The Alabama team and staff are focused on the Kentucky Wildcats. Crimson Tide fans who watched Florida State lose to SMU can jump forward a bit to Week 3. SMU beat FSU in Tallahassee, 27-24. The game is interesting to Alabama fans for more reasons than the FSU loss.
SMU went into the game ranked. The Mustangs are a pretty good team with a quarterback who can make explosive plays. Against FSU, the Mustangs made enough serious mistakes to lose two games. They won despite themselves because FSU is a bad football team.
More on how bad FSU is below, but first let's discuss FSU head coach Mike Norvell. FSU was 8-13 in Norvell's first two seasons, 2020 and 2021. The next two seasons, the Seminoles went 23-4. Then the wheels fell off. FSU was 2-10 in 2024 and 5-7 last season. Norvell beat Alabama and Kalen DeBoer last season, but the boost he gained from the upset is long gone.
After Nick Saban's retirement, multiple sources reported that Greg Byrne had interest in Norvell. Knowledgeable Alabama insiders say Norvell was not Byrne's top choice. But had the DeBoer interview with Byrne in Seattle not gone well, Byrne might have turned to Norvell next. In retrospect, Alabama fans can now say, 'Perish the thought'.
Norvell has the hottest seat in college football. He may not make it to November. During the SMU game, FSU heard boos from the home fans. The boos were undoubtedly aimed at Mike Norvell. At the end of the game, FSU fans chanted 'Fire Norvell'.
How bad was Alabama's Week 3 opponent?
From the FSU site Tomahawk Nation, check out the quotes below.
- "Ashton Daniels was not remotely a passing threat at quarterback, nor did Norvell exactly display much confidence in the QB with his game plan largely committed to the ground game."
- "The defense was a disaster on third down, time and time again leaving wide-open receivers"
Tomahawk Nation added that the loss was beneficial because it should accelerate the timeline to fire Norvell.
Two more stats show how woeful the Noles are on both sides of the ball. SMU's Kevin Jennings passed for 430 yards, and the Mustangs produced 585 yards of offense. On FSU's 11th third down at 11:15 of the 4th quarter, the Noles finally converted a third down. Their final 3rd-down conversion stat was 2-for-11.
During the offseason, I have leaned toward FSU being a bigger threat to Alabama than Kentucky. I've changed my mind. FSU can't win in Tuscaloosa.
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