Locked On ACC - Daily College Football & Basketball Podcast - BOMBSHELL: Florida State's SHOCKING Turnaround | Can Seminoles CONTEND for ACC Title?

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

FLORIDA STATE SEMINOLES: ACC Contenders or Pretenders? Breaking Down FSU's 2023 OutlookCan the Florida State Seminoles football team challenge Clemson's ACC dominance? Host Alex Donno and guest Brian Smith analyze FSU's championship aspirations, dissecting their revamped offensive line and quarterback Tommy Castellanos' potential impact. Smith offers candid insights on Mike Norvell's coaching, fan confidence, and crucial recruiting battles. The discussion covers defensive standouts like Daryl Jackson, offensive concerns, and the team's cultural shift. With a challenging opener against Alabama looming, will FSU's offseason changes translate to on-field success?Tune in for an unfiltered look at Florida State's path in the ACC and beyond. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Florida State Seminels can contend for the ACC championship this year, and here's why. You are Locked on ACC, your daily podcast on the Atlantic Coast Conference. Part of the Locked-on Podcast Network, your team every day. We are less than 11 weeks away from college football season. Still a long way to go, I guess. Time is crawling by. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains. He is Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack.

Thank you so much to the everydayers for making Locked on ACC your first listen and your first watch. We're available free wherever you get your podcast. We're free on YouTube. We're part of the Locked on podcast network, your team every day. Today's episode is brought to you by GameTime. Download the GameTime app, create an account, and use code Locked on College for $20 off your first purchase. So we're going to focus on the Florida State Seminals in this episode. We will talk some recruiting, how Florida State's doing against the rest of the ACC.

will give you the reasons why they won't contend for an ACC championship, but we'll start with the reasons why they can. And we're bringing on here host of Lockdown Seminoles and host of the portal, Brian Smith. Now, you know, Brian, listen, Vegas and Fanduel thinks Florida State's going to be a lot better this year. Seven and a half is the over under after winning just two games last year. New quarterback and Tommy Castiganos, a lot of new coaches, including Gus Mileson coordinating the offense. Can we start on the bright side? What can the stars align and make

the Florida State Seminoles a contender in the ACC this year? I don't know if they can be a contender with the way Clemson's built. I think they can contend for second. I mean, in a perfect world. Four new offensive linemen from the portal that are all starters at their prior schools is a heck of a way to start. Castellanos fits the offense that they're trying to run. Ironically, played for Gus's freshman year at UCF. They still got the big fella in the middle of the defense. I mean, there's so many parts on defense they're moving around. I need to see it.

But they've got talent there. And Tony White was a really good defense coordinator at Nebraska. Brought Pot Roast, A. Terrence Knighton with him, the D-Line coach, a really good recruiter, really good coach. And they've still got Certain in the back end coaching a lot of talent. But there's a lot of moving parts. So while in a perfect world you could contend, I still think Clemson's class above everybody else in the league.

But Florida State, could they win eight or nine games? Sure. They could. You know, get Gerald Jackson and some of these other guys play hard all the time, which quite honestly was a problem last year. They can be in every game. But there's all the moving parts. And as we've seen forever in college football,

that usually leads to conundrums in the middle of games, timeouts being wasted, turnovers, players going the wrong direction. First year, offense and defense have new coordinators. That is a lot. So it's going to be exciting. I can tell you that because as much as I follow Florida State, it is really hard to pick. And oh, by the way, not that it's ACC,

they open with Alabama. So there won't be anything left in the gun after that because you come out play conservative in that game, you will get whacked. So we'll know what they have from game one on. So let me ask you this. You know, a lot of people say it's not about your exes and O's, it's your layers and Joe's.

But do you think there is value in having multiple coaches that were either head coaches or coordinators on national champion or undefeated teams. Because, you know, you've got Norville over there who he's gone 13 and 0. And before the playoffs, that team was a bowling ball of butcher knives even without Jordan Travis. You've got Mao Zahn, who's won national championships as a coordinator. Is this a situation where you're saying the coaching of this team could raise the level? Or are you like, yeah, I'm not really so given what we see talent-wise as well? I think it'll be pretty good overall.

My only concerned about that, this is just a historical thing. Norville actually coached for Malzon at one point when he started his coaching for, I believe in Tulsa, they've known each other a long time. But when it's third down and two and you're playing Miami or Florida or NC State, whatever team it is, who's really making the play goal? I don't care what coaches say publicly in press conferences because they do three things in press conferences. They lie, they lie, and they lie.

But at the same time, it's ridiculous. It's, you know, they're about as honest as you and I say, and we have hair on the top of our heads getting, but it's just, it's just not the way it goes. But, well, Dono's in that ballpark, too. But anyway, the point is still the same. You have to be able to have congruency with any team sport, basketball, football, lacrosse, I don't care what it is. Those play calls are my biggest concern. However, as I noted, I am extremely high on the defensive staff. and I can't tell you how many times I've had posts on locked on Seminoles

where somebody was complaining about the former defense coordinator, his name shall not be mentioned, and we move forward. They've got a better staff. I mean, they were number nine in the country two years ago at Nebraska and run defense. And no offense to the Huskers, it's easier to recruit to Tallahassee than it is to Lincoln. It's not close. So Florida State's defense could be really good,

and I think that'll work in time, but it is a complex defense. I've got to use three safety. in different ways. There's some gnashing of teeth about how it went this spring, but that's just part of the learning curve. It is what it is. And unfortunately, again, Alabama is game one.

So I'm not sure how that's going to work out. That's concerning. But my bigger concern is still play calls, special situations, third downs, two-minute offense. Who's calling the plays? And is it going to ruffle any feathers? Now, what would you say are going to be Florida State's strongest position groups this coming year?

That's a pretty good question. It should be defensive line. This is an example. Kenton's a big guy, but next to Darrell Jackson, I don't know if Kenton would be a big guy. He's 6-6, 335, and he's like super athletic. Like he's an animal, but he didn't play hard all the time last year. For whatever reason, the light went on in spring by all accounts. He's a first-round draft pick physically.

Now he needs to show it. He's going to play nose. He'll play some D-end. They'll move him around in a multiple front. So I think the D-line will be one of the better ones in the league. And, of course, if you went in the trenches, you've got a better chance to win. The offensive line, if it stays healthy, could be one of the better ones in the league, too. But it's constructed with transfers.

How does that work? Again, all these guys they brought in, they spent some cash. They're starters. That's the good news. But offensive line is about five guys playing as one. Ken, when you went up against guys, whatever team, Carolina, Wake Force, whatever, And you saw a unit that was all new, I bet you smiled more because you're not going to have the same same situation with the double teams or timing and all that stuff. It's just harder.

So it makes it easy for you. Oh, absolutely. When you talk about Wake Forest, they, with that long mesh and all that they used to run, they needed those guys to be together three, four years. You see somebody over there with three starts under his belt, you get excited. You start getting real happy. So let's make Florida State fans real happy to end this thing off, shall we? In terms of the ceiling for this team, you say everything goes right. The football gods are smiling upon the Sunshine State and Tallahassee in particular.

What do you see this team's best outlook possible? 9 and 3 or 10 and 2, but I just, with all the newness and they're not as deep as they need to be O-line depth, it's not remotely. FSU standard, not shocking. Wide receiver, they had three guys transfer out. That's another concern. A couple good players they brought in. Robbins Night Deuce is going to be an NFL place.

A 6-6-220-pound kid. We're good. Squirrel White. But they got all these guys that were freshmen last year. They stepping up. So there's enough questions where I think they're going to be the epitome of a college football roller coaster. They could beat Miami and lose the weight for or some of the body else. It wouldn't shock me.

I know I'm picking on Dono right here because it makes him want to fall off the chair. But it's funny is I have been. unrelated bone to pick with you. And it's not really my bone. Like I don't, I don't care what you say. I enjoy offseason banter. But I do have to get Brian back on Locked on Cain's soon because he sent out this, this ex post. Oh yeah. Florida is going to beat Miami. And again, I don't care about predictions. And Brian's a good

friend of mine, but my, my, my constituents, my locked on Cain's listeners are very upset at Brian. So I got to bring him on to answer for his crimes. But all right, so we talked about the ceiling for Florida State. When do we come back, let's talk about the floor. And I do think the Seminoles are a high ceiling, high floor, sorry, a high ceiling low floor type of team. You want to keep

it locked right here. We're only getting started on this brand new episode of Lockdown ACCC. Folks, we're only getting started with game time. And first of all, we've said it before, we'll say it again. This is the only ticket app that we use here on Lockdown ACC, and there's good reason for that.

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Terms apply. Again, create your account and redeem code locked on college. for $20 off. Download the game time app today. Last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. Thank you for making Lockdown ACCC, your first listen and your first watch today. We're joined by Brian Smith, the host of Lockdown Seminels and the host of the portal. I am Alex Dono from Lockdown Cains, of course, Kenton Gibbs from Lockdown Wolfpack. All right, so, Ryan, you talked about like a ceiling of possibly like a 9 and 3, 10 and 2 type of year for Florida State, which would be massive coming off of 2 and 10.

What about the floor? Talk to me. I think they could be a 5 and 17. I mean, it's possible. Here's the problem. Thomas Castellanos is one of the freakier athletes in college football. That's the good news. The bad news is that kid has zero fear.

I've known him since he was a junior high school. He is the kind of young man that is going to go 100 mile an hour all the time. If he goes down early in the season, I mean, for the entertainment value, Donna, we might call you to put on the Florida State helmet. but I don't trust any other quarterback they have this year. So you can't run Gus's offense with somebody that's kind of athletic. That doesn't work. He's tried number of times.

It's never worked. You need somebody that is a bona fide athlete. And to put it in perspective, for those who don't know, Thomas was recruited by Clemson, Georgia, and Florida State, like running back white receiver DV. Like, he's a freaky athlete. But if he gets hurt, they don't have a guy to run Gus's offense. And then the real questions about who's. calling plays and how you do stuff. I just don't think it's going to work. Secondarily,

it still comes back to the point about the mesh O-line, play calling, the new systems. You know, I'm not sure. And if things aren't going really well up front, you're in a bunch of trouble regardless, but teams are going to stack the box against Thomas anyway because the receiver room got a couple good guys, but anytime either one of those guys come out, man, I'm just going to tell you, I'm going to man up, or I'm going to play at least show that look early on it before I changed it after snap. You can force a lot of things. Florida State's going to run into some heavy boxes. So I think offensively it could be a slow role.

Again, Alabama's game one. That worries about as much for me as anything because if they could beat 31 to 10, the psyche from last year, I know Kent can talk about this too. Like when you were at Cass Tech and you went and beat somebody 56 to 7, you probably knew before that game started. When you guys killed somebody, you were at NC State, you could read body language. So if NC State or anybody else late in the year, like last two games for FSU or at NC State and half Florida, it's not exactly an easy way to end or year. If they're limping into the end, it could just be a catastrophe because otherwise I think they're about a seven-win team.

What is it? Fandu's got them seven and a half. If I had to pick, I'd say seven wins, but eight or nine, if everything just goes right with the health is possible. but that's a lot to ask in that league because you got Miami, you got Florida, you got NC State, you got Clemson. Like the schedule doesn't leave a lot of room. And it's otherwise proven they don't even win the mid-level games. I don't know which one it's going to be, but one of those games, based on what's happened recently,

Florida State's going to drop. You've got to prove it to me. I'm a see-it guy. So I got them at seven wins because I just think there's too many moving parts. And that's kind of the downside of it. they get injuries, it's questionable in the bowl get. So we talk about injuries, we talk about the moving pieces, but let's just say, you know, perfect world, injuries are off, nobody gets hurt.

What is your position of concern where you're saying, even your top end talent, I'm not sure if that's at the level to compete or that's a little bit of a concern. Like even if, even with healthwithstanding, this group may be a bit of a concern area for me. linebacker's experience that brought over a kid from Nebraska that had started his junior year didn't play as much last year for some reason, but they brought him over to Tallahassee. I don't know if they're loaded there. They've got a couple of guys.

Nicholson's I really liked, but he's just got to go where the ball is headed. Like he's just got to learn his game. He could really run. I'm concerned about depth there. And otherwise, it's just offensive line. Like those guys, like one of them started at bandy, one of them started at Wake.

one of them started at Ole Miss, all P4 and stuff, but were any of them dominant? I've heard the center pedibone, the kid was at Wake, is the best of the world. Like he's assimilated, he's the guy, and that's good news because you want your center making the line calls, making sure everything's on the up and up. But again, any of them are,

how many of those guys are going to go in the first three rounds of the draft? When you think about Florida State, I mean, Walter Jones, different guys they've had, Brett Williams, that's not what I'm seeing here. So Gus has openly said that he wants to run the ball,

give or take 60% of the time. Here we come inside zone, then RPO off of it. It's not real complex on what he's trying to do. And if Tommy's healthy, that's the right guy for it. But if they're not opening holes, the entire offense

goes into a bunk and then your defense is on the field all day. It's just right back to what happened last. I don't know if anybody, I don't know if we'll ever see an ACC offense that bad again. Like that was so bad, it was just unbelievable. But they are very predicated on that offensive line. There's talented guys, but I don't know how many first round picks that you can say on third and one, we're going to run over Kenton over here because this guy's just better.

You know, I don't know if they have that. And that concerns me because, again, Miami's deigned, as Dono can tell you, Florida is Deline. Some of these teams, if you don't have a masher, yeah, it's going to be hard. Their schedule is not friendly. Even NC State, they got some guys. That's not an easy slate to go against defense line. And, of course, Clemson's the line.

That's a whole other animal. You hear from Seminoles fans every day. What's the temperature around Mike Norvell? Like, how much confidence does the fan base have right now in the head coach? 5%. Like, it's unbelievably low. 5%. If you go to, for the comedy sense, for the comedy sense, if you,

If you go to my Locked on Seminoles YouTube page, pick whichever podcast you want. Right now it's pretty much all recruiting because of the time of year we're in. And he gets screamed out more about recruiting than anything else. But nobody has faith in him. It could be any topic you want to pick. Recruiting's top of the board because that's his least valuable asset. But you can't win two games of Florida State. Look, you can't.

And there's no nice way to say this. But if his contract would have been towards the back end, he would not be. employed right now. He was owed 50 million, give or take. That's the only reason he's at Florida State. I'm not afraid to say it. I don't work in the local media. I'm not going to take phone calls from the AD because I'm sure the local media, every athletic department does that. Now I don't know is exactly what I'm talking about. What? But it, look, I'm not here to support Forte State. I'm here to tell the truth. He would have been fired. And it's because they looked like garbage for much of last season. They didn't have effort. They looked undisciplined.

They didn't have any plan. Besides that, it was fantastic. So there's no reason to think that they shouldn't be upset. And I've tried to bring up positive points of things that I like about him. He's improved with recruiting. He's done a good job with the staff bringing in guys, but everybody's in show me mode. Like everybody knows, obviously based on this podcast, I'm a glass half empty guy, but the entire Florida State fan base is flipped to that. He has maybe five supporters on all my, I've got 6,000 some subscribers, maybe five of them like Mike Norville. Okay. It's just the way it is.

Like, go through the comments. Just have fun with that. It's not very good. So let me ask you this. In terms of the things that went wrong last year, you talk about the effort wasn't there, the plan wasn't there. That sounds like a culture thing. It sounds like overall the culture had a little bit of a rot there.

There was a lot of turnover in terms of the roster and the staff. So in your opinion, not talking to talent, not talking all that stuff, do you think that the culture has meaningfully shifted in a positive way? Or is it more of a like, guys were saying the right things. I'm not sure if I believe it. Are you like, I believe it? These guys look bought in. Everybody's telling me they're bought in. Everybody's, you know, rolling the boat in the same direction.

Where would you stand in terms of the culture? It's headed in the right direction. the biggest thing is some of the veterans that came back as well. There's no nice way to say this. Getting rid of certain veterans are not going to name names that went to other schools, they were okay with it. I'm just going to let it be at that. Sometimes it's the old saying of addition by subtraction.

Knowles had a little bit of that. Walker room disagreements, whether it's NIL, who's getting the ball or whatever. There's a million different stories about that around college football. Every team has it. Florida States was at an all-time high last year. They looked disgruntled, and they certainly didn't look like they had much effort. For your entertainment value, if you want to go watch the North Carolina game in the second half and see how not to play defense with him standing around as guys running dives for nine yards,

there's all you need to know. But Darrell Jackson's kind of the starting point of that. He was the guy that everybody thought was going to turn pro after last year. Then he played like garbage about half the reps and played like a superstar on the other half. Just when he wanted to play. He was bought in. When I heard that, it gave me some hope because he's the guy like, he's first guy off the bus. Like he's first round draft pick talent.

If he's bought in, he got Stefan Thompson, the guy I mentioned a minute ago, the linebacker come in that's bought into their system. They should be pretty good defensively. And Tommy's a hard worker. And from all accounts, it sounds like he's bought into it. He knows Gus. They get along. So I think they're headed in the right direction. But here's the key.

As Kenton or anybody else that's played, Major Ball will tell you. It doesn't matter until you have adversity. That first time it's third and 11 on your own seven-yard line against Alabama. Give me a call then, and we'll watch that play. Then we'll discuss. Because if it goes badly, how do you react to it? That's where we've got to get to to find out the answer. You know, Brian mentioned earlier, he's been getting some complaints in the comments about recruiting.

I want to dive a little bit deeper into that because, again, like any big three schools in the state of Florida, like the floor should be pretty high in recruiting. You want to keep it locked right here. We're not done yet on this brand new episode of Lockdowne ACC. Thank you for making Lockdown ACC your first listen. For your next listen, make sure you check out Brian's shows. And yes, he's a two-show man like Kenton and I both are. Check him out at the portal where he covers everything.

NIL, of course, this year, a lot of recruiting, transfer portal. The Portal podcast is available free wherever you get your podcast. Same thing with Lockdown Seminals, which Brian does an awesome job hosting. And you mentioned this time of year, you know, official visit season. A lot of commitments are coming up at the end of June into July. You talk a lot of recruiting on your show. You talk a lot of recruiting on the other shows like hours on locked on. I see the Seminoles at this moment, Brian, according to the 24-7 sports composite,

have the 28 ranked class in the country with 12 verbal commits. Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Like how do you expect Florida State to stick the land? landing in this cycle. That's a great question. They're on a little run right now with doing really well. They had some key business this past weekend. It has added James Carrington, a defensive lineman out of California.

That's a really unique player. They're trending for some guys, including Chauncey Cannon, a five-star out of Booker High School in Sarasota. They're in on Crittenden and some other guys that are really, really good defensive linemen. Defense is headed in the right direction. But O-line, let's just say I'm about as nilip. nervous as you can be because they are in on a million guys, but they're missing on all of them.

That's a concern. This trend of just using the portal has got to go away, man. You want to supplement with the portal, not to be your main vice, especially O-line, where continuity is so important. And secondarily, I talked about it this morning on Locked-on Seminoles. Jaden O'Neill, he's committed to Oklahoma, the quarterback they're trying to get, well, he's still committed to Oklahoma, he's going to visit there. He's finishing up his FSU visit on Tuesday.

If they don't get him, I don't know if they're going to get a quarterback recruit at all. We all know that is a no-no in college football recruiting. When you miss it quarterback, how long does it usually go three, four years later? Not good. So while I understand the portal is available, and I like Kevin Sperry, the kid they got last year, they need to get a guy that's a viable option to run Gus's offense in every class. Where the chips fall after that, so be it. Let the players decide it.

But you want to have as many bullets in the gun as possible. a little concerned about quarterback recruiting. And then finally, they're in on a bunch of receivers that got a couple. They need a big body guy. We'll see D-line recruiting, I think, is headed in the right direction. They're in on a lot of DVs. I think defense will be okay. It's not, I mean, it's not hard to sell Florida State.

I mean, you know this. It's the same thing. I know Florida State Miami hate each other, but it's the same thing. Like if you suck at defensive recruiting in the state of Florida, you need to be fired post-haste. Yeah, you're done. It's not that hard, bro. Like, I don't even know who Kenton's family members are picking. one of them. They can go recruit for either one of those schools on defense. Okay, it's not that

hard. It's going to be O-line quarterback the spots that murdered Florida State last year. Kids are nervous about it. Do you blame them? I mean, the same head coach, one with the massive buyout that's still leading the program. So they got to get to the season with 15 to 18 commitments, and they got to flip some people, which is fine by winning games. If they struggle out of the gate, Like if they get smacked by Bama, and I don't think they will, but if they get smacked by Bama, give me a call. We'll have a very special episode. We'll set that up.

Well, listen, my grandmother is a huge Alabama fan. I think she'd be the one member of the family that should be a bad fit to recruit over there. You know, next thing you know, all the players in Florida are going over to them and they wonder what happened. But let me talk about the recruiting aspect for a moment here because you talk about the overuseage of the port. Do you feel like this is like an anti-dabble-sweeney situation where you're really? leaning way too heavily on this tool instead of using it to supplement gaps here and there, as opposed to, you know, like we always talk about devil. He never used it. He never used it. Is this a situation where you're like, hey, you've got to do veteran high school? Or is it

something where you're like, you know, what Norville has done in the portal traditionally, it can be sustainable with minor tweaks? I don't think it would be minor tweaks. It's got to be major. And the major is more effort with underclassmen recruiting, which they have finally, I will openly admit, done that. They just had their camp, 27 and 28 kids, sophomores juniors getting offers. They're more involved. Mike is more involved himself. And it's odd, kidding, because he seems like he's a really likable guy.

But he is not a good closer in recruiting. He's just not. It's proven. They have not had a top 10 class at Florida State since he's been there. At Florida State! Come on, bro. Again, that is low-hanging fruit. Bobby Bowden is rolling.

going over in his grave with all his top three recruit classes. So they've got to do better at finishing. And it starts again by winning this fall. They're having a nice class, but the next week or two, this is typical for everybody this time of year. It's pivotal. They got recruits are finishing up visits now and they got more kids coming. They've got to close. They're in on a bunch of guys. But who are they going to get? Who's going to buy in now to get the ball rolling? They got a few crystal balls and all that, but they can't finish 28th. I can tell you that. They've got to have a top 15 class at minimum at Florida State every year. And they should honestly never be outside the top 10.

It's Florida State. It's not hard. Yeah, well, like you said, hopefully, you know, for their sake, I say, as I'm wearing a Miami hat, I say hopefully win some games, flip some players for their sake. Hopefully they could do that. But heck of a breakdown is we expect nothing less when Brian Smith joins us. Make sure you check out his shows, Locked-on Seminels and the Portal podcast here on the Lockdown Network. Make sure you check out Kenton at Lockdown Wolfpack alongside Grace and Boone.

They do an awesome job covering everything NC State. Check me out at Lockdown Keynes covering everything Miami. And we're all busy this time of year with all the recruiting going on. And so yeah, Florida State breakdown there. Kenton, who do you think, which team should we break down on our next episode? I'll go choose your own adventure, which team you want to dive into next time. You know what? Clemson is the easy answer. That's the low-hanging fruit. I want the Brown brothers. Give me Louisville. Okay. I like that. The great state of Kentucky. The

Commonwealth. I want to get Daughton on here and talk to Louisville, man, because I'm excited about Louisville. I want to see what their outlook is for next season. I love it. Well, we'll talk to everyone next time on another episode of Lockdown ACC. We are part of the awesome Locked on Podcast Network.

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