Urban Meyer, Mark Ingram recall benefits of having 'pissed off' teams in light of Tommy Castellanos comments

The Florida State Seminoles are looking to bounce back from a difficult 2024 season with a new-look offense led by Thomas Castellanos at quarterback. He doesn’t lack for confidence, and ahead of their opening matchup against the Alabama Crimson Tide, Castellanos spoke to On3 and called out Alabama.

“I’m excited, man,” Castellanos told On3’s Pete Nakos in an exclusive interview. “People, I don’t know if they know, but you go back and watch every first game that I played in, we always start fast. I dreamed of moments like this. I dreamed of playing against Alabama. They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

Unsurprisingly, that’s led to some pushback around the sport. Recently, that included from The Triple Option, where former coach Urban Meyer and running back Mark Ingram explained how it’s going to be used as motivation for the Crimson Tide.

“A grown ass man team that’s pissed off,” Urban Meyer said. “Oh, my God.”

Thomas Castellanos has spent time at UCF before he transferred to Boston College and eventually Florida State. In Tallahassee, he’s been reunited with Gus Malzahn, who runs an offense that Castellanos is hoping to thrive in.

Ingram would chime in that Florida State can expect some physicality from Alabama after the comments from Castellanos. Certainly, as a coach, Meyer would look to use that as motivation in preparation for the game ahead.

“Yeah, you’re getting better,” Meyer said. “That’s what I’ll tell you. Your Tuesday practice and Wednesday practice with a pissed off team. I used to walk off the field, look at my coaches, and go, ‘Damn. Let’s strap it on now. This is going to be a good one.’ As opposed to a lethargic team. So, you’ve got two ends of the spectrum. Pissed off. Then, non-focused, lethargic.”

Ingram doesn’t necessarily have an issue with that Castellanos is confident in that way. The issue is giving an opposing team any extra motivation.

“You have a team that has goals and aspirations anyway. So, now you have a player for you to play in the opener, talking mess about they don’t think they can stop me,” Ingram said. “Which you’re supposed to feel like that. You’re supposed to have that confidence, but to put it out there for the other team to be able to have extra motivation, I think that’s benefiting the other team.”

Holding that frustration can take over for an entire season. Urban Meyer has seen it plenty of times. Whether or not that happens here remains to be seen but it could easily take over.

“Yeah, I’ve seen that before. The 2008 team was an example when I was at Florida,” Meyer said. “Mark can tell you his 2009 team… Georgia beat us the year before and that went from January, February, March, April, May, all the way through October when we played them. Yeah, it carries you. But, once again, once it gets cranking, I use it for preparation and the start of the game.”

Thomas Castellanos and the Crimson Tide won’t have long to wait to face off against one another. Florida State is hosting Alabama to open the season on August 30th.