Mike Norvell comments on the direction of the FSU football program following loss to Clemson

All right. First, congratulations to Clemson. I thought both teams came out and played hard. It was a fast and physical game, and obviously they made some big plays in big moments throughout it. Unfortunately, we had too many missed opportunities.

Looking back, throughout it, the first drive defensively, we missed a lot of tackles. We were a little sloppy in some of our fits. We allowed them to extend a long drive for a touchdown to start the game, which we knew we wanted to come in and start fast. I thought our defense settled in as the game got going, but we had a couple of big plays that, unfortunately, we gave up throughout it.

Offensively, we really struggled to get things started, sustained. We weren't good enough. I think we had five-plus drops, which has been very uncharacteristic of what this team has done. A couple missed opportunities where we had space and either a throw or a run or just some bad missed opportunities. We had some penalties that showed up that cost us. We weren't good enough on our conversion downs — things that we've been really good at throughout the course of the year did not show up tonight.

I know it's not from a lack of want-to or work. These guys have been putting it in, and unfortunately it did not show up in making enough plays this evening. Ultimately, it comes down to all of us — everybody that's part of the program. It's just sickening to come up short in this game with all the preparation that's gone into it.

No. I mean, we missed plays. When you have drops, when you have missed chances that are critical plays, when you have penalties that show up at inopportune times — it's hard to overcome that.I thought our guys worked to try to get it fixed. There were times we were driving; we had the fumble inside the red zone, which we haven't had those issues on exchanges this year, and it showed up in this moment.

For whatever it was — whether it's guys trying to do too much, press, or maybe just getting away from the core fundamentals of finishing a catch to the tuck — those things show up, and we've got to get them fixed.

I don't think there's a single overriding thing.

Through the course of the year, we've had very limited drop passes. We've been really good at that. We've been a team that's made a lot of plays, been really good offensively — coming into the game, one of the top in the country. Tonight, we just could not get ourselves into rhythm because of the lack of some of those plays that were left out there. You've got to have them.Obviously, playing a defense that was very aggressive in what they were doing — they did a good job in that. But when somebody's going to hit you up, bring that type of pressure, it creates space, and we had space.

I mean, that's as I said in the opening statement — congratulate them. They made the plays that were there, and they took advantage of them.

We've got some great playmakers on this football team, guys that have shown throughout the course of the year their capabilities. I hurt for them, and I hurt for this football team. Because at the end of the day, you come on the road and sometimes those things just — you've got to find a way.

I believe throughout it that, even though there are plenty of times throughout every game where you'll miss something, just being able to flush it and go to the next one. It wasn't one consistent player or one person, but when those things show up, it's hard to overcome. They made the plays, and our guys fought and pushed, but just too many things were left out there.

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