Florida State looked like a dominant force early Friday night in Louisville, jumping out to a quick 14-0 lead. The Seminoles’ defense set the tone early with consecutive stops, giving FSU total control. But everything turned on a single play midway through the second quarter: FSU got stopped on 4th-and-goal at the 2-yard line, turning the ball over and leaving Louisville backed up against its own end zone.
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Fast-forward three quarters, and the Cardinals had schooled FSU, scoring 35 consecutive points to break the game open and racking up nearly 400 rushing yards.
When asked about the specific play, head coach Mike Norvell noticed an immediate shift in his team’s body language, noting after the game that his players looked and played completely differently from that moment on.
“Bad plays are going to happen. You know, freaking rise up, do your damn job, and go play the next play. And that’s why they have 400 yards rushing tonight. That’s awful,” Mike Norvell said during his postgame press conference.
He also admitted that the defense repeatedly failed to execute when it mattered most, allowing Louisville to take advantage of missed assignments and poor positioning.
“And you take however many were on just explosive, explosive runs. Some kind of player in position, times that they did a good job, we didn’t execute the way that we needed to. So it comes down to all of us. Like I said, it comes down to me. I mean, what you see is we’ve got to be able to take a deep breath and start in the situation, and then same thing on all sides. I mean, nobody kick off.”
The defense completely fell apart against Louisville’s outside zone rushing attack, which repeatedly stretched FSU’s linebackers till they lost edge discipline. Getting stopped on 4th-and-goal at the 2-yard line completely drained FSU’s energy. Instead of Louisville exposing a hidden scheme weakness, the Cardinals simply capitalized on a team that completely lost its footing. On the very next snap following the goal-line stand, Isaac Brown broke free for a 97-yard touchdown run, not because of a clever scheme design by Louisville, but due to a total breakdown in defensive discipline and tackling angles. Brown finished the night with 235 rushing yards.
Louisville found it easy to run the ball, leaving Florida State’s coaching staff searching for answers. Norvell called the defensive performance awful and said both coaches and players needed to stay calm and do their jobs when things went wrong.
The problems also showed up on special teams. Florida State struggled to stop Louisville’s kick returns, with players failing to close gaps and get past blockers. Norvell said his staff knew special teams would be important, but the players did not execute the way they needed to.
He also pointed out that while Brown was a talented running back, Florida State made things easier for him by failing to follow the basics on special teams.
After giving up nearly 400 rushing yards, reporters asked Norvell whether the team needed to make major changes to its practice routine. However, the head coach questioned why people were already talking about going back to the drawing board when the defense had played well in previous games.
“I mean, but we have shown, you know, a week ago we weren’t talking about the drawing boards, but we gave you freaking nerds, freaking yards, a rushing a week ago,” Norvell said.
Holding Virginia to just 37 rushing yards earlier showed that Florida State’s defensive scheme actually works when guys do their job. The total collapse against Louisville was heavily driven by a complete failure by the players to execute basic fits on the field, resulting in 397 rushing yards allowed.
Norvell said the problem was not that his coaching staff had suddenly forgotten how to coach. Instead, the players failed to use what they had learned in practice when it mattered most during the game.
The loss also extended Florida State’s road losing streak to 13 straight games, adding to the team’s struggles away from home.
Norvell stressed that college football is about learning from mistakes and improving every week. However, he made it clear that Florida State’s performance against Louisville was not good enough. The team needs to improve its execution and learn how to respond when things go wrong.