Latest / Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott / Ira Schoffel, WarChant.com Talks FSU Football

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Ira Schoffel, WarChant.com Talks FSU Football · Conversations: Special Guests with Preston Scott

0:05
Speaker 1: If I passed the hour of the morning show with
0:07
Speaker 1: Preston Scott, it is the third hour. I'm Preston, he
0:10
Speaker 1: is Jose and this is the managing editor for Warchan
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Speaker 1: dot com. He is Irischaffel and Ira. If I were
0:21
Speaker 1: writing an article, I'd probably title this another Week another
0:25
Speaker 1: disappointing performance from FSU defense.
0:30
Speaker 2: I feel like I've seen something like that before.
0:32
Speaker 1: Oh darn it, that's right, you wrote that. It's now
0:39
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of days. Perhaps you've watched the
0:41
Speaker 1: game again and it was probably worse than you saw
0:44
Speaker 1: with your own eyes. What are your thoughts now forty
0:48
Speaker 1: eight hours later?
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Speaker 2: You know, obviously after that game and really two of
0:52
Speaker 2: the last three games, you know, most of the focus
0:54
Speaker 2: is on the defense. You know, I thought that they
0:57
Speaker 2: you know, we would love what we saw against Alabama,
0:59
Speaker 2: and you know, I think for much of the Miami game,
1:03
Speaker 2: the top priority was stopping the running game. They did
1:05
Speaker 2: a good job of that, so there were some things
1:07
Speaker 2: to like. But the Virginia game and then this Pick
1:09
Speaker 2: game were pretty dreadful from Florida State's defense. Honestly, they
1:13
Speaker 2: looked as bad and in some ways worse than they
1:16
Speaker 2: did a year ago, So that's the number one thing.
1:19
Speaker 2: I mean, the offense wasn't perfect and certainly had some
1:23
Speaker 2: opportunities to maybe put that game away against Pitt and
1:26
Speaker 2: they blew those opportunities. But what the defense has looked
1:29
Speaker 2: like for the last few weeks is just just pretty awful,
1:34
Speaker 2: and it makes you think that they're going to have
1:36
Speaker 2: a tough time winning a lot of these games left
1:38
Speaker 2: on the schedule.
1:39
Speaker 1: I was, dare I say, impressed with how Tony White
1:44
Speaker 1: accepted responsibility he is the defensive coordinator. Is that coach
1:49
Speaker 1: speak or do you think there's a direct sincerity in saying, no,
1:53
Speaker 1: I've I'm making mistakes and how I'm putting this scheme
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Speaker 1: together and utilizing it.
2:00
Speaker 2: You definitely give him some credit for that, and it's
2:03
Speaker 2: better than the alternative. You know, we've seen times in
2:06
Speaker 2: the past where coaches have blamed everything on execution, and
2:09
Speaker 2: you know, he could do that to some degree. But yeah,
2:12
Speaker 2: it just seems like, I don't know, and this is
2:14
Speaker 2: a small sample size. We've not covered Tony White for
2:17
Speaker 2: very long. This is six games in, but it just
2:20
Speaker 2: seems like there's there's huge overreactions to what happens one
2:23
Speaker 2: week to next You know, if you go back to
2:25
Speaker 2: the Virginia game, they couldn't stop the run. One week
2:28
Speaker 2: later they stopped the runn against Miami, but then they
2:30
Speaker 2: give up big plays. Then the next week against Pitt,
2:34
Speaker 2: it seemed like they were so determined to not give
2:36
Speaker 2: up big plays that they just sat back deep in
2:39
Speaker 2: zone coverage and let Pitt take everything underneath, whether that's
2:43
Speaker 2: eight passes to the running back for one hundred and
2:45
Speaker 2: fifty five yards or the quarterback scrambling for first downs
2:48
Speaker 2: in a bunch of different situations. So it just seems
2:51
Speaker 2: like they're they're playing whack a mole. To some degree,
2:54
Speaker 2: he's fixing one problem, but then that creates another problem.
2:57
Speaker 2: Sometimes at some point you have to to be com
3:00
Speaker 2: it in all areas.
3:01
Speaker 1: I was at the game Saturday, and I'm gonna I'm
3:04
Speaker 1: gonna share one overall observation and get your thoughts to it,
3:08
Speaker 1: and to me, it's on both sides of the ball.
3:11
Speaker 1: One is when you've got guys that you know the
3:16
Speaker 1: scheme is dialed up, they've got the quarterback, and inexplicably
3:20
Speaker 1: they leave their the ground and let this big kid
3:24
Speaker 1: just kind of waltz around them and make a big play,
3:27
Speaker 1: just not fundamental discipline there. And then you know a
3:31
Speaker 1: guy who's been great all year, Deuce Robinson, his personal
3:34
Speaker 1: foul cost us a touchdown because it pushed that offense
3:37
Speaker 1: back to a first and twenty and then we punt deep,
3:40
Speaker 1: it gets blocked and it's a short field and a
3:43
Speaker 1: quick seven. I just look at undisciplined plays being made
3:47
Speaker 1: by players that should know better.
3:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's definitely a lot of that, and in fact,
3:53
Speaker 2: I'm touching on it and something I'm about to post
3:55
Speaker 2: on our website. You know, just a lack of situational awareness. Yeah,
3:59
Speaker 2: from the very first drive, you know, the pick goes on.
4:02
Speaker 2: There's three fourth downs on that drive, the pick goes
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Speaker 2: for and converts, and on all three of the third
4:06
Speaker 2: down stops. You got Florida State players kind of celebrating
4:10
Speaker 2: that they stopped pit before the first down marker, almost
4:13
Speaker 2: as if like the drive was over. And it's like, man,
4:16
Speaker 2: it's fourth and short and it's twenty twenty five and
4:19
Speaker 2: you're playing a team that has nothing to lose. Once
4:22
Speaker 2: they went forward on the first fourth down, if they're
4:24
Speaker 2: on thirty four yard line, yeah, there's a good chance
4:26
Speaker 2: they're gonna be going forward on the next two for
4:28
Speaker 2: fourth downs two And it's just you know, it was
4:31
Speaker 2: kind of fitting that the game ended with Florida State
4:33
Speaker 2: jumping off sides when Pitt's trying to run off the clock,
4:36
Speaker 2: and so yeah, they're they're you know, listen, man, it
4:38
Speaker 2: was a bad football team a year ago and they're
4:41
Speaker 2: trying to learn how to win. But I gonna if
4:43
Speaker 2: you're gonna win these close games, you have to be
4:45
Speaker 2: smarter than this team has shown.
4:48
Speaker 1: I think my my grace for high profile college football
4:53
Speaker 1: players is now gone because they're paid professionals. These are
4:58
Speaker 1: professional football player and the position of quarterback is is
5:04
Speaker 1: pretty much everything with most college football teams as it
5:07
Speaker 1: is in the pros. Tommy Castellanos can't throw inside the pocket.
5:12
Speaker 1: He's too short. Uh, does gust need to do kind
5:15
Speaker 1: of borrow what you know? I've read your column with
5:18
Speaker 1: George Henshaw. He said, Look, if Tommy's my quarterback, I'm
5:22
Speaker 1: he is no way throwing from the pocket. Ever, do
5:26
Speaker 1: they have to make a decision on whether they're going
5:28
Speaker 1: to keep Tommy because if you're going to lose football games,
5:31
Speaker 1: you might as well lose with the future of your program.
5:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, it's hard. It's hard to put it.
5:38
Speaker 2: It's hard for me to go there right now. I'm
5:40
Speaker 2: pretty disappointed in him against Miami. I thought he played
5:44
Speaker 2: better to some degree against against Pitt. Now, if he's
5:48
Speaker 2: not going to run the ball, and he seemed to
5:50
Speaker 2: be not willing to run in that game, you know,
5:53
Speaker 2: he in Gus Malsan. We asked Tommy about it after
5:55
Speaker 2: the game. He said he's fine. Gus Malesan said, yeah,
5:58
Speaker 2: he got hurt again basically the first play of the game,
6:01
Speaker 2: and that limited his ability to run. Well, if he's
6:04
Speaker 2: not going to run, if he's not going to keep it,
6:07
Speaker 2: this offense isn't going to go very far, especially when
6:09
Speaker 2: you don't have some of the receivers that they didn't
6:10
Speaker 2: have in that game. You know, they had several receivers
6:12
Speaker 2: out too, right, So I will say this, if he
6:15
Speaker 2: can't run, then I think you might want to look
6:18
Speaker 2: at going to somebody else just to kind of open
6:20
Speaker 2: up that part of the game as well. But you know,
6:22
Speaker 2: I don't know. I'm not putting a ton of the
6:25
Speaker 2: problem in that game on it. I do think Gus
6:27
Speaker 2: could call the game better for Tommy, But I'm not
6:30
Speaker 2: ready to say he was the problem on that game.
6:33
Speaker 1: So when you look at the offense sort of shooting
6:36
Speaker 1: itself in the foot sometimes we then so we accept
6:40
Speaker 1: that the possibility is that Tommy's not not able to
6:45
Speaker 1: run the plays, run the offense the way Gus needs
6:47
Speaker 1: it run. So we're back to that, well do we do?
6:52
Speaker 1: You know, we saw brock Glenn coming in for a
6:54
Speaker 1: fourth down that never happened. Clearly that was that was
6:58
Speaker 1: something they were thinking of aut doing. Do you think
7:01
Speaker 1: they just needed to do more of that and get
7:03
Speaker 1: him out there.
7:05
Speaker 2: Well, whether it's Brock Lynn or Kevin Sperry, I you know,
7:07
Speaker 2: I think it looked like maybe they decided they were
7:10
Speaker 2: going to have to run the quarterback in that situation
7:12
Speaker 2: and they were kind of out of some of the options.
7:14
Speaker 2: You know, Randy Pittman, the tight end, has done some
7:17
Speaker 2: of the wildcat before he was out for that game.
7:20
Speaker 2: You know, if Tommy didn't, if they didn't feel Tommy
7:22
Speaker 2: could get a big enough push because his ankle's bothering
7:24
Speaker 2: him whatever it is with his foot, then maybe that's
7:27
Speaker 2: why they brought Brocklenn in that situation. But I also
7:30
Speaker 2: think Kevin Sperry would be an option. Now, the question,
7:32
Speaker 2: I guess what we don't the information we don't have
7:34
Speaker 2: is is are those would those guys turn the ball
7:38
Speaker 2: over more? You know, Tommy did a better job of
7:40
Speaker 2: protecting the football in this game. He didn't have the
7:43
Speaker 2: interceptions he had had the last two games, So you
7:46
Speaker 2: don't know what you get with those guys from that standpoint.
7:49
Speaker 2: But yeah, running the football is the backgrount of this offense.
7:52
Speaker 2: And if I was surprised they were able to run
7:53
Speaker 2: it as well as they could when it was clear
7:55
Speaker 2: Tommy didn't want to keep it in the second half.
7:57
Speaker 2: But going forward, if teams realized tom he's not going
8:00
Speaker 2: to be willing to keep it because he's not one
8:01
Speaker 2: hundred percent, then it's going to be much harder run
8:04
Speaker 2: the football.
8:04
Speaker 1: If you look at the rest of this schedule, is seven,
8:08
Speaker 1: seven and five the best it's going to look.
8:13
Speaker 2: I mean, that's probably about as optimistic as you could be.
8:16
Speaker 2: Right now. It's possible that they could go eight and four.
8:20
Speaker 2: You know, it's certainly possible. It's not like they've got
8:22
Speaker 2: a lot of great teams left on the schedule. Clemson
8:24
Speaker 2: will be tough, but they're not great. Florida is certainly
8:27
Speaker 2: not great on the flip side though, the way they're
8:30
Speaker 2: playing defense right now. Unless they can get back what
8:33
Speaker 2: they had earlier the season, and I'm not sure they can,
8:36
Speaker 2: then they can lose to everybody. I mean, they literally
8:39
Speaker 2: could lose at Stanford, they could lose to Wake Forest.
8:42
Speaker 2: If you can't defend, you could lose to anybody. So,
8:45
Speaker 2: you know, yeah, I think seven to five is possible
8:47
Speaker 2: in the eight and four as possible, but I also think,
8:51
Speaker 2: you know, six and six are worse as possible if
8:53
Speaker 2: they don't start playing some defense.
8:54
Speaker 1: We were going to get to the topic that I
8:57
Speaker 1: know that a lot of you want to hear about,
8:59
Speaker 1: and so we'll just ask Iris Chaffell straight out. Are
9:03
Speaker 1: you going to go to Savannah Banana baseball games in
9:06
Speaker 1: February as a member of the media or as a fan?
9:10
Speaker 2: That is that is the big question in our household.
9:12
Speaker 2: I can tell you that my wife put in for
9:15
Speaker 2: the tickets. He's in the lottery, but if there are
9:17
Speaker 2: media passes, I will probably be trying to go that
9:20
Speaker 2: route as well.
9:21
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you didn't hear friends, Savannah Bananas announced Tallahassee
9:24
Speaker 1: as one of the spots for that. I mean, it's
9:27
Speaker 1: crazy that that things come to this point where they're
9:29
Speaker 1: doing ticket lotteries, but they're going to play a couple
9:31
Speaker 1: of games a Thursday and a Friday at Dick Hawser
9:34
Speaker 1: before going to Dope Campbell Stadium for a Saturday game
9:37
Speaker 1: of baseball. I can't get that in my mind. But
9:40
Speaker 1: there truly are some pretty pressing matters on the football front,
9:43
Speaker 1: and I don't think any of us really enjoy these topics.
9:47
Speaker 1: I think anyone that's been around Mike Norvel they like
9:49
Speaker 1: him as a person, his public persona IRA. You know,
9:54
Speaker 1: we've we've talked. He's he's tough to listen to in
9:59
Speaker 1: a press conference because it just sounds like, you know,
10:02
Speaker 1: he's saying a lot of the same things over and
10:04
Speaker 1: over and over. Is he on the hot seat as
10:08
Speaker 1: much as your colleague Corey Clark thinks he is.
10:12
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean he's definitely in the hot seat. If
10:14
Speaker 2: this season goes the way last season did, and it
10:17
Speaker 2: seems to be turning in that direction right now. You've
10:19
Speaker 2: lost three straight games and you couldn't get out of
10:21
Speaker 2: the tailspind last year. You know, it's hard to predict
10:25
Speaker 2: right now that they're going to come out of this
10:27
Speaker 2: and start playing good again, and if they don't, Yeah,
10:29
Speaker 2: he's definitely on the hot seat. That's why that game
10:32
Speaker 2: was so big. It would have been an end If
10:33
Speaker 2: you won that game, it would have been an indication that, Okay,
10:36
Speaker 2: you're probably gonna win these next two against Stanford and
10:38
Speaker 2: wake Forest. Then you'll have a chance later in the
10:40
Speaker 2: season get at Clemson, Florida, NC State those games. But
10:44
Speaker 2: right now it's hard to believe that. So, yeah, he's
10:45
Speaker 2: definitely in the hot seat. As far as like his
10:49
Speaker 2: personality and speaking and why people get angry is I
10:52
Speaker 2: just think it's you know, the two times that the
10:54
Speaker 2: couple times that fans have gotten most they've been most
10:59
Speaker 2: excited about things Mike Norvell has said. Was the big
11:02
Speaker 2: one was a few years ago when he responded to
11:05
Speaker 2: a question about recruiting and gave this long, passionate answer
11:08
Speaker 2: and was really fired up and really determined, and there
11:11
Speaker 2: was a conviction and a real belief in what he
11:14
Speaker 2: was saying. But a lot of times, yeah, it just
11:16
Speaker 2: seems like he's trying to come up with the right
11:18
Speaker 2: words to not offend his players, to not offend his coaches,
11:21
Speaker 2: to not you know, it's just it just doesn't feel
11:23
Speaker 2: very authentic at times, and when you're losing, that's the
11:26
Speaker 2: last thing you need. So but again, the results are
11:29
Speaker 2: going to be what determines whether or not he lasts,
11:31
Speaker 2: and they have to turn around quickly, and he hasn't
11:34
Speaker 2: shown He certainly didn't show it last year. He had
11:36
Speaker 2: the ability to turn it around, so we'll see if
11:37
Speaker 2: he can this time.
11:38
Speaker 1: Well, you've had a staff overhaul for the most part,
11:41
Speaker 1: and so at this point it's the only piece that's
11:44
Speaker 1: left over. If they can't turn the ship around, you know,
11:47
Speaker 1: you're Corey Clark made a point in his column about
11:51
Speaker 1: the losing streaks of three games or more in Florida
11:54
Speaker 1: state history. They're not a ton of them in the
11:56
Speaker 1: last six decades. But the fact that coach Norvel owns
12:01
Speaker 1: six of the ten, I think is the number that
12:03
Speaker 1: I read is pretty pretty reflective of kind of where
12:07
Speaker 1: things have gone.
12:08
Speaker 2: Yeah, it is, And you know, and I listen, I've
12:10
Speaker 2: spent most of the last five or six years not
12:14
Speaker 2: excusing things that he's done, but looking trying to look
12:17
Speaker 2: at and give him the benefit of the doubt and
12:19
Speaker 2: share situations. You know, those first couple of years. You know,
12:21
Speaker 2: you come in, you inherit a program going in the
12:23
Speaker 2: wrong direction, and it's during COVID you can't even be
12:26
Speaker 2: around your team physically, you can't and you can't really
12:29
Speaker 2: go on the road and recruit for like almost two years.
12:32
Speaker 2: Those were legitimate reasons. I don't think there were excuses.
12:35
Speaker 2: And then you start having success. Well then last year
12:38
Speaker 2: goes the way it does, and it's like, okay, well
12:41
Speaker 2: you get a mulligan maybe after those two good years
12:43
Speaker 2: in twenty twenty two and twenty three, but if this
12:46
Speaker 2: happens again, you just there's no more benefit of the doubt.
12:49
Speaker 2: And so yeah, you start looking at those losing streaks
12:52
Speaker 2: and and you know, after the game Saturday, Mike Norvel
12:54
Speaker 2: said something that he said several times last year. He said,
12:58
Speaker 2: I know what it's supposed to look like, and that
13:00
Speaker 2: that phrase stuck with me because, yeah, you know what
13:03
Speaker 2: it's supposed to look like. You've been around good teams,
13:06
Speaker 2: but you also haven't proven these last couple of years
13:09
Speaker 2: that you know what it takes to get there. And
13:11
Speaker 2: again he's got a chance here to do it and
13:14
Speaker 2: prove everybody wrong. But right now he is what he is.
13:17
Speaker 2: He is the record that he's put on the field,
13:19
Speaker 2: and it's it's going to come back to haunt him
13:22
Speaker 2: if he can't turn around quickly.
13:23
Speaker 1: I'm curious, just big picture, what do you make of
13:26
Speaker 1: the fact, Okay, he's successful at Memphis, comes here and
13:30
Speaker 1: now here's where we are. We have, you know, more
13:33
Speaker 1: than enough time to judge kind of where the program is.
13:35
Speaker 1: But Memphis is still back being Memphis. They're not you know, juggernauts,
13:40
Speaker 1: but they're a good football program. Where does that leave
13:44
Speaker 1: Mike Norvell at this point?
13:46
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, listen, we have to acknowledge that he
13:48
Speaker 2: didn't build Memphis into a good program. Justin Fwente, who
13:51
Speaker 2: was the coach before him, who then got the Virginia
13:53
Speaker 2: Tech job and then failed there. He's the one that
13:57
Speaker 2: kind of got Memphis to where it got. Micro inherited
14:00
Speaker 2: a good program and then took it to a different level.
14:02
Speaker 2: He did. He got into the Cotton Bowl, something that
14:05
Speaker 2: never seemed conceivable, won their conference, did a lot of
14:09
Speaker 2: good things there. But it's not like you built that
14:11
Speaker 2: program from scratch. So you take that into account, and then,
14:14
Speaker 2: like you said, they've been successful since he left. This
14:17
Speaker 2: deal with Florida state is it's it's a unique situation.
14:20
Speaker 2: And I think it's why you need to understand when
14:23
Speaker 2: you're hiring these coaches and why I think that they
14:26
Speaker 2: need to get out of the business with something I'm
14:27
Speaker 2: writing about this week is you know, getting out of
14:29
Speaker 2: the business of these long term, ridiculously expensive coaching contracts
14:34
Speaker 2: because you never know how it's going to work. I mean,
14:36
Speaker 2: if you fire Mike Norvell, there's no guarantee, even if
14:39
Speaker 2: you hire Lane Kiffin or whoever it is, that you're
14:42
Speaker 2: going to be successful. Every job is unique, every situation
14:45
Speaker 2: is unique, and there's it's a little bit of a
14:47
Speaker 2: craft shoot. So I just I think that you know
14:49
Speaker 2: when you're judging these coaches that none of them are
14:52
Speaker 2: going to be a slam dunk and and and Jimbo
14:54
Speaker 2: Fisher looked like a slam dunk until he wasn't. So again,
14:57
Speaker 2: I just think the biggest key is not carrying these
15:00
Speaker 2: long term contracts to these coaches and giving yourself an
15:04
Speaker 2: out if it doesn't go well. And I think the
15:05
Speaker 2: new realm of college football where you're paying the players now,
15:09
Speaker 2: I think it gives you some leeway to maybe go
15:11
Speaker 2: in that direction.
15:12
Speaker 1: IRA's always fascinating insights. I appreciate your time. We'll talk
15:15
Speaker 1: again next week. Thank you sir, Thank you Press. I
15:18
Speaker 1: appreciate it. Iraschaffell with warchant dot com