FSU football's bizarre special teams chaos defies explanation: 'once in a lifetime'

Imagine the dumbest way to possibly lose a football game, and then watch Florida State put it on full display in front of the entire country.

Is this a bad comedy or a horror film that never ends? It depends on what side of the fence you're on, I guess.

You truly can't make up what happens to the Seminoles, especially in losses. On Friday night, it was back-to-back muffed punts in the fourth quarter.

The first couldn't even really be called a muff. It was such a bad kick that it went 15 yards short of where Squirrel White was standing and hit K.J. Kirkland in the head while he was trying to set up a block for the return. Of course, the ball bounced right back to the punter.

The second was a straight-up mistake from White and an all but fitting end to a whacky Friday in Raleigh.

It's a scene that Florida State's coaches and players are still trying to wrap their heads around.

A 'Once In A Lifetime' Play

Nov 21, 2025; Raleigh, North Carolina, USA; NC State Wolfpack tight end Justin Joly (7) celebrates his touchdown to win the game during the second half of the game against Florida State Seminoles at Carter-Finley Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images | Jaylynn Nash-Imagn Images

The mistakes were extremely disappointing to head coach Mike Norvell, particularly with the emphasis Florida State puts on special teams.

The Seminoles were coming off a touchdown drive and only trailing 14-11. They basically put the nail in their own coffin by giving the Wolfpack two extra chances to put the game away.

"It's one of those things, guy kind of shanks the punt, and K.J.'s working to get away, but the ball hits him in the head," Norvell said after the loss. "Obviously, it takes a good bounce towards their punter, I know he's able to recover. The second, we've got to field that ball, so two catastrophic things that happened to us in the fourth quarter."

"You've got to go perform, you've got to go execute. We put a lot of time in, we put a lot of time in every part of this program, and what we're doing to prepare for each game," Norvell added. "When you go out and you don't play to the level you're capable of, it's extremely disappointing. Obviously, that was a huge part of this game, and there's huge plays in every phase that we had to be better in."

Senior quarterback Tommy Castellanos isn't sure the play can replicated.

"Nah, I've never seen anything like that. He [K.J.] was doing his assignment, was blocking a guy. Squirrel's calling Peter and telling him to get out of the way," Castellanos said. "It's just things that you probably never see that ever, ever. You'll probably never see that again, that's once in a lifetime."

Redshirt senior linebacker Stefon Thompson, who led the Seminoles with nine tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss, and 1.5 sacks, noted that you can't even really prepare for something that unpredictable.

"That was very unique, and that was very disappointing they got it back, I was hoping we got it back. It just happens, you can't tell the future," Thompson said. "Stuff like that is unpredictable...you can't even really train for it."

In some of these losses, it truly feels like everything that can go wrong will go wrong. In Virginia, Duce Robinson bobbled a potential game-tying touchdown in the end zone. On the West Coast, it looked like the Seminoles possibly scored as time expired. And against NC State, football turned into ping pong during every punt in the fourth quarter.

All roads seem to lead to painful results for Florida State, and Norvell can't really explain why.

"I don't know why some of the things that we've seen, I mean, you can take any of the road [losses], any of them," Norvell said. "Whether you're called short on a play that looks like it goes in, whether you have a ball bounce off a guy's head and goes directly to somebody, you can pick a number of different things that have shown up on the road. I've got faith that everything does happen for a reason."

"There are some things that are unexplainable of how or why, but that's what we have to live with," Norvell added. "I'm not pulling back, I'm going to continue to push forward with everything that I have to get it fixed, to get it right. Every opportunity and every day I have, that's what it's going to be."

"I can't answer the question of how or why, but hell yeah, it's frustrating," Norvell continued. "I do believe that there will be a lesson to be told and a story to be told throughout this, and I do have faith it does happen for a reason, but it is frustrating to go through it all."

Florida State will have one final chance to regroup from its road struggles next Saturday in Gainesville.

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