Wake Forest Football Opponent Preview: Florida State Seminoles
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The good thing about rock bottom is that there's nowhere to go but up. The Florida State Seminoles quickly found what rock bottom is, following up an unbeaten championship campaign with a College Football Playoff snub, subsequent 63-3 stomping in the Orange Bowl, and a 2-10 disaster of a follow-up campaign in 2024. So, from here, there's nowhere to go but up.
But with three new faces atop the program (two coordinators and a starting QB), Mike Norvell has his chips pushed to the middle or risk removing his name from his office in Tallahassee. While it's easy to write FSU off and consider 2022 and 2023 as flukes, FSU will improve and has some interesting pieces to do so. Your Wake Forest Demon Deacons visit Florida State in Week 10, and we'll preview that game then, but for now, let's survey FSU in 2025 and what a rebound season could look like.
We're nearing kickoff for the 2025 college football season, and that means tune in every week with Wake Forest on SI for an extensive preview on every foe the Demon Deacons will play this season.
2025 Florida State Football At A Glance
- Name: Florida State Seminoles
- Stadium: Doak Campbell Stadium, Tallahassee, FL (capacity: 79,560)
- Head coach: Mike Norvell (6th season)
- Offensive coordinator: Gus Malzahn
- Defensive coordinator: Tony White
- 2024 record: 2-10 (1-7 ACC)
Florida State Football In 2024: Making History
Florida State objectively made college football history in 2024. It was the single largest collapse, following up a 13-0, ACC Championship season in 2023 with a 2-10 bottoming out that carried on the disappointment of being snubbed from the College Football Playoff the year prior. A Week 0 upset turned into an 0-3 start that included subsequent losses to Boston College and Memphis–both at home–and 0-3 turned into 1-10 against FBS opponents.
Transfer QB D.J. Uiagalelei was atrocious and was benched for Brock Glenn, who was also benched in favor of Luke Kromenhoek. The offense finished 129th in points per drive (bested only by teams like Kent State and Purdue), and the defense phoned it in for a 105th national finish. Even stars like EDGE Patrick Payton (now at LSU) couldn't make any sort of noise. A 42-16 loss at SMU really cracked the foundation, and the defense's low effort would surrender 52, 36, and 35 down the stretch.
At first, it was a lack of talent and some poor coaching choices. But that quickly turned into apathy from the players and embarrassing blowouts chiefly the result of that apathy.
With the seat flipping from ice cold to scorching hot overnight, Mike Norvell sent nearly his entire staff packing and the roster, too. A busy 2025 offseason is his last hope at remaining in Tallahassee.
Florida State Seminoles Offense Preview
The most notable change heading into 2025 is that of offensive coordinator. With his time in Orlando growing stale, Gus Malzahn resigned from his spot as head coach of UCF to head FSU's offense. Malzahn's system focuses on establishing an efficient run game through creative play calls and RPOs that have made several programs good at scoring (UCF, Auburn).
Ousted Boston College QB Thomas Castellanos is the new signal-caller. In his short time at FSU, Castellanos made some headlines with his confidence at the microphone – comments some might see as reckless, particularly with regards to FSU's Week 1 game against Alabama. Though just 5-foot-11, Castellanos is a gifted athlete capable of running the option offense and extending plays.
The cast of weapons is, frankly, short. WR Squirrell White (5-foot-10) transfers in from Tennessee, the two lead backs in Roydell Williams (5-foot-10 and recovering from injury) and Jaylin Lucas (5-foot-9 and also recovering from injury), and sophomore Lawayne McCoy (6-foot-1) make up a group of shifty athletes that'll benefit from Malzahn's creative play calling; even TE Randy Pittman is just 6-foot-2. UCF transfer Duce Robinson will be the jump ball specialist at 6-foot-6.
Four starters along the offensive line are transfers, but the unit brings in 129 career starts and has solid size. The issue is depth. Should any one of these five miss time, there's just not much talent behind them to sustain a rush-heavy offense. (There's a compounding problem that resulted in this that we'll go over later.)
Malzahn will put his chips on a unit full of shifty east-west playmakers with minimal size and vertical threat. The good news is, this unit cannot get much worse than last year.
Florida State Seminoles Defense Preview
Unfortunately, all of the 'Noles' best defenders are gone. Payton (LSU) is gone, as are fellow defensive linemen Joshua Farmer (NFL) and Marvin Jones Jr. (Oklahoma), plus do-it-all safety Azareye'h Thomas (NFL). Two of the successors are smaller-school transfers in Deante McCray (WKU) and Deamontae Diggs (Coastal Carolina). Linebacker Blake Nichelson and safety Shyheim Brown are the top returning defenders in terms of production.
A nice addition comes in the form of corner Jeremiah Wilson from Syracuse, one of the top portal additions according to 247Sports and On3. Outside of Wilson, Norvell did little to bolster a secondary that, (a) loses more than it gains and, (b) was among the worst in causing turnovers or preventing big plays. There's still a real concern that if the new pieces up front don't consistently generate pressure, teams will be able to throw the ball all over FSU.
But that's not to say FSU did nothing to address its porous defense – quite the opposite, actually. Norvell went and hired one of the country's best and most respected defensive coordinators in Tony White. White led Nebraska's defense to a 23rd and 8th overall finish in the last two years.
Talent depth is a significant issue on defense as well, particularly up front, but White will help improve FSU by installing a new 3-3-5 system. With an opposing cast of offenses that includes Kent State, Virginia, Stanford, and Wake Forest, the 'Noles' defensive numbers are bound to increase dramatically.
Best Case Scenario For Florida State
Making two notable coordinator hires is a massive step in the right direction for FSU. And after last year's flounder, there is almost physically nowhere to go but up. It's the understatement of the year to say Florida State will improve in 2025. But by how much?
I'm fairly confident that Malzahn's offense with shifty athletes like Castellanos and White will be pesky for many opposing ACC defenses. He has a history of excelling despite having undersized QBs, and Castellanos is familiar with the Malzahn system – Castellanos' first collegiate stop was UCF under Malzahn. Last year, FSU's rushing offense averaged less than 83 yards per game, third-worst in the country. It will be one of the two or three most improved individual units in the country.
White also has a track record of not coordinating defenses that suck. Even at Syracuse with minimal resources, he managed to vault the Orange into the top half of the FBS before heading to Nebraska. There are productive players in Tallahassee, and we won't see another finish outside the top 100.
The Noles' schedule is exceedingly manageable. For every road game at Clemson and Florida, there are home contests against Kent State and Wake Forest. This is a team that will at least compete for a bowl, but 7-5 is the absolute ceiling.
And 7-5 might not be enough to keep Norvell around.
Worst Case Scenario For Florida State
Last-grasp efforts rarely work out in the grasping coach's favor. Norvell did successfully buy more time after a 5-7 season in 2021, but he did so through special quarterback play and several tall downfield threats at receiver. FSU, at the very least, objectively, does not have the latter. And from what we've seen from Castellanos–a two-time transfer who was benched for multiple reasons at Boston College but for playing well wasn't one of those–he's probably not a world-beater here.
I take Castellanos' Alabama statements pretty seriously. Though the game is played in Tallahassee, kicking the hornets nest that is the Crimson Tide (Saban or not) isn't a wise decision. The spread is approaching two scores and, unless FSU pulls out an outright upset, I believe this game could be very ugly.
How does the roster respond after being beaten to a pulp thanks, in part, to comments made by the newcomer QB?
Another genuine concern comes in what FSU lost to special teams. The Noles turn over at kicker and punter, both All-American selections, to break in new faces. When it comes down to one-score games, special teams must be sound.
And, finally, there's concerning scouting comments quoted in Athlon Sports' preview magazine. "...they're not recruiting at a truly elite level and the guys they get aren't developing." Based on that, the program outlook is pretty dire. Things could really fall apart, if not midseason, in a final stretch that includes at Clemson, Virginia Tech off a bye, at NC State, and at rival Florida.
3-9 isn't out of the question, though I think a more reasonable floor is 4-8, should things not totally unravel in the locker room like last year.
2025 Florida State Seminoles Schedule
Date | Opponent |
|---|---|
Aug. 30 | Alabama |
Sept. 6 | East Texas A&M (FCS) |
Sept. 13 | BYE |
Sept. 20 | Kent State |
Sept. 26 (FRI) | at Virginia |
Oct. 4 | Miami (FL) |
Oct. 11 | Pitt |
Oct. 18 | at Stanford |
Oct. 25 | BYE |
Nov. 1 | Wake Forest |
Nov. 8 | at Clemson |
Nov. 15 | Virginia Tech |
Nov. 21 (FRI) | at NC State |
Nov. 29 | at Florida |
Wake Forest Opponent Previews
- Week One - Kennesaw State
- Week Three - NC State
- Week Five - Georgia Tech
- Week Six - Virginia Tech
- Week Seven - Oregon State
- Week Nine - SMU
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Brett is the ultimate college football traveler, currently en route to experience a game day at every FBS stadium. He is a former Division I recruiter at Bowling Green and Texas State, and his writing background includes analyzing NCAA betting markets. Also a high school football coach, Brett lives and dies by the gridiron. Follow along on all socials: @ roadtocfb.