Florida State fell to 1-7 on the season with a blowout loss to rival Miami in Week 9. It’s the worst start for the Seminoles program since 1975 and marks Mike Norvell‘s third losing record in five seasons in Tallahassee. Norvell signed five-straight top-10 transfer portal classes and admitted in his pre-North Carolina press conference that the Seminoles will look to add another “elite” haul this offseason. Florida State’s 2025 high school recruiting class ranks No. 48 in the nation and No. 11 in the ACC.
“This is going to be a critical offseason for us,” Norvell said Monday, via Noles247. “Come December, we have a plan. During the bye week, we spent a good portion of time with personnel, evaluating where we were, what the things we needed to do and the positions of need. We have positions where we have a need, and we need to go and add elite-level players to those positions.”
Florida State lost a commitment from four-star wideout C.J. Wiley on Sunday, marking the fifth high-profile prospect to decommit from the Seminoles since September. The program hasn’t added a recruit in the month of October and is threatening to finish the cycle with its lowest-ranked recruiting class in more than a decade.
“You could see (our record) as something that could potentially push away some players,” Norvell said regarding his message to high school recruits. “Some guys see the opportunity to come in and be a difference-maker in what we’re doing and where we’re going. It’s still about finding the right guys. Three years ago, our record sucked, but we had to find guys that wanted to come in and be the difference-makers here at Florida State. We were able to win 19 straight games and a conference championship. … Those are the ones I’m looking for. The right ones will say yes, and then we’ll come in here and work our butt off. It’s going to be a big, great story to see.”
Florida State has struggled at wide receiver this season, with Norvell singling out “drops” and lack of “burst” as issues that have plagued the Seminoles this season. The position room is already looking dicey for next season. Leading receiver Ja’khi Douglas is a redshirt senior, and the Seminoles have no wide receiver commitments in its 2025 class, following the departures of Wiley and fellow four-star receivers Malik Clark and Daylan McCutcheon.
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“We’re all pissed,” Norvell said. “Nobody wants to have the record that we have. If you are only going to show up when it’s good for you, then you won’t be showing up for very long. I believe in the guys that we have. I believe in the way that we operate. “
