LOCKDOWN: Florida State's Mike Norvell SLASHES Spring Media Access

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McNorbell has hijacked Spring Practice Media Bell ability.

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We're going to look at the Florida State linebackers in the second part of the show.

Stats, projected situational play who starts what happens with injuries, we've got a lot

of different things to look at with Florida State's linebackers.

But the bulk of the show is really what I opened with.

When I read the quote-unquote media availability, and that's a very loose term, for Spring

Practice, I literally had to go back through it, I'm like, wait a minute, where are the

days that the media actually gets to see practice that I went back up and I'm like, oh,

there's two days and that's just limited.

Folks, this is not a good sign.

I'm going to have a historical perspective, including with Florida State on point number

two.

But here are the things that I wrote down because I took my time with this, I was trying

to think back like when a coach was on the hot seat that he did this, that it turned

out good.

Maybe I'm missing one, but I literally cannot think of it.

It is a very common theme for coaches that are on the hot seat to close the ranks.

Pro football has a little more of a standardized situation with media, so you can't use that

as much.

The college is all over the place.

And as they rule, the ones that are winning, oh, I'm more accessed, the ones that are

losing at not so much.

But when you're truly on the hot seat, and a lot of people think Mike is probably the

number one coach on the hot seat entering the 2026 season, it's a sign that they just

had enough and they really don't care if they get canned.

Of course, Norvell would be owed over $40 million if he gets fired even after this next

season.

So I get him not caring.

But he is, in my opinion, running scared.

Here are my thoughts.

This is literally what I typed out.

Norvell was running scared.

Perhaps he's still mad about the media turning on him last season.

Could be, regardless, allowing the media to see only snippets of two spring practices,

and I'm presuming no true scrimmage action.

They're usually on Saturdays or Sundays.

Signals that he feels the walls are closing in.

Now, I do want to point out, if for some reason they have a scrimmage day on one of the

two days that the media is there, and they literally get to see the actual scrimmage

part, I will pull back no problem.

But again, it's usually on the weekends, the two days are supposed to be in, that's

not the case.

Practice starts, I believe, on the ninth, whatever the case, again, it just really doesn't

matter because this next Monday when they get going, just having Norvell or an assistant

or Norvell employers or assistants and the players after practice, it's just going to be talking

points.

We've made fun of Norvell for a long time across the media how he talks in circles, talks

over himself, and doesn't answer anything even though he gives long answers.

He's one of the worst in the business in front of a microphone, which is odd because he's

such a pleasant guy, but he's not very good at it.

So hearing more from him doesn't help much, but it's still better than nothing, I guess.

I'm curious on the assistant coaches and the players, that's always interesting because

they're usually a little more direct, but we'll be able to tell when a player in particular

has been, quote, unquote, coached on what to say and more importantly, what not to say.

That will also add into this whole thing that I'm talking about here.

If it's blatantly obvious, because if it's a layup question and they avoid it, and that

will also be exposed very quickly, it's a trap that many coaching staffs fall into.

Oh, they won't really, yeah, they will.

We talk about this stuff all the time.

So anybody in the media that lives locally or covers for us, they like it, I don't know,

they live in Panama City, they live in Jacksonville, they live in Tallahassee, they live in any,

like Bluntstown or anywhere near, and they drive to practices.

Why would they even bother with this?

You're getting two practices.

You're, again, presumably not getting anything in terms of scrimmages.

We've got a quarterback battle going on.

We've got five new linemen, do some Robinson's back, the running back room's good.

There's not a lot of questions there, but the defense has a bazillion questions.

I'm actually going to talk about linebackers in the next segment.

Again, two practices in just limited action.

What do they actually think is going to happen?

The woke media, this is how they make their living.

It's one thing for me.

I'm just a podcaster.

I observe.

I see what I do, and I give you overviews based on not just intel from FSU, but around

college football.

I do a lot of comparisons and recruiting stuff.

If you're a local reporter, you're probably trying to find another king to cover, and

I mean that in a literal sense, other than the guys I get war chain or something.

If you're somebody that's just been assigned to beat, you're looking for another job.

This is awful.

I feel bad for those people, but I digress.

Now, here's my second point in regards to when somebody is struggling as a head coach.

This is something that I mentioned a moment ago.

When I first got into the recruiting business, I won't name the teamy, this person covered

or anything else, but it was a long time reporter who was immensely respected.

May he rest in peace, and he's even got a message for named after him on another site.

He told me that the surest way to tell up a coach is not very trusting in the media, knows

he's on the hot seat or whatever is what we're talking about today, literally.

And he said, if you don't believe me, here's all you need to know.

This, keep in mind, again, this is like 1998, somewhere around there, 99.

And at the time Nebraska and Florida State were pretty much unquestionably the two best

programs at college football.

Ironically, or not so much, they were the two programs that all but just handed you information.

Weight room numbers, speed tests, more practice availability, more coaching availability across

the board.

He literally was like showing me this information.

This is when you just didn't always have that at certain schools, but the ones that were

really at the top had that and the school, this guy covered was going through a downturn.

And he's like, we can't get anything.

And he joked with me privately.

He's like, the head coach wouldn't allow people into the games if he could.

He's so scared of the media and the fans and the boosters, et cetera.

And I'm like, that might be a little much, but still I get your point.

So the weight room numbers and all that are one thing, but it still comes down to just

going out there and being a true interpreter of what your eyes tell you.

You can't be a member of the media without access to practice.

And when I say practice, I'm not talking about stretching.

I am not talking about a little bit of information with the guys who are walking in and you get

a, you know, browse around.

Maybe you say hi to a coach, maybe a booster on the side.

People reps that are meaningful, hitting, plays, scrimmage, those things without it.

Almost always.

It is the same.

The coach is running scared.

Number three, four to states administration is also a fault here.

In fact, in my opinion, it is far more at fault than what Mike Norvell is.

Why you might ask, they're the ones that are responsible for Norvell being in place

to make this decision.

And they're also fostering it because he's doing it.

They could have told him, no, you've got to let more in.

We're tired of the phone calls.

We're tired of terrible donations.

Fix this.

They didn't do that either.

So you can look at this in many different ways and I don't know if ranking how they failed

matters much.

But in my opinion, yeah, the administration failed even more than Norvell.

Think about that.

Norvell is won a grand total of seven games in two years and zero row games and the administration

is failing more than him.

If that is not a daunting way to look at things, I don't know what it is.

But to that end, they are also the ones that are outing back this year.

Peter Collins, Michael Allford, everybody in between the president, everybody on the

B O T E.

I don't care if you're even concerned about it is part of this institution.

It is an F minus.

You need to hold him accountable and you're not doing it.

You're just trying to play the silent game, which never works.

That's a fail.

Number four, does anyone truly believe this approach will garner long term success?

What do I mean by that?

Well, donations, people want to see directly what's going on if they're going to donate

now.

Donations are dead.

You think when the media starts to turn on Morvel, even more and they will, that it's

going to go over well with boosters?

No.

Number two, it's going to add apathy and it's probably going to make fans who more like if

they have any problems like that's to say, yes, if you game goes bad in the first half,

it's like a game of the year.

First one that matters at Doke, played in New Mexico state first, if they have problems

in that game, that's a whole another level of concern.

You're going to see this kind of stuff because people are going to be pinned out because

if it's not going to be much access now, you know there's not going to be anything

involved in that's not a good sign.

You're going to go five and seven after two and 10 and not show anybody thing for basically

a year and expect people to be happy.

It's just done.

Finally, number five, it will be interesting to see how the local media responds to this

access when they start writing skating articles.

I don't think so, but if a few are out there at this point, I wouldn't blame them.

How about during the season?

Oh, yes, I think that'll happen.

I'll get into that as we get further into spring.

Will they turn on more than Norville, meaning are you going to see more skating articles

about, all for about Peter Collins, about anybody else, the president or any other individuals.

It's touchy when you're a local person.

I've been on that side of the tracks, but at some point you can't do your job and you

just got to call it like it is.

Finally here, it will be an interesting time in Florida state history.

I mean that literally history.

Florida state's always been a pretty open school, pretty nice area in terms of people

and how they act in general still is.

But to just shut people out, it's just not going to work very well.

So with that, I digress and unfortunately, I had to address this and I wish I didn't.

I feel sorry once again for the local media at Florida state.

They shouldn't have to be the ones to take on this burden.

What are they going to write about?

What are fans going to glean from this?

And those phone calls from people wanting donations, yeah, good luck with this.

Like this isn't going to be just me talking about this.

I'm just blunt a member of the media anywhere in the country and I get it.

But the local media is going to be irate.

If you do not believe me, go to any of your favorite message boards on whichever sites

you want to go.

I've been to several.

I'm sure when I speak to other people on a recruiting trail that cover FSU, that

cover nationally and know about Florida state because they're in their footprint.

They're all going to say the same thing.

I know these people firsthand.

They're all going to be angry and they're all going to laugh in the fourth state.

I already had some of that here recently with somebody before this came out.

I can only imagine what it's going to be like now.

When we come back, I'm actually going to talk football.

We're going to break down some numbers, some goods and bad, some surprising at the

linebacker position.

That's next here on Locked-On Systems.

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Now let's talk some linebackers.

Here's the deal.

I have no idea what to expect even after going through the stats because I have a bunch

of questions.

I'm going to ask some of them as we go through this, but it's, I don't want to say a better

feeling in my gut after going through the numbers, but it does bring up more possibilities.

Here's what I mean.

Chris Jones, linebacker that comes over from Southern Miss, that's tackling machine.

Okay, well, well, you play at, he just finds the football.

He had 110 tackles last year.

That's a lot, man.

Division one football, G6, people, or either way, whatever, 110, but how do they utilize

it?

Here's why I ask, because yeah, he gets in the run game.

That's kind of straightforward, but it's a new scheme for him.

We'll see how he does, but he does have a deficiency.

What is it?

When you dig into the stats, his past defense is great, and this is subjective.

I get it.

PFF has him with 49.6 and past defense.

That's awful.

There's no way around it.

And we all know for the state's biggest deficiency last year on defense, linebackers

and coverage for the love of mankind.

I'd like a nickel for every time I've had that in a segment here on Walked On Symbols.

So what do you do against teams that are good when they throw on first and second half?

People are likely to run down.

How do you handle him?

Do you take him out a little more?

You're guessing, but he's probably the guy that's going to call your place.

He's probably going to be your leading tackler.

This is conundrum.

I don't have an answer for it.

Again, 49.6.

That's problem.

Here's the caveat.

He did have 14 pressures and 5 sacks.

That's pretty darn good.

For a linebacker, I can inside backer.

That's really good.

Is four to state going to be more of a blitz team?

Well, this is the other caveat.

We all know Tony White is not a blitz heavy guy.

But if you've got somebody who just isn't going to be good in coverage, hey, man, spin

the wheel.

See where it goes.

Give it a shot.

That's how I look at it.

But he is more of a drop guy, change who's coming and going to try to confuse the quarterback

and it's part of the new system.

You see in college football, regardless of the front three man, four man.

He doesn't blitz him as much as I think, but again, he had five sacks and 14 pressures

last year on passing downs.

If Jones is in, I'll be surprised unless he's blitzin 49.6 is a problem, but as a run defender,

he was 77.4.

He had 110 tackles in 657 snaps.

The other starter, it's debatable.

I don't know how it's going to go.

McCoy, Bayer, the kid, Cranter is in, who's got some knowledge with Tony White's defense.

He's in Nebraska, he's in North Carolina, et cetera, 252 snaps last year, 33 tackles,

run defense, 67 and a half past defense, 64.7, so he's consistent, five pressures and two

sacks.

He was more of a role player last year in North Carolina, and I'm sure it's Bill Vellichack.

That scheme probably wasn't friendly for first year players, and I'm being very nice.

If you're an NFL guy, you're an NFL guy.

I would bet that the playbook for the defense in North Carolina is rather thick, just

guessing here.

Omar Grant, 318 snaps last year for the nobles, he had 38 tackles per PFF, run grade 69.8,

passing defense, 65.6, so another guy, pretty consistent, but he only had four pressures

in one sack.

Omar didn't get to the QB very much.

He wasn't necessarily bad, in coverage, 318 snaps wasn't like he didn't play much either,

but he was a guy that just didn't get over the top and make a bunch of plays.

I'm wondering if another year in Tony's system will allow him just to improve, because

he was steady, but he just never was that great.

Then the enigma, this is the player that I thought last year was going to break out, and

I could not have been more wrong in one category, we'll get to that momentarily, but Blake

Nichols, 420 snaps, 42 tackles, run defense, a grade was really good.

He's always played well downhill.

49.7, that's outstanding.

Past defense, a grade, a little boy, 53.8, that's horrific.

Only six pressures in one sack, considering Blake's size, wingspan, and athleticism,

I don't know what to say to that, because he's a guy that should be probably a little

bit more statistically like Chris was, and I know it's a different level, again, he had

14 pressures in five sacks at the G6 level, Blake should have three or four sacks every

year.

That's the guy that could chase down quarterback, he can flat out run.

That's concerning to me.

My question here is, we all know that Chris is probably going to start at middle.

That's fine.

Who's the will?

Are they going to run more four man lines?

They only use linebackers a little bit.

There's so many little microcosms of the lack of depth that make me nervous, and I'll

talk about injuries in a second, but how do they run their defense?

Is it going to be any three man line?

Kevin Win in the middle, it can run some, and that's a huge human being.

These guys are just kind of running the mill for the most part, then you've got Jones

who's just absolutely a wheat at finding the ball carrier.

I would imagine Nicholson is somebody they would like to start, because of his athleticism,

but he's such a liability and coverage, you can't put him next to Jones, because you'll

just get play action to death on first and second down.

Like his grade is higher for whatever this is worth than Chris Jones in past defense,

and he was only 53-8, Jones was just under 50.

So I don't see how you start Blake even though he might be your most athletic guy.

That's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

I'm guessing that Graham and Bayer are kind of right there with that, and Blake is a guy

they bring in.

Maybe they blitz him more?

I don't know.

Against Ron Heavy teams, Blake plays more.

I'm a little bit at a loss, and the wildcard here, Caleb Lively, he only played special

teams in 2025, but he only had 49 snaps to you before when he played more.

He's just not been healthy much.

He's a young guy now.

It's kind of time.

Is he going to make it then?

He's the other guy.

Like, again, I've mentioned there's going to be some sub points here.

I don't know what's going to happen with Lively.

He's a kid that's got a lot of athleticism, had offers out of high school, played good football,

and Georgia coming out as a prep.

It's time for him to do something, but we'll see.

And I'm forward to again because of the lack of the spring practice stuff.

This is a position like if I was covering FSU, there was access, a linebacker, I would

be screaming down the side line to get to it, because there's a million things to cover.

But there's no way to know with this, and there's some legitimately unique players here,

how they mesh together with some of them being in a new scheme.

Some of them having very specific traits that are good and bad.

It's just endless, but unfortunately, that's the way it goes.

Here are a few questions that I have about the linebackers.

How well will Chris Jones adapt to Tony White's overall scheme?

And can he actually not only play in it and make tackles?

He's a guy, obviously, who's very intelligent.

He had 110 tackles.

I mean, he's really good.

How can he help the other players in the scheme progress and grow their game at three games

of basic understanding of what White wants from?

That is a massive question.

I have no answer for it, but is he a great communicator?

That might be, I don't know if it's more important than actually making tackles, but it's

not far from it.

If your middle linebacker can't help get other guys lined up and understand things in

the meetings during time away from the facility, and obviously on the field itself or their

practice of the games, he's a liability.

But Florida State has just had too many run-gap fit problems.

We all know this over the last two years.

I digress, having to mention that, that if your middle linebacker isn't an excellent

on-field teacher at minimum, you're probably going to have the same problems you've had

the last couple years.

Number two, which Florida State linebacker will be counted on during obvious passing

gaps?

This one is hard.

I'm at a loss because, again, certain guys just aren't good at certain things.

It's an obvious passing down.

Third and 12, you're probably going to be in dime or you're going to be in a situation

with one of your linebackers replacing the D.Y. men being a stand-up, they're going

to do all kinds of stuff.

They run multiple fronts.

Chris Jones may be blitzing some.

I think Anderson coming in, they've got some, I'm not going to try to go down Florida

State's depth chart, but they've got a couple of D.Y. and kids transferred from

an end and the Juco, they're both good football players, don't be OK as edge

rushers, but could you see Jones being a past rusher, too?

Maybe, maybe some games, meaning linebacker is going to come from one direction,

delayed blitz, green dog, there's all kinds of stuff you can do, but which one's

really going to be on the field in obvious passing downs?

I'm curious to see how that turns out.

Next, Florida State's run defenses ranked 51st last year.

Not very good considering the Florida State's talent, 138.1 yards allowed for game, and

more importantly, 211 to Virginia, 238 to Virginia Tech, even though you won the game,

that was a weird game.

At 272 to 4, can Florida State's defenses adjust during a game if the opposition gets

rolling?

Like, in the Florida game, Florida State didn't adjust at all.

Against Virginia Tech, even though they would come up with a big play, because Tech would

shoot itself in the foot, a penalty, or a turnover, or whatever, Florida State never

adjusted.

And then, Virginia just beat the bejesus out of them.

All kinds of different things.

I'll play action.

They got them on, they're, man, they just got to them early, and Florida State never

really adapted, not consistently.

I want to see more of that this year.

Are they going to be able to adapt to things that don't go well in the first and second

quarter?

That was a problem last year.

Fourth, Jones at 5sacks, but will any of the linebackers prove to be good past rushers

this year?

Is it Omar or is anybody else?

They've got experience.

They've got some big guys, 225 and up.

They've got the athleticism with, again, Blake Nicholson, somebody needs to be a past

rush for beyond Jones in blitz situations at minute.

Who is, finally, what if this is the one that scares me to death?

What if the injury bug strikes?

They've only got really four linebackers?

Who moves the linebacker?

Or what do they do?

They just like, how do you do it if two of your linebackers are out for any extended

period of time during the same time frame?

Like especially if one of them's Jones, like, are you playing like, not that I'm against

Mekok playing?

Like, Karam Mekok's really talented players that get I talked about from Miami Central.

I'm very high on him, but he's a freshman putting him into Tony White's defense as a

freshman.

That's hard, man.

That's really hard.

Is there any way to mitigate this?

Somebody like Ashwin Barker moved down to play more of a hybrid role, do different things

that you get really aggressive with blitzing and trying to scheme things?

Like, I don't know.

If they have a problem in linebacker in terms of injury, I think that's going to be a

really difficult ask for anybody to figure it out.

That's just my opinion.

Thank you very much for checking out Lockdown Symmetoles.

I'm going to do another show tomorrow in regards to what's going on with the secondary.

I don't expect everybody to be really shocked by what I'm talking about in linebacker today.

But I'm going to do a similar thing with the DBs.

I try to get it up Saturday afternoon.

I think that's going to be a pretty talented secondary.

Who's going to play where?

I'm going to have some kind of questions as I do with the linebackers and just have some

fun with this.

I think it'll be a fun podcast because I'm not going to talk about any of the norvels

stuff.

It's just going to be straightforward.

So I have one commercial break, and that's it.

We're just going to talk defensive back to Ford stick.

Thank you very much.

We will see you again right here on Lockdown Symmetoles.

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