Florida State coaches press conference: Louisville

Florida State Seminoles football head coach Mike Norvell, as well as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kenny Dillingham, special teams and defensive ends coach John Papuchis and defensive coordinator Adam Fuller, all spoke today, detailing FSU’s upset win over No. 5 UNC and what the Seminoles have to focus on moving forward.

All coaches Monday shared the same sentiment — there’s been growth, there’s been progress, but FSU isn’t there yet.

“How you respond to all situations, positive or negative, at the end of the day our objective is to get better,” Norvell said. “We’re excited about the win, but on the film there’s a lot of things that really kind’ve pissed me off that needs to get corrected.”

“If we don’t capitalize on the learning experience we just had, then we are cheating ourselves.”

“Good offenses are either explosive or consistent,” Dillingham added. “On Saturday, we weren’t explosive but we were consistent. Great offenses are both. We need to continue to put to get better and put it all together.”

“We should be better in November than we were in September,” Papuchis said. “The key is to go back and point to the things that happened in practice last week that led to playing well on gameday. We were able to get the things that we wanted because of preparation, now let’s replicate it.”

“The effort in the game was a direct correlation of the constant push of effort in the week of preparation,” said Fuller. “We are not all the way there yet. It’s still not there yet but it was better throughout the course of the four quarters.”

There’s really no words for it. It’s so special because since Dec. 8, the first time I walked into that meeting room with my team and this group, every moment we tried to grow and improve, believing in what was coming. I tell our guys, the ultimate objective with every opportunity you get is to try to go out and be the best you.

“To see their celebrations, to see the joy, to know, stacked against all odds, not many people gave us a chance tonight, but they didn’t worry about what other people thought of them. They didn’t think about any of the limitations that would be put out in front of them. They just went out and played their game. Tonight was about these guys. It was their moment, and they definitely deserve the victory for how they prepared, and how they responded to all that they’re asked to do.”

The relief of a long fall, summer and spring fading away was apparent on Florida State Seminoles football head coach Mike Norvell’s face as the seconds ticked away in FSU’s first win over a top 5 opponent as an unranked team since 2007.

Even though he’s well aware of the issues that still plague the Seminoles — a bulk of which are self-inflicted — he was also aware of the effect the win had not just on him, not just on the team this year, but for what he’s attempting to build at Florida State.

“We still have a long way to go,” he said Saturday, [we] still had a lot of mistakes that showed up. We have to show poise and control in every situation. I thought we had some foolish things there in the second half that are going to get cleaned up...but our guys are giving everything that they have.

“Obviously we’re not perfect, we still make mistakes. We’re a work in progress. But when you get a chance to see growth, when you see improvement and investment...”

We’ll be talking with Norvell today and also anticipate hearing from offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach Kenny Dillingham, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and special teams coordinator and defensive ends coach John Papuchis.

You can follow along both in the comment section and on our Twitter, and in the meantime, drop any questions you have in the comments and we’ll try to get to them.