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 group within the preseason polls to 0-3 towards the likes of Georgia Tech, Boston Faculty and now Memphis, with two of these video games being at residence. The seat for head coach Mike Norvell (who was given a large 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 largest query right here is: how did all of it go incorrect for the Noles?
Let’s begin with the expertise acquisition portion of issues. The Seminoles below Mike Norvell have usually been fairly good with utilizing the switch portal. Shoot, most of their group that went undefeated final 12 months was constructed by way 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 influence gamers all got here by way of the portal looking for higher alternatives, which is the fantastic thing about the switch portal. You discover gems by way of that alley that may elevate the ceiling of a group when the ground is constructed by way of highschool recruiting.
Nonetheless, the switch portal is a fickle magnificence. For each gem you discover, you can too strike out on essential gamers at essential positions, which is the place the Seminoles discover themselves offensively. The largest switch was QB DJ Uiagalelei from Oregon State. That is Uiagalelei’s third cease, with a number of coordinators and offenses making an attempt to resolve the query of “how is a child this bodily gifted this dangerous?” By 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 means Travis was final 12 months. 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 below stress. As a result of Uiagalelei is actually a statue who isn’t assured when throwing in commonplace dropback conditions, the offense is proscribed to rollouts and half discipline reads. When he’s requested to throw in these commonplace conditions, the offensive line falls aside and it appears like this:
Not fairly in any respect.
The offensive line is a a lot larger difficulty than the QB or any of the opposite portal additions. After being so good final 12 months, 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 a whole lot of soccer, but when they aren’t good now, then the teaching has to take some blame. When Uiagalelei was at his finest at Oregon State, that they had a imply and bodily offensive line that might run the ball rather well, and Uiagalelei didn’t need to 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 one 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 necessary. It’s actually arduous to win persistently by way of solely 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 very least three years. Florida State is in an odd interval the place the highschool recruiting is ok; the Seminoles haven’t completed outdoors the highest 25 of 247 Sports activities recruiting in Norvell’s whole tenure. Nonetheless, if the recruits coming in are good, however the product continues to be dangerous, then improvement isn’t taking place. 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 a lot better at growing the highschool expertise they’ve, and never needing to depend on transfers in essential spots just like the offensive and defensive position.
That’s the place the Seminoles want to enhance, and I’m undecided if Norvell will get the time to enhance them.
