Mike Norvell is at the center of Florida State’s current turmoil. Norvell gave back $4.5 million to the school for further off-field development. It’s nothing emblematic of a head coach willing to put the collective good ahead of his interests. However, the question it begs is, does it translate well with the team’s existing unrest, the portal volatility, and the NIL conundrum overall? Well, with a ten-day NCAA Transfer Portal window still in effect, the schools are busy realigning their roster for the last time before the regular season kicks off. Unfortunately, the Seminoles registered more losses than gains during the transfer period. However, one thing they can’t compromise is their QB room after Trevor Jackson pulled the rug. But how can the rest of the offensive depth chart match up?
Norvell swooped in on Boston College transfer QB Thomas Castellanos this offseason. He’s already thriving under his very familiar OC, Gus Malzahn, in a two-month roadmap. The head coach didn’t unsee his early leadership, which is sparking a new, fresh aura in the Seminoles’ QB room. ‘The Master Class,’ in the eyes of Florida’s strength and conditioning coach, Castellanos, is going all hog to win over the locker room. All he needs is the proper backup from the receiver room to emerge as a true game-changer. How deep is the water there?
“You’ve lost three guys, got a ton of young players, so you absolutely have to get at minimum one more player out of the portal,” insider Brian Smith put Norvell on notice, readdressing his existing portal needs. “How do you line up everybody I don’t know? And here’s what I mean by that, Deuce Robinson could play flanker, or a boundary. Could even play him a little bit in slot, but you don’t have got plenty of guys that could play there,” Smith continued, smelling doubt over their key transfer wide receiver’s ideal role in the offense.
Norvell put the money on the recent USC transfer receiver Robinson, not without garnering a promise from him. What’s that? Well, the FSU head coach asked him not to join forces with the Seminoles unless and until he’s ready to tap into his best self. Robinson accepted the challenge with a wide smile and even wider zeal. He is grinding himself in the practice to back Castellanos up. But it’s still on to the final output. “So, I don’t know how they’re going to label him as an offense, and I don’t know how the media members like myself should label him either. A football player might be better, but he’s your number one overall,” Smith added.
“Elijah Moore, I think, is the backup boundary. That’s also what’s known as. I agree that the question is, can they find somebody else to come in and help with that? I don’t know,” the insider felt a strong lack in the receiver corps depth as Moore didn’t see much playing time last season. The departure of players such as Jalen Brown, Jordan Scott, and Hykeem Williams left a significant void in the receiver corps. The remaining two underclassmen might not get the job done for your new QB, Thomas Castellanos.
“I need to see something with that Tae’shaun Gelsey,” Smith spearheaded another loophole, claiming a quick fix. “Somebody else has to step up, and there aren’t a lot of big-bodied guys that really fit.” However, he sees some silver lining in the red zone, but the WR room is going to be the youngest in the nation and has yet to prove its worth on the field. Apart from Squirrel White and Deuce Robinson, nobody looks like an immediate contributor. What do the overall departure woes look like for Norvell?
The root of the FSU’s Mass Exodus hits deeper than the surface
Not like a freshly plucked rose petal, for sure. The hot list reads nothing but a holocaust: offensive lineman Jaylen Early, wideouts Hykeem Williams, Jordan Scott, and Jalen Brown—gone for good. But the major stinging point is when? The timing made it extremely hurtful for the program to bear. However, some departures looked to be dead weight. On the April 20 episode of Warchant TV, Jeff Cameron said, “I don’t think anybody is shocked to learn that Hykeem Williams is going to transfer. It never worked out.”
“He’s emblematic of the problems they’ve had. The problems they’ve had in development and the problems they’ve had in recruiting. They have slung and missed on a lot of players at key positions, and even when they’ve gotten one, they failed to get the most out of him.” He is not just raising a flag about a particular player. No. It’s more generic than you take it as. He is directly pointing out the problem at FSU.
They can recruit and convince, but they fail to develop. Result? The constant portal thinking. Players come and realize they don’t fit the system at all. FSU took in 16 transfers in 2024, but instead of developing proven playmakers, they let the doubt linger longer than it should, making a loose-fit depth chart for the upcoming year.
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