It’s still over a month until Alabama opens the 2025 season on the road in Tallahassee, but the hype for the Crimson Tide’s Week 1 matchup with Florida State has been building since June. That’s when FSU transfer quarterback Thomas Castellanos told On3’s Pete Nakos, “they don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”
Naturally, Castellanos was asked about those comments, which made a massive stir and have been the talk of the offseason, during his media availability at ACC Media Days on Wednesday. Castellanos, who had previously begun to backtrack those comments in a video with Alabama wide receiver Isiah Horton, decided to double down and drag the rest of his team into it with him.
Asked about his comments this summer about Alabama, FSU QB Tommy Castellanos says he meant “no disrespect” to the Tide. But his teammates have his back.
— Warchant.com (@Warchant) July 23, 2025
“We stand on what I said.” pic.twitter.com/TFAXidAS4u
Florida State standing on Castellanos’s offseason comments at ACC Media Days
In fairness to Castellanos, he begins the clip by admitting that he wishes he had done and said things differently. He also added that he meant “no disrespect” to Alabama, just that he has confidence in himself and his team. Coming off a 2-10 season, which Castellanos was not around for, Florida State needs to present a united front heading into a difficult Week 1 matchup, and it seems that was the directive heading into Media Days.
However, how could one mean “no disrespect” by a comment that was blatantly disrespectful to Alabama’s current coaching staff? Castellanos' comments on Wednesday appear rather benign in a vacuum, and border on apologetic, but if you and your teammates are “standing on what I said,” then you can’t mean “no disrespect.”
It’s one or the other, and from the Alabama perspective, if Castellanos isn’t walking his comments back, then he’s doubling down and bringing his teammates into the fight with him.
Alabama has one of the most talented rosters in the country heading into 2025, and despite missing the College Football Playoff in a disappointing fashion last season, the Tide are in a much better spot than Mike Norvell’s Seminoles. Since Alabama was given the fourth and final spot in the 2024 CFP over an undefeated FSU team, the Seminoles are 2-11 and have been outscored 399-185, with 41 of those points coming against FCS Charleston Southern.
The Tide have always been a rightful road favorite in Week 1, but Castellanos continues to fuel the fire in Tuscaloosa, and for a quarterback on his third team, trying to save his newest head coach’s job this season, that wasn’t a very good idea.
The reality is, though, there was no way for Castellanos to put the toothpaste back in the tube at ACC Media Days or any other point this offseason.