FSU Football Season Wrap

So, what exactly went wrong for Florida State football this season? Ira Schoffel, of WarChant.com, gave us his thoughts on what happened and why, plus what he expects moving ahead. 

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
We need to listen to something else, some Christmas cheer.
It's the third hour of the Morning Show with Preston
Scott and I'm joined by the managing editor at warchan
dot com. I'm just not feeling the fight song right now.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Ira, How you doing, I'm good. I can't decide if
I want to say by humbug or be happy that
the season's over. I'm not sure.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
Well, I was going to ask you. I caught you
and Corey in your postgame post mortem. I guess is
what we might best refer to that as. So now
it's a few days later, Florida State got embarrassed by
a three and eight team that became foreign eight at
your expense. What are you thinking right now as you
look back on the season in that game Saturday night

(00:46):
in Gainesville?

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Yeah, I mean that game was really to me depressing
from a standpoint of just competing. You know, I thought
some guys competed on offense. I didn't think Florida State's
defense showed up, and that is, you know, physically not
being good enough. You know, I think Florida, you know,
Florida should have been a lot better than they were
supposed than they are you know early this season, you know,

(01:10):
they look like a team that could compete with with
just about anybody. They've got a very good line of scrimmage,
but they haven't played well all year. Their quarterback has
been pressured into making bad decisions. He came in with
thirteen touchdowns and thirteen interceptions. There's been calls for him
to be benched for a freshman. You know, he's had
a really bad year. You never got any pressure on him.
And then their running back is really good and they're

(01:30):
off ative line just ran it down your throats the
entire game, and Florida State's defense just didn't show up.
So that that's depressing because you know, you did get
a boat of confidence in some degree in Mike Norvel
last week where there's the you know that he's coming
back next season. You would like to have seen some
response to the team, and instead they kind of defensively
went in the tank. And it's just a terrible way

(01:52):
to end the season. You know, it's a bad season anyway,
but that was about the worst way, in my opinion,
you could have ended the season.

Speaker 1 (01:59):
Help me reconcile. This first game of the season, they
were physically dominant against Alabama, and everybody who says, well,
that was Alabama's first game, well it was Florida State's
first game too, and they were better in every phase
of the game than the team that is going to
play for the SEC title this Saturday against Georgia.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
What happened?

Speaker 1 (02:24):
I mean, I don't think we lost a bunch of
players to injury, So what in the world has gone south?

Speaker 2 (02:31):
Yeah? No, I mean the more evidence you got as
the season went on, you started to think that, Okay,
you have to look at the fact that Alabama, Yeah,
it's the same team that is there now, but they
didn't play the way they're playing now. And I think
that they had spent all off season hearing about Florida
State's two and ten team and watching video of that.
And I think Florida State did a good job. You
had a new coordinator on both sides of the ball,

(02:53):
throwing some things at them that they hadn't seen before.
And Florida State made plays. You know, early in the game,
Squirrel White lays out, makes a beautiful catch from Tommy
Castelana's You know, they just made plays. They played with confidence,
and Alabama just didn't. Before they realized they weren't for
a fight. It was too late, and uh, you know,
I think if they played again ten times, I'm not
sure if Florida State beats them more than once. Maybe

(03:15):
so it was just their night. But but I think
what's happened over the year is this team just lost confidence.
They stopped making those plays other than Do Robinson and
a couple guys here and there, you know, in the
last game of low Wayne mccoyt receiver, But for the
most part, you've just seen guys not make plays, not
catch wide up and passes, not pick offf interceptions that
are there to be made, not finish sacks that are

(03:36):
there to be made. Really, it just seemed like a
team that kind of lost its way from a confidence
and just mentality standpoint.

Speaker 1 (03:43):
What are you hearing is next?

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Well, I mean, I think there's two different things going on.
One is what Florida State plans to do in terms of,
you know, from the front office. I think those are
the big structural changes that the administration's pushing Mike Norbell
to make. I think that likely means a new general
manager position with somebody who's got more autonomy or at
least more input into what the roster is going to

(04:09):
look like to help Mike Norvel put together a better roster,
and that process is ongoing. I don't know that we're
going to get a quick solution on that. I think
that's something they're working on, but I don't know if
it's going to impact you know, like signing day is Wednesday.
I don't think it's going to have an impact on that.
And then the transfer portal opens in a couple of weeks,
in a few weeks, and I'm not sure that's going
to be in place for that. We'll see. But the

(04:30):
other thing we have to be keep keeping an eye
on is the coaching staff and what changes either Mike
Norvel wants to make and also what coaches end up leaving.
I mean, there's a lot of questions inside the program
about whether or not Gus Malsan's going to be back
for another season, Tony White, whether he'll be back for
another season as defensive coordinator. And then if those change,
if there's any changes there, what does that do to

(04:51):
the rest of the staff Because they each brought in
assistant coaches with them, So those two different things going out.
One I think Florida State's really pushing and the other
one they may have to react to what happens.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Irah, not to put you on the spot, but you know,
I've argued to people that as much as i hate
what's happened on defense, and I'm not sold to Tommy
Castellanos really as a quarterback, that's gonna get you over
the hump. I just I think that's why the offense
didn't travel very well away from home. I just don't
think he's physically gifted enough to play that position consistently well.

(05:26):
And that's you know, I think that that's the guy
you got to have on the road. That being said,
do you think that would you bring Gus and Tony
White back?

Speaker 2 (05:37):
I would, Man, I started feeling pretty good about Tony
White the last month, you know, after the pit game
mid season, I was I was not real thrilled with
that change. But the last month they started looking better.
But then Saturday they just didn't show up at all. Yeah,
I mean, I don't think I would. I don't think
I wouldn't say that Tony White's the problem in terms

(05:58):
of the defense. I do think they've got to get better,
especially upfront, So I wouldn't necessarily push to make a
change there if he wants to come back the gust situation.
To me, I don't. To me, I'm not in love
with what they're doing. And it was his choice to
bring in Tommy Castalanos. That's the quarterback that he wanted.
I don't know if him going back to being a
coordinator is what he wants. You know, he took this,

(06:19):
made this move to get out of his situation at UCF.
I think there's a possibility he might retire. You know,
I wouldn't feel really good about running that back on
that side of the ball. But then again, now you're
do you go back, do you hire a new offense coordinator,
or do you go back to Mike Norbell calling the plays.
I actually wouldn't have a problem with that. I thought
he was a good play caller. I don't blame twenty

(06:39):
twenty four on his play calling because they just had
a terrible roster and that's why you're making these changes
to help the front office. But you know, again, I'm
not enamored by the idea of bringing those guys back
and running it back. At the same time, anytime you
make changes, you kind of bring a lot more risk
into the equation.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
Again, but at the same time, if you look at
them offensive and you know, the broadcast showed it the
growth offensively that the team put up numbers. They just
couldn't score touchdowns.

Speaker 2 (07:09):
Yeah, no question, it definitely put up numbers. I also
would say, again, the roster is a whole lot better.
You know this, you know, And that's what the thing
I would just encourage people to think about when they say, Okay,
Mike Norvelt was the coordinator in twenty twenty four, you
saw what it looked like. Gus Malzan was the coordinator
in twenty twenty five, and you made all this improvement.
It's a completely different roster. They had a whole new
offensive line, they had a whole new you know, new quarterback,
new receivers, you know, the whole team, the whole offense

(07:32):
was different. And yeah, to me, where I got frustrated
with Gus Malzan, it wasn't between the twenties. It was
in those crucial situations, the third ones, the fourth and ones,
the red zone. I mean, they just were terrible in
the red zone. And you know again that there's a
reason you were able to move the ball the length
of the field, but you can't move it in the
red zone, and to me, that goes back to play calling.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Okay, lastly, what are your thoughts on where FSU goes
looking if they decide to bring in a quarterback or
do they just stay with the guys that are behind
Tommy Castellano's namely Kevin Sperry.

Speaker 2 (08:09):
You know, I really wish and I asked my Norvell
about this a month ago. You know, I just when
this season clearly wasn't going to be what they hoped
it was going to be. You're out of contention for
the ACC and everything else. You need to look at
these younger quarterbacks, particularly Kevin Sperry, and see what he is,
see what he looks like in game action. The only
really chance he got was that Stanford game where they're
down on the road and it was just kind of

(08:30):
an emergency situation, and you know, they've only they had
to stick with Tommy because he gave him the best
chance to win. But my point was, if you plan
to come back in twenty twenty six, Mike Norvell hope to,
and he is, it would have been nice to know
what Kevin Sperry is to how hard you have to
go after a transfer quarterback. I think they're going to
have to go hard after a transfer quarterback. I just
think that there's too much riding on this next season.

(08:51):
They can't have a third straight terrible season. But it
would be nice to know. But hey, maybe Kevin Sperry
is the guy. They were really excited about him and spring,
they talk about his future all the time. But at
this point, I don't know how you could ride with
him because he just hasn't done it in a game yet.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
And then that circles right back to the It's like
chicken in the egg. That circles back to who's going
to be your offensive coordinator?

Speaker 2 (09:15):
No question, and that's gonna yeah whoever you're that has
to be resolved first and that person's going to have
a say. And then the other part of it that's
going to be interesting is if you do bring in
a new general manager and that person starts pretty soon
and you have a head coach who's used to having
control over the roster, and then you bring in a
new offensive coordinator or if it's Gus whoever, But who's
going to make that decision of who that quarterback is

(09:37):
going to be? And again, that decision is going to
go a long way and determining you know what kind
of season you have.

Speaker 1 (09:42):
I right, you're a champ. Thanks so much for making
time for us all season long, and we'll circle back
after the first of the year.

Speaker 2 (09:48):
Thank you, sir, Thank you Preston. Merry Christmas, Happy Hollidays.

Speaker 1 (09:51):
Thank you. Iras Chafell, Managing Editor, war chant dot com. Subscribe,
I subscribe, Yeah, I subscribe. I get there stuff. I
think they do a great job war chant dot com