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Florida State Seminoles

Friedlander: Florida State’s downward spiral hits a new low … and there’s still 5 games left for it to get worse

Brett Friedlander

By Brett Friedlander

Published:


DURHAM, NC – Mike Norvell is an eternal optimist.

That’s probably the best thing the Florida State coach has going for him right now. Because there’s not a lot to be optimistic about with his Seminoles.

Not even an extra week to prepare or an opponent they’d beaten every previous time they’d met could prevent the defending ACC champions from hitting another new low in a season riding the express elevator toward rock bottom.

With 5 games left to play and no remaining margin for error just to reach bowl eligibility, it’s hard to imagine how much worse things can get still for FSU.

It’s gotten to the point where opponents no longer have to find ways of beating the Seminoles. They only need to sit back and wait for them to self-destruct, as they did Friday in a sloppy 23-16 loss at Duke.

The game and in many ways, the entire season can be summed up in one 7½ minute sequence midway through the first half at Wallace Wade Stadium.

It started with Duke’s Chandler Rivers intercepting a Brock Glenn pass on a 3rd-and-9 play and returning it for a 36-yard touchdown. On the first snap after the ensuing kickoff, Glenn fumbled the ball away as he was taken down by linebacker Ozzie Nicholas.

That turned into another Blue Devils touchdown.

Glenn then compounded his comedy of errors by throwing another interception, again on the first play of the possession, to gift Duke a field goal.

Three plays, 3 turnover, 3 Blue Devils scores that turned a 3-0 FSU lead into a 17-3 deficit from which the Seminoles never recovered.

“I think there’s been times when the result is a negative play,” Norvell said, “we’ve allowed that to carry over.”

It’s a snowball that began rolling with a loss to Georgia Tech the week before the season officially and has been growing and picking up speed ever since.

Less than a year after going undefeated during the regular season, beating Louisville for the ACC championship and getting snubbed by the College Football Playoff committee, Novell’s Noles have won only once in their first 7 games this year and are 1-5 against conference competition.

Friday’s loss to Duke is arguably the worst yet. Not because of the caliber of the competition. Manny Diaz’s Blue Devils are no slouch at 6-1 (2-1 ACC). But because of what the result represents.

This is the first time in 23 meetings, 2 of which don’t count on the record because they were vacated as punishment for NCAA violations, that FSU has lost to Duke.

Even when Matt Doherty let most of North Carolina’s impressive standards of basketball success fly out the window during his disastrous 8-20 season in 2001-02, his Tar Heels were at least able to preserve the distinction of never having lost to Clemson at home.

This Seminoles team doesn’t even have that much to hold onto.

Other than winning out and perhaps getting to play for a chance at eating a giant animated Pop-Tart, there isn’t much left to salvage from this lost season. And that’s not likely with Miami and Notre Dame coming up on the schedule.

They’ve dug themselves into a bottomless pit so deep that only an eternal optimist can see a way for them to dig their way out.

“I believe in these players,” a defiant Norvell said. “I believe in what we do and how we do it. I can’t allow these guys to get caught up in the record right now because our record is what it is. It’s still about where we go and what we do with the opportunity we have in front of us.

“That is our focus. Our focus last year when we won 13 games, it was the same thing. If you let yourself get distracted by the circumstance you miss out on the opportunity to get better.”

The focus might be the same. The execution is a different story.

The Seminoles outgained Duke 291-180 on Friday. They had 13 plays of 10 or more yards compared to only 3 for the Blue Devils and ran the 2nd half kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown.

But they offset those advantages by losing 4 turnovers, allowing 6 sacks and 11 tackles for loss, committing 9 penalties for 65 yards, having a field goal blocked and dropping 3 passes, one by Kentron Portier in the end zone for what would have been a momentum-swinging touchdown late in the first half.

They’re the kind of mistakes bad teams make. And even after an open date Norvell said was spent working primarily on improving fundamentals and preparing young players to play a bigger role, FSU continues to make them.

“The team we have and the people we have, I’m going to say it again, it’s the right people. For multiple reasons, it’s not working right now,” sophomore linebacker Justin Cryer said. “At the end of the day there’s nothing we can do about it but work. We’re going to get through it. There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. We’re not going to stay in this situation forever.”

Apparently, Norvell’s optimism has rubbed off on his players.

So at least they’ve got that going for them.

Brett Friedlander

Award-winning columnist Brett Friedlander has covered the ACC and college basketball since the 1980s.

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