To say that this has been a catastrophe of a gap stretch to the season for the Florida State Seminoles could be an understatement. The Seminoles have gone from a top-10 workforce within the preseason polls to 0-3 in opposition to the likes of Georgia Tech, Boston Faculty and now Memphis, with two of these video games being at house. The seat for head coach Mike Norvell (who was given an enormous extension this offseason after rumors about him taking the Alabama job began swirling) is more and more getting hotter, and the schedule doesn’t get simpler.
The most important query right here is: how did all of it go mistaken for the Noles?
Let’s begin with the expertise acquisition portion of issues. The Seminoles underneath Mike Norvell have usually been fairly good with utilizing the switch portal. Shoot, most of their workforce that went undefeated final yr was constructed by means of the portal. QB Jordan Travis was at Louisville, RB Trey Benson got here from Oregon, WR Keon Coleman got here from Michigan State, WR Johnny Wilson was at Arizona State. On the defensive aspect, DE Jared Verse got here from Albany and DT Braden Fiske got here from Western Michigan. These affect gamers all got here by means of the portal seeking higher alternatives, which is the fantastic thing about the switch portal. You discover gems by means of that alley that may elevate the ceiling of a workforce when the ground is constructed by means of highschool recruiting.
Nevertheless, the switch portal is a fickle magnificence. For each gem you discover, you may also strike out on essential gamers at essential positions, which is the place the Seminoles discover themselves offensively. The most important switch was QB DJ Uiagalelei from Oregon State. That is Uiagalelei’s third cease, with a number of coordinators and offenses attempting to unravel the query of “how is a child this bodily gifted this dangerous?” By means of three video games, the Seminoles’ offense hasn’t figured it out, both.
Uiagalelei is 117th in Passing Success Fee (per gameonpaper) and hasn’t been a risk on the bottom in the identical method Travis was final yr. Whereas Travis was higher at creating when the pocket collapsed and being explosive on the bottom, Uiagalelei is extra of a lumbering runner who can’t create underneath strain. As a result of Uiagalelei is basically a statue who isn’t assured when throwing in customary dropback conditions, the offense is restricted to rollouts and half subject reads. When he’s requested to throw in these customary conditions, the offensive line falls aside and it seems like this:
Not fairly in any respect.
The offensive line is a a lot larger concern than the QB or any of the opposite portal additions. After being so good final yr, and three of the 5 starters coming again, this skilled offensive line shouldn’t be as porous as it’s. However once more, that comes all the way down to improvement. A few of these guys are redshirt seniors who’ve performed quite a lot of soccer, but when they aren’t good now, then the teaching has to take some blame. When Uiagalelei was at his greatest at Oregon State, they’d a imply and bodily offensive line that might run the ball rather well, and Uiagalelei didn’t should shoulder the load offensively. That’s not the case at FSU, and it’s as a result of the road play has been so poor. The receiver expertise after Coleman and Wilson left has additionally been hit and miss, with no person persistently creating separation. From the identification of the expertise to the event, it’s all gone dangerous at Florida State.
That is the place highschool recruiting and improvement turns into so, so essential. It’s actually exhausting to win persistently by means of completely getting transfers out and in of this system. Transfers are extra like one to two-year fixes, whilst you may get a highschool recruit for at the least three years. Florida State is in an odd interval the place the highschool recruiting is ok; the Seminoles haven’t completed exterior the highest 25 of 247 Sports activities recruiting in Norvell’s whole tenure. Nevertheless, if the recruits coming in are good, however the product remains to be dangerous, then improvement isn’t occurring. It’s what separates groups like Florida State from groups like Texas or Ohio State. Each recruit at a really excessive stage and each use the switch portal rather well, like FSU. The issue is that Ohio State and Texas are each significantly better at creating the highschool expertise they’ve, and never needing to depend on transfers in essential spots just like the offensive and line of defense.
That’s the place the Seminoles want to enhance, and I’m undecided if Norvell will get the time to enhance them.
