ESPN analyst believes change is coming if FSU football struggles again

ESPN host and broadcaster Matt Barrie appeared on the "Gramlich & Mac Lain" show and discussed a variety of different topics, including his rise within the sporting news company, the Atlantic Coast Conference, and collegiate athletics as a whole.

Near the end of his appearance on the podcast, the hosts spoke with Barrie regarding the state of affairs in Tallahassee as the Florida State Seminoles attempt to regroup after a 2-10 season.

Barrie is first asked how much better the 'Noles must be. He responded by saying, "It better be better than [2-10]."

The FSU-centered conversation begins at the 36:25 mark.

"It better be better than that. And I've called a couple of [Boston College] games with Castellanos as their quarterback," Barrie said. "And I think Florida State's getting a quarterback. You bring in Gus Malzahn, it's gonna be a good marriage. It's gonna be a marriage that has to work, or else there's gonna be change in Tallahassee."

The ESPN anchor continued, sharing his thoughts on the FSU football program's transfer portal approach.

"And I just can't wrap my head around being that good the year before," Barrie said. "Like, bad for Florida State, with that tradition-rich program, like, I'm being serious here. Bad Florida state is 9-3, 8-4 right? You go to [2-10], you've hit rock bottom."

"And what I believe Mike Norvell found out, and I think he's a really good offensive mind ... is you can't live and die by the portal. Every year, you need to build a program that [is] 75% recruit and develop, 25% plug the holes," Barrie added. "And by the way, Florida State's one of those programs, you can retain them, recruit and develop and not worry about going to the portal, because it's Florida State, you want to stay."

After Barrie remarked on the success that Florida State had in the portal which translated to the 2022 and 2023 seasons, but compared the acquisition of DJ Uiagalelei to the Dallas Mavericks trading Luka Doncic.

Oct 5, 2024; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles quarterback DJ Uiagalelei (4) in an arm cast before a game against the Clemson Tigers at Doak S. Campbell Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Melina Myers-Imagn Images | Melina Myers-Imagn Images

"First of all, I'm not going to get into the DJ Uiagalelei thing. At this point, we're just piling on. To me the DJU thing at Florida State was like the Mavericks trading Luca Doncic, it's like, in what world was that a good idea? I think now Norvell has to understand that. I need to bring in — There's a lot of high school talent in Florida," said Barrie. "There's a lot of high school talent in Georgia. You need to build the foundation and have the portal guys plug the holes. Because if you get a portal class that's ranked high, but they don't mesh and they don't sync, you're not going to win. It's just not going to happen."

Barrie then called the 2-10 2024 season a "bad, bad outlier," and warned those in Tallahassee that it cannot become a trend in any way shape or form.

"They've got to find a way to get back into the ACC conversation. Because what you don't want people to say about Florida State on the outside, you don't want them to say 'the 13-0 season was an outlier.' You want last year to be the one of people saying, like, 'Oh, that's not Florida State,' you don't want the reverse that like '13-0 Florida State, that was just luck,' and it shouldn't be because Florida States, is a place that should be dominant in college football."

The Florida State Seminoles open their season against the Alabama Crimson Tide on Aug. 30 in Tallahassee.

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