, I’m watching those guys, they’re trying to go make a play. Ultimately, we’re just not able to finish in those moments and it’s gotten away from us at the end.”

On Notre Dame coming after punts

“They overloaded us on one where we got to be able to have a cleaner check to their overload. The first block, we had it schematically clean. The last one, they had an extra guy off the edge that we got to be able to get out. They brought a third player. We didn’t get the check that would be necessary for that look. Not the first time we’ve ever had that look against us. Things we can be better. It’s been one of the strengths of our football team. We knew this team was an aggressive punt pressure, punt return group, but they did a good job of what they were doing and we got to be better at what we’re doing.”

On Florida State’s offense having success against Notre Dame on the opening drive but it not translating to the rest of the game

“We were able to hit and connect on some good runs. I thought our guys did a nice job of getting to the perimeter a few times. We were able to have some explosive plays. We had the fourth down conversion, which was good. Unfortunately we weren’t able to finish down in the red zone.

“There are definitely flashes you see, at times, of capability. You have a scripted set, but even in that script there are still times you go off of it to see what you see early and be able to roll through it. Even throughout the course of the game, the next series, the next drive, there are still opportunities. There are times you see the space, you see the chance for plays to be made where maybe it’s technique, fundamentals, communication, things where we could all do better.

“Give credit to them. They did a nice job and have good players, especially defensively. They’ve been pretty good throughout the course of the season. It takes us to be able to perform at a high level consistently. They don’t give up big plays. I think they’ve given up four on the season of 30 yards or more. You got to sustain those long drives and execute with that. That was a challenge for us throughout the night.”