Thomas Castellanos on Florida State loss to Virginia: 'I think we needed it'

Thomas Castellanos and Florida State saw their hopes of an undefeated season dashed Friday night with a 46-38 2OT loss to Virginia. Castellanos talked a lot of smack this summer leading up to a then-upset of Alabama to open the year.

But he and his teammates were humbled Friday night. Coming in at 3-0 and ranked No. 8 in the country, Florida State was thinking about an ACC title and the College Football Playoff.

With Miami on deck next week, the Seminoles can’t afford to fall flat on their face again. Castellanos knows that and felt the loss was necessary.

“I think we needed it,” Castellanos said postgame. “I think (we were) riding high, you know, feeling it, kind of smelling ourselves, feeling good. A lot of adversity. I think we’ll respond and, you know, bounce back. We have to really quick here. But I think we needed it. I think it’ll be good for us moving forward.”

Castellanos was 18-of-32 for 254 yards, one touchdown, two interceptions and 78 rushing yards and one touchdown. His last interception was on fourth down during the second overtime, which caused the end of the game and field storm from the Virginia fans.

“You come on the road … you got to play disciplined football,” Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said. “And then we talked about our focus, you know, controlling things that we can control. And we had some self-inflicted issues there early in the game that you can’t have. I don’t think any bit of it was looking past it, mean, I knew you know, just with the environment … I knew what their energy would be, I knew what our energy was going to be and, you know, I don’t think it was anything from a lack of preparation. But you know, we did not execute like we needed to.”

Now at 3-1, Florida State is looking up in the standings a bit. Castellanos knows the challenge around the corner is Miami coming to town. Perhaps the extra day of rest, preparation and reflection will help.

But, as he pointed out, there’s little room for error now. Losing to Miami next week would give FSU two conference losses and they’d be in a bigger hole trying to win the ACC and get to the playoff. But a QB like Castenallos doesn’t lack confidence and will be back better than ever next week.