Mike Norvell: "It Was A Challenging Week"

Florida State head coach Mike Norvell met with the media after the 28-14 loss to NC State.

NOTE: Click the video above to watch the press conference.

On Jordan Travis’ status and the offense’s ineffectiveness in the first half...
Jordan was out tonight, obviously didn’t suit up. We’re hopeful to get him back soon. It’s a challenging week for everybody. In the community, there was some sickness that spread that really just made it challenging. There were 25 guys that missed at least a couple of practices. We struggled and you could see a little bit of that, some continuity and execution there early. 

The guys who are on the field, you’ve got to be able to execute out there and I was really pleased with our guys. Jordan was unavailable, there was no chance he could have played today. He’s doing everything he can. They’re just tough, and there’s a lot of guys that didn’t feel great that pushed to give everything they could to be available. It’s one of those things that definitely added to the challenge but we’ve got to be able to go out there and execute at a higher level. 

We’ve got to give credit to NC State, there were some missed opportunities that we had out there early, just too many three-and-outs, not really any effectiveness. They weren’t moving the ball down the field, whether it was dropped passes, missed throws, missed opportunities there at the beginning of the game. It was a very poor first half.

On the offense’s first half struggles and how it changed...
It was not necessarily a common theme, it was kind of a mixture of a lot. We want to try and establish the run game but obviously that didn’t happen. When we were trying to take things out on the perimeter, we weren’t effective in that as well as we needed to. I think that’s one of the things we did better in the second half, there was some intermediate passing game to push the ball. We had a couple untimely drops here and a missed pass there early, and not being able to get things established in the run game really made it challenging for us.

They could force us into those longer yard situations and we’re not a team that’s operated really well in those third-and-longs. We found ourselves in too many of those tonight. That was the story of the first half. The second half, we did a better job of being able to move the chains. I thought our guys did a much better job in the intermediate passing game, taking the action, pushing the ball, trying to push the ball more vertical and soften some things up. It was good to get those couple touchdowns but we had some missed opportunities there in the fourth.

On the run game struggles...
We’ve played the top two run defenses in our league in back-to-back weeks, two of the best in the country. There’s still things that we can do much better and we need to do much better. There were some missed opportunities, and we made a couple adjustments there at halftime. Thought we could create a little more space but overall we’ve got to do a better job with coaching, trying to create some of that space, and we’ve got to take advantage of some of the opportunities that we do have. Sometimes, playing the teams like we’ve played the last couple weeks, they take away the run the way that they have, we’ve got to be extremely efficient in the passing game. It was something we just didn’t do good enough. We showed we’re capable. I thought the third quarter, we showed some flashes of what we could do and what we’re hopeful for, but we just weren’t consistent enough throughout the course of the game.

On if not being able to run was a byproduct of missing Jordan Travis...
Not really. There were a handful of plays that we probably could have squeezed a little more. It’s a defense that does a good job of working to take away that space that’s created, they do a good job of leveraging the football. The quarterback run was something could have a chance throughout it, we tried to mix and match some wildcat things but they did a nice job of winning blocks and creating leverage throughout. We’ve got to do a better job of it. Obviously Jordan’s legs are pretty dynamic, so it definitely has an effect on the game, teams have to account for two different things with him, but I don’t know if they keyed in on the backs any more than what they would have done even if Jordan was there. 

On McKenzie Milton’s performance and if he was affected by the team’s illnesses...
He was earlier in the week. I know there were a lot of guys on our team that were affected by that this week. We tried to do all the things we could do. It started last Saturday right before the Clemson game, we had a couple guys and tried to do all we could in regards to that with travel and different things there. It’s not just the team and campus, it’s something that’s gone throughout the city. So it was a little bit challenging with some parts of that this week. I thought McKenzie responded well. Didn’t get off to the start we wanted, but I thought that he responded throughout the course of the game. He did a good job in that response, in what he was doing and how he was trying to operate.

On going for it on 4th and 4 in the 4Q...
It became a possessions game. I thought our defense was doing a nice job. We had, I think, three 4th-and-1s, all decisions that could go either way to go for it or not. We went for it on one of them, passed on a couple others. We struggled with field position there early, so just trying to flip the field, hopeful to create an explosive play or create a takeaway there to flip the field. 4th-and-4 we started looking at possessions and opportunities, and just felt good. They just put the ball at the one-inch line and being pretty effective with throwing the ball, it was a go range for us and just with the time and things, and how the game was playing. Wanted to be aggressive. We got to a 3rd-and-10 and had an opportunity for a stop, and we didn’t capitalize on the opportunity then they got the big play touchdown on the screen. We got to where we wanted to be with the aggressiveness on the fourth-down call and that’s what factored into it.

On how big of an opportunity the Miami game is to get back on track...
Each game that we play is a big game, but no doubt about it next week is huge for our program. It’s huge for each of those guys that are down in that locker room. It’s one of the greatest rivalries in college football. This is something that is extremely important to those kids, to our staff. We’ve got to continue to work. We’ve got to clean up the mistakes that are costing us and keeping us from being successful. It’s gonna be an extremely emotional game. I’m excited to be here at home. We’ve got to come to work tomorrow and make sure that we’re playing the lessons and put everything we have into this week.

On the team’s inability to close games out...
It comes down to just a handful of those plays. You put yourself back in position by players going out there and playing at a really high level. Even with their backs against the wall, the response is something I’m really pleased with within this team. When you get down to it, just the consistency of execution and the consistency of that playmaking, those playmaking opportunities. When you look at those three teams, they all have had pretty good success and have established what they’ve been doing. And we’re in our process of that. This team has fought, this team has continued to respond. But we’ve got to be more consistent to be able to finish off games that we put ourselves in a position [to win] there at the end.

On if there was some extra pride for the game because of the team’s struggles during the week...
It was a challenging week. It was emotional for all of us. I love these kids. You see them sick, hurting. Our athletic training staff, they did an unbelievable job throughout the course of this week just to be able to help our guys so we could go out there and practice to the best of our ability. There were times we literally had one player at a position group. First practice of the week, on Tuesday, I think we had four offensive linemen that were unavailable. And then you see the kids and how they’re trying to respond to go out and to be able to perform, and how much they care. Take all of that emotion and I told them in the pregame today I was proud of them. I was proud of them for what they did throughout the course of this week. There were guys that were not available, that did not play, on both sides of the ball, and I hate it because they missed an opportunity. And these opportunities are so limited for a collegiate student athlete. What they pour into it, I don’t take that for granted. Nobody wants to start the first half the way we did, but that rally they had in the third quarter, I was really pleased. We just gotta be more consistent in our operation there to be able to finish that game. I don’t question these guys’ heart, I don’t question their determination. We’ve just got to continue to work to get better.

On the decision to onside kick at the start of the second half...
We tried to seek that spark. We felt if the opportunity presented itself, if there was something there [we’d do it]. Great execution by Parker to be able to go out there and execute the kick. That really gave us a jolt there to come out for the second half. For our offense to go down and score a touchdown, to be able to go get another one [after]. It was what we needed. We were lagging  a little bit in the first half. We talked about earlier, offensively, just kind of gave us that jolt. It was field position, probably a little easier for our guys to capitalize on it.