It’s gone from bad to worse for Florida State.

What’s worse, the Seminoles might still be nowhere near rock bottom.

In the span of just 4 short weeks, Mike Norvell’s team has devolved from the preseason ACC favorite and projected College Football Playoff participant to a punch-line.

The memes all but write themselves.

You can’t sue to try and get out of your conference and have your fans spend the entire offseason bombarding social media with posts about how you’re too good for that conference, then go out and lose your first 3 games and not expect to take some ridiculing.

The defending ACC champions opened themselves up for even more trolling on Saturday with a 20-12 loss to Memphis.

Mike Norvell’s old team.

At home.

With an open date to prepare.

And the toughest part of the schedule – against Clemson, Miami and Notre Dame, 2 of which are on the road – yet to come.

The Seminoles lost 7 games in each of Willie Taggart’s 2 seasons in Tallahassee in 2018-19, then matched that number again 2 seasons later under Norvell. Before that, you have to go all the way back to 1975, the year before Bobby Bowden arrived to transform the program into a national power, to find the last time FSU suffered more losses in a season.

Considering that most of the problems that led to this latest loss were the same as those contributing to earlier defeats against Georgia Tech and Boston College, it’s not an exaggeration to say that every possibility is on the table for this Seminoles team.

At 0-3 with all their preseason goals already out the window, including the projected win total of 9.5 set by FanDuel sportsbook, the focus of Norvell and his staff has shifted from contending for championships to holding things together enough to find the 6 wins needed to salvage bowl eligibility.

“I definitely know what it takes to win games. I know what it takes for a team to go out there and be able to execute and play at a high level,” a visibly dejected Norvell said after his team’s 3rd straight defeat, all as a double-digit favorite. “We all have to do a better job of what we’re doing throughout the course of the week. Obviously challenge the players, the coaches. Because we can’t continue to come into games and then see things that absolutely are not a part of what we and who we are show up.”

Or maybe this is exactly what and who the Seminoles are this season.

Sure, it’s only been 3 games. But that’s enough of a body of work to start coming to some conclusions about the personality of a team. Especially when it continues to make the same mistakes and struggle in the same areas every time out.

While FSU’s defense did make some strides against the Tigers, especially in the pressure it put on the quarterback and in stopping the run, its offense is like an annoying commercial that keeps getting played over and over during every timeout.

Predictable. And Frustrating.

An offense that led the ACC in scoring at better than 34 points per game last season currently ranks dead last in the league at just over 15 points per game. The Seminoles are also 17th out of 17 teams in total offense (274 yards per game) and rushing (52 ypg).

Their performance on Saturday – 12 points, 238 yards, 37 on the ground, with 4 sacks allowed – did nothing to help those standings.

It’s a dramatic drop-off that makes you appreciate Jordan Travis even more. Not to mention the Playoff committee’s decision to leave FSU out of the bracket once he went down.

It would be unfair to place all the blame for the Seminoles’ offensive woes on Travis’ replacement DJ Uiagalelei, but he is the trigger man. And while the other playmakers Norvell plucked off the transfer portal to surround him have yet to live up to the hype, DJU’s performance has left a lot to be desired.

He either can’t or doesn’t throw the ball downfield. His 7 first-half completions went for only 31 yards. And other than the 67-yard strike on which he connected with Malik Benson early in the 3rd quarter, he failed to complete a single downfield throw.

It’s gotten to the point where most coaches would start thinking about making a change. If for no other reason than to shake things up by giving his offense a different look.

But other than DJU, his only options are Brock Glenn – whose 2 deer-in-headlights performances against Louisville and Georgia last year don’t instill a lot of confidence – and true freshman Luke Kromenhoek.

“It’s easy to point to one person and say, ‘This has to be better.’ But at the end of the day, we all have to be better,” Norvell said. “We’re always evaluating every part of it. The way we work in practice, the things we do … we’ve got to make sure that we’re helping each other go out there and play to the best of our ability.”

They didn’t exactly do that Saturday.

Running back Roydell Williams lost a fumble on FSU’s 2nd play of the game. Return man Lawayne McCoy muffed a punt after his own blocker ran into him. Both turnovers led to Memphis points.

And that was only the tip of the iceberg.

There were any number of other drops, penalties, mental mistakes and missed opportunities. Little things that for the 3rd time in as many games this season added up to a big problem for a team that expected so much more of itself.

It’s somehow appropriate that Norvell’s post game press conference was cut short when a fire alarm went off and everyone in the room was asked to evacuate the building.

Things are already getting worse.