Florida State weekly press conference: NC State

Update, 5:20 PM

Per the normal Monday afternoon press conference format, the media spoke with head coach Mike Norvell, offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller, and special teams coordinator John Papuchis.

First off, Norvell broke down the Pittsburgh loss, saying the Noles “got kind of overwhelmed by the pressure from Pittsburgh,” and that they “rushed things at times.” He also addressed the fourth-down decisions against the Panthers.

“Those are things that you play in the moment. The data that we have, the thought process of what we think is needed. I regret every play that doesn’t work, whether it is on first down or fourth down,” he said.

Norvell also talked about redshirt sophomore Jordan Travis and his injuries, spoke on what he saw from true freshman quarterback Chubba Purdy, and lastly addressed the response he saw from the team during Sunday’s practice.

“They came and they worked. To say that there were happy feelings around the facility- there weren’t,” said Norvell. “I wasn’t happy. We got beat for all the reasons that have been mentioned. For us, it’s about our growth.”

Next, Dillingham talked about the loss of offensive lineman Devontay Love-Taylor, his opinions of Purdy’s performance, and also how N.C. State’s defense compares to Pittsburgh’s.

“Pretty drastically different from last week in terms of how they play defense. Their linebackers are going to fit aggressively. Their defensive line is talented. Their backers all play in unison,” said Dillingham

After that, Fuller took the podium and spoke on junior defensive back Asante Samuel, defensive lineup challenges the team faced last week, and looking ahead to what he sees from N.C. State’s offense.

Lastly, we heard from Papuchis and his opinions on the special teams unit and play of the defensive ends. After Norvell came out earlier in the press conference and said “that was the worst performance we have had on special teams this year,” Papuchis certainly had plenty to address.

See the full quotes from the coaches in the comments section below.

Don Juan Moore

“I thought our guys continued to fight. I was really pleased with our defense on that goal line stand.”

“I thought the approach they brought into the bye week and the way they’re working to prepare is night and day different. We just have to do a better job of executing in the moment.”

“These kids, they’re believing. We just have to carry it over to consistency in the game. I believe in these guys. I believe in their development. I believe in where we’re going to go. We’re going to do this the right way. It’s got to be 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.”

Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell is dealing with a full-on rebuild, one that he expected but didn’t quite know the gravity of.

At the key of it, this season and moving forward, is establishing trust on both ends — players to coaches, coaches to players. Athletes need to know that they’re being put in the right position to succeed, coaches need to know that those players are going to go out there and execute their role in a moving system that requires 10 others to be doing their specified role as well.

FSU, so far, hasn’t been able to accomplish that consistently, the longest it coming out being against then-No. 5 North Carolina — but just in the first half, as FSU failed to put points on the board in the second.

Today, Norvell, offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and special teams coordinator John Papuchis will meet with the media to discuss last week’s loss and this week’s matchup against NC State.

We’ll be hearing from Norvell today, as well as defensive players and potentially coaches. 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.