TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State head coach Mike Norvell said Monday that he's "pissed off" about his team's 0-4 start, but he preached patience from fans and vowed not to sacrifice his vision for the future.
Speaking to reporters, the second-year Florida State skipper went on a nearly five-minute tirade about the state of the program after he was asked to comment on his message to recruits.
"They watch the games too," Norvell told reporters. "They see the opportunities. They see the opportunity for themselves."
The Seminoles currently own the No. 6 class in the 2022 recruiting rankings, but they're off to their worst start since 1974 -- two years before the arrival of legendary former coach Bobby Bowden.
"I can't control that," Norvell said. "I can control this team, at this moment, and right now with the opportunity. So we're gonna work our butts off to go get better and we're gonna do it the right way. And we're gonna have a standard of how we operate. And it's gonna be the same standard that we're gonna ask them to do in the classroom, the same standard of everything that we do, and I'm gonna hold myself to it, because I've got to be the example."
The crown jewel of Norvell's 2022 class is five-star Georgia athlete Travis Hunter, who is the No. 1 overall prospect in the country.
Many Florida State fans are worried that, if Hunter decommits, the rest of the class will fall apart, potentially leaving the Seminoles in a lurch beyond just this season.
Although Florida State went winless in September, Norvell credited his team for battling back from a 31-7 halftime deficit at home against Louisville last weekend.
"If I was a fan, I'd be pissed off -- 31-7," Norvell said. "Some of them stayed. Some of them didn't. But the ones that did got to see a team that came back and responded and played their butts off until the end. Now, were we successful? No, it was a failure. We did not win that game. I felt confident in it. I felt we were going to put ourselves in a great position. But, you know, we came up short, but they did not stop. They continued to believe."
Norvell said he wants to recruit players who can overcome adversity and are going to "be a part of the change in a positive way."
"Yes, we are 0-4," Norvell said. "But we have today and then, Lord willing, we'll wake up tomorrow and we'll have tomorrow. What we do with that, I've got a lot of confidence in."
The Seminoles (0-4, 0-2 Atlantic Coast Conference) host Syracuse (3-1, 0-0 ACC) this Saturday.