Mike Norvell: ‘It wasn’t about Alabama tonight, it was about us’

Mike Norvell and Florida State conjured up something special Saturday against No. 8 Alabama, stunning the Crimson Tide 31-17. Coming off a 2-10 season, not many expected much from the Seminoles this Fall.

Norvell believed and the redemption arc began on August 30th. The head coach kept everything about this game in-house, never truly focusing on what Alabama was in terms of the perception.

A rebuilt team throughout the course of the offseason, it turned out to be a team that you might not want to trifle with. Now, there’s a new a perspective on Florida State.

“It wasn’t about Alabama tonight, it was about us,” Norvell said postgame. “It was about this team, the players that I get to coach, the work they poured into it. This game … it was a highly anticipated game. It was one that they are talented. They’ve done extremely well throughout the years, and the guys that they get to — that we competed against.”

So, was the 2024 season a blip on the radar. Based on what the Seminoles did to Alabama, it might’ve been.

“But my focus not at one point was ever about them. It was just about this team going to be what I believed it could (be),” Norvell said. “We’ve been able to see guys that have come into the program that are growing and developing, like Micahi Danzy tonight to be able to have the plays that he had. Ja’Bril Rawls had a couple of really nice plays. That tackle there at the end, that is a defining play for tonight. You talk about dominant contact, that’s what it looks like. From a corner there to stop a guy half a yard short, that was huge.”

Norvell mentioned the combination of the homegrown players and the new additions all played a part. Heck, QB Thomas Castellanos was the most outspoken, practically guaranteeing a win over the Crimson Tide without having played a down after transferring from Boston College. But he bought into Norvell’s vision and shut a lot of people up.

“But guys that have grown in the program, and then guys that have come into the program and bought into this — the understanding of what it is to be here,” Norvell said. “We’ve seen that before, but I believe this team definitely has great capabilities of it. Tomorrow we’re going to show up, and the objective is still going to be the same — go get better. And they’ve embraced that since January, since they’ve stepped foot on this campus as a football team, whether they’ve been here for multiple years or they just got here, and I thought that showed up tonight.”