Andy & Ari On3 - Louisville DESTROYS Florida State in the second half | Is this the end for Mike Norvell at FSU?

Episode Date: October 10, 2026

Join Andy & Ari HERE tonight following the conclusion of the Florida State-Louisville game from L&N Federal Credit Union Stadium. As FSU jumped out to an early 14-0 lead in the first quarter, Louisville managed to tie the game quickly in the second quarter. Join Andy Staples and Ari Wasserman live as the fellas react to this pivotal Friday night ACC game.Our show is presented by Polymarket!New User Offer: Deposit $10, get $50 upon sign uphttps://app.polymarket.us/S8ac/ON3Trade on College Football games every week on Polymarket. Download the Polymarket App with code ON3 for a $20 bonus upon sign up.18+ only. Restrictions and eligibility requirement apply. Not available in all jurisdictions. Trading is risky. 100% loss can occur.Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/joinWatch our show on YouTube! https://youtube.com/live/aGbl7nowAWE Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari WassermanProducer: River BaileyInterested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Reaction edition of Andy, welcome to an instant reaction edition of Andy and Ari on three presented by Polymarket and Ari. Did we just see the end? I don't know when the end will come officially, but did we just see the end? Yeah, we've been at the end. And I think that all of the people here in the chat and everybody who watch the game will, we'll always have that first quarter when it felt like Florida State might make things interesting this year, or at least put fans in Tallahassee in a bit of a pretzel. But, you know, after that game, Andy, I don't know. I mean, what's left. And, you know, I think that we will eventually touch on the decision in early

of the game when Florida State was up 14-0, deep in the red zone, fourth and goal. They go for it a few plays later. You see Isaac Brown rushing for a 97-year touchdown, flip the entire game, and then they went on a 41-6 run, you know. And you'll hyper-focus on that. decision. But to me, it's how is it possible for Florida State to field a team that's that bad? Right. And that's the thing. You can make the decision. Whether you go up 17-0 or stay up 14-0

doesn't change the fact that you then gave up 44 points after that. Yeah. It wouldn't have helped you. The fact that you couldn't adjust defensively, that you couldn't adjust offensively, like Louisville adjusted to what Florida State was doing. Floor State was moving the ball up and down the field on Louisville and Louisville's defense adjusted. Florida State's defense once Louisville figured out what Florida State was trying to do to them defensively, never adjusted and in fact just made some boneheaded mistakes. Like that second Isaac Brown touchdown, like a safety rolls away. There's nobody there on that side of the field. But let's just say that this is the worst call of all time just for arguments. Okay. How many minutes of football does it take before you start playing

again. You know, like, I understand that, uh, it wasn't that they stopped playing. They stopped adjusted or they never adjusted or never made the correct adjustments. And I think that's, this is the problem. This is what the Florida state fans been screaming about when it came to Mike Norville offensively, when it came to Tony White defensively. And that is what drives them crazy. And it's what drive, what drove them crazy about us saying after the Virginia win, are you sure? Does this change the way you? feel and they said no we've seen this movie before that happened with wake forest last year and then nc state happened yeah so what what's changed well nothing's changed right you know it's just

funny because i'm even looking in the chat here and you're seeing the fourth down and people are like you know really in on that and it's that's not it that's not the story of the game and who who's to say you made this point where watching it too even if they go up 17 nothing who's to say that i say brown doesn't score on the next right on his first touch of the next position so maybe it maybe it's a 65 yarder instead of 97 yards. Yeah. So, you know, I think that, you know, we came into the season before games were even played, Andy, I think we knew this was the end of the road, right? Like, we knew going into it, unless he did some sort of miraculous turnaround with a underfunded roster, which was, you know, not a fair request to begin with. The reason why he was in that position at all was because they were ready to move on in terms of, you know, any sort of hope for turning it around now.

I don't know. And you know, you just highlighted that they haven't won a road game since 23. You're in the city where they last won a road game. So that was they last won a road game in Gainesville in 2023. So that was eight days before the snub. That was, you know, remember Jordan Travis had gotten hurt a week before. Like that's how long ago it was since Florida State won a road game.

And you saw they started this one hot. It felt like everything was working. It felt like a continuation. of what it worked against Virginia, and then Louisville started to shut it down. Yeah. And then it never came back. And like you allowed yourself, like, I know a lot of people were following along on our back and forth because we watched the game together about like what are the things that you can

say that can make Florida State fans enraged about moving in the right direction or back-doring playoff discussion, all these like funny bits that we were doing. But for a minute there, you could allow yourself to think, well, maybe they unlocked their offense. Maybe last week's drubbing of Virginia was the beginning of a pretty competent team that could get to eight or nine wins. You know, and I thought that that wouldn't have been a crazy thing to start thinking about. But then the way that they fell apart after that fourth down call and just didn't even, you know, have an answer for anything that Louisville was doing. And let's not forget,

Louisville came into the game in the dumps too. It's not like they're playing a national championship contender right now. Louisville had lost to Wake Forest and NC State in consecutive weeks. And they were absolutely against the wall. And think about this, at 14 nothing with Florida. State driving, it had to feel like the walls are closing in for Louisville. Obviously, Jeff Rahm's not on the hot seat, but it had to feel like for this season, the walls are absolutely closing in. And they punched their way out of this. I mean, we can talk more about Florida State and we should. But Louisville needed this win very badly. And if you look at the rest of the schedule, Syracuse, which is starting his third string quarterback this week in Malachi Nelson.

Stanford is pretty much the Dormata League, except they beat Georgia Tech, which is their next opponent and then we'll see what it happens to North Carolina between now and four weeks from now. Yeah. Well, I mean, I feel like where they were in the first five minutes of the game and where they are now looking ahead, you have a chance of salvaging something. And you know how crazy this conference is too. So they have two losses, right? You know, one of being out of the conference. Yeah. One's the old miss. So it doesn't even count any it matter. So, you know, they will probably be in the ACC race just considering the fact that the next five games on their schedule seem like surefire wins. So, you know,

really big for them, but I think the story of this game here, Andy, is obviously Florida State and, you know, how do you do this? When do you do this? You know, who do you go after? All these different things are going to be the topic of our conversation on our show. But that felt like the final chapter. And you highlighted a tweet that you sent to the group chat. I'm sure, you know, Riverwell posted here now, but that game felt like a microcosm of the entire Mike Norville tenure. Yeah. It went, you know, went up. Now, Now, Norville's tenure didn't start at the 13 and O mark. They had a little bumpy patch getting there.

But then they get there and then it's just straight downhill afterward, which is exactly what happened in this game. Everything's working. You have one hiccup that, I mean, this was something they could control. The snub was not something they could have controlled. But you had one bad thing happen and all of a sudden, everything fell apart. That's... the Mike Norville tenure in a nutshell.

Yeah. I mean, is not making the playoff going forward on fourth and goal up 14 nothing? No, no, because again, you control the play call, you control the decision.

But it feels like the program after they were left out of the playoff did what they did when they missed the, when they gave up that 97-yard run today. Yeah, and that's the thing like the 97-yard run on its own could have been a blip. Yeah. It didn't have to destroy you.

You were still up seven after. Yes. like you were losing or something. But then, again, Louisville adjusted defensively, Florida State couldn't adjust back offensively because what Florida State, the plan Florida State had to come in, which was you're going to scare Louisville with Ash and Daniels running ability. You're going to read option. Usain Croma. You're going to run him up the middle when it's there. Ashton Daniels is going to pull when that's there. And then they were using that to have him, you know, run around and make some plays through the air.

And then Louisville kept hemming him into the pocket. That was, that was the thing they started doing later in the game is making Ashton Daniels stay in the pocket, make him throw from the pocket, which is where he's proven to be inaccurate. Yeah. Man, that was just, and then the gashing. Right. And then Louisville's offense just absolutely gashing them.

Lincoln Keenholz, by the way, does deserve some credit for this because he would keep some drives alive. He'd get out of pressure. He's hard to bring down. And keep the chains moving. But Isaac Brown, just the ultimate home run threat. And this is, this is like the purest Isaac Brown stat line you're ever going to see. Because this is not a 25 carry a game back. He is the, we're going to give it to you 15 to 18 times a game. And hopefully you're going to break some. 17 carries, 235 yards, two touchdowns. So that was an average of 13.8 yards of carry is a yeah that is a that is the ultimate icy brown game right it is very easy to get your average up when you have an 97 yard touchdown it does not and i also think that that was the longest

touchdown play allowed in florida state history so um obviously you can only have two or three there's only two more yards to go though but it it wasn't a pretty performance and you know i i wonder about louisville moving forward because lincoln keenholds is is a really fun player to watch yeah nothing else. So, yeah, they're not, they're not dead in the ACC race. And I think that's one of those things that you thought maybe they would be, but they have two losses. And, you know, I don't know that NC State is going to factor into a head-to-head tiebreaker situation. Wake Forest might. Well, I mean, also the Louisville win will might factor into it, too. I mean, sorry, the SMU win, sorry. Yes, Louisville beating SMU. Yes. So you could wind up in a three-way

tiebreaker situation that, well, they fixed it this year, right? Yeah, totally fixed. They fixed. Nothing weird is going to happen at the end of the year. What could possibly go wrong in the ACC? Yeah, but I'm reading the comments here, Andy, and you were going through the message boards and stuff. And, you know, I read one just now that said,

I've been an old fan for 34 years. I'm not watching this team play again until they're, you know, with the new coaching staff. Does Mike Norvell finish out the season? As an ASU fan, I'm afraid Kenny D is the next Florida State coach. Kenny Dillingham, former Mike Norville. offensive coordinator. Ooh, that's, that's a bad one.

Going to be 13 straight road losses for Mike Norval. Bobby Bowden lost 12 road games total between 1987 and 2000. I need to take that. I need to take that back up. I need to take a picture of that for my personal files for later. That's a good stat. So Bobby Bowden, by the way, between 1987 and 2000, Florida State finished in the top four of the final AP poll every single year.

Are those the years? Those are the years, 87, 2000. Yeah. So, I mean, the single greatest run in the history of coaching, probably it'll never like think about as dominant as nick saven was even he couldn't do that this will never happen again and but florida state being a nationally elite program can happen again and did happen again after this period because jimbo fisher brought him back there now i imagine some of you in the chat are going to go okay jimbo's out there and he wants the job no no no no don't

take that date that's not that's not it there's reason he's being paid 77 million to not work but this is still a good job. I guarantee you if it opens, there will be quality coaches who want this job. This is not a bad job. And this is a situation where I do think the administration, and I don't think it's fair to Mike Norville, the way they handled it,

because they should have just gotten rid of him at the end of last year, instead of bringing him back and then underfunding the roster to make this happen. Because all you did was turn off your fans for an entire. off season. The most ironic part about this is that even if Florida State were perpetually seven and five and eight and four, the type of team that you thought they might be by watching the first quarter against Louisville tonight, that wouldn't have been good enough. I think the reality of being in a situation where your team is just bad, like fundamentally bad across the board against everybody in the ACC is the level of depth. I think that great proud

programs can also sink in this era. You know, like we talk so much, Andy, about how, teams in 2025 and beyond can rise up and accomplish things that they've never accomplished before. But are we wondering, is there a reverse of that? We're proud teams that don't fund their roster properly can get down to being bad in a way that their fan base is frankly unaccustomed to. So Alexander, Ballinor here, Oregon State coach incoming. I don't know if you're kidding or not. Jamarca Shepard, especially if he's bringing, imagine if he's bringing Jesse Legree and Brin

Atkins. Yeah, those would be two. I mean, that would be. Yeah. That would be something. I hadn't thought about that one, but if you're making your hot boards, that's possibly something you want to throw on there.

Yeah. This is another good comment here, Andy. Whoever Florida State gets there have to be a good high school. Yes. That's also part of like where this thing fell apart. A good evaluator developer of quarterbacks. The most damning stat of the Mike Norville era is the record of quarterbacks that he's

recruited out of high school at Florida State and elsewhere. It was like two wins total. Yeah, they've been terrible elsewhere too. Yeah. Well, and like one of the wins is Brock Glenn in the ACC championship game. I think the other one of the other ones is Tate Roddemaker in the Florida game that is their last road win. Yeah, that's crazy. Yeah.

And the thing with this is we are still trying to figure out what the perfect formula for roster building is. I think we have a pretty good idea that it's a mixture of both doing both well, high school and NIL transfer portal, you know, era stuff. but the thing with Florida State that was just really hard to overcome when you're like evaluating them as a as a whole is that their one season that they had that was 13 and O in the playoff snub was largely based off of transfers. And a few of those transfers were important multi-year guys like Jared Verse was on the team, but he was good or he was on the team the year before. It wasn't a one-year rental. But Mike Norvell throughout his entire tenure at Florida State has never gained any footing whatsoever in consistent high school football recruiting. you know, they've never, I think that like you can go count how many five stars they've landed on one hand.

I don't know what the stat is off the top of my head. But his best recruit was going to be Travis Hunter and then Travis Hunter bolted. So, you know, and I wonder if Travis Hunter would have gone to Florida State. He's the type of transcendent town that might have been able to change things. But whatever, you know, you lose guys. And he did a frankly not a very good job at all with in state talent. And I know the importance of that and how it's viewed is a little bit different than it was in 2020. but still, it's still a major aspect.

Do you think Miami got up good just in the portal? Yeah. Miami is awesome because they recruit out of high school really well. And develop especially offensive and defensive linemen. It's got to be a combination of both. And Florida State has just been missing that under Norval's tenure. So I don't know when it actually, like officially happens. But it feels like it's going to happen.

It's just a matter of when now. I know the Florida State fans in the chat. In fact, River throw up. the tweet that somebody sent us right before we went on live. We advertised this live stream and said, if you ain't about to report a firing, don't even hit the stream button. Well, we can't make

the null that person who tweeted at us happy here because we don't have that answer for you. We don't know when it'll happen, but I think the answer to whether it will happen feels pretty solid right now. Yeah, I'm with you on that, Andy. It's time to turn the page

and the thing that you said earlier, too, about having a fan base checked out an entire offseason. You know, the hope for them is that they hire somebody and maybe it'll be the right hire, maybe it won't be, but gives them a reason to get fired up against. Because like it's the apathy is just awful. And I know it's a funny bit of Florida State doesn't want their team to win in the time being because they don't want to lose out on the chance to get a new staff and all these

different things. And it was cool for, you know, five quarters. But I think it's time to finally turn the page and start thinking about the future. We'll see when they do that because Florida State plays my Miami, and then they're off, and then they play Clemson. So we will get an answer to that. You'll probably cease again later tonight because there's a very interesting game. Well, it's not an interesting game, but it's a very interesting potential result right now

because Iowa is just bashing Washington in Seattle right now, bashing them. Not what we expected from Washington. Washington is in Hawkeye hell right now. Yeah. I will put them in the very special Iowa version of hell. So we will talk about that. When that game ends, we'll see you then.