Florida State Seminoles quarterback Tommy Castellanos (1) Melina Myers-Imagn Images

Florida State QB Thomas Castellanos shares four-word Alabama diss on new NIL shirt

Originally posted on CFB-HQ on SI | By Alex Weber | Last updated Aug 31, 2025 10:50 AM ET

There may be no one man more on top of the world right now than Florida State quarterback Thomas Castellanos, a former Boston College quarterback who talked all sorts of trash to Alabama... and then backed up every single word in during the Seminoles' Saturday night smackdown of the Crimson Tide.

The new Florida State signal caller arrived on campus brimming with swagger this spring and made some hefty proclamations about Alabama ahead of the Week 1 matchup that seemed rather unwise at the time back in June.

"I dreamed of moments like this," he told On3's Pete Nakos in a July interview. "I dreamed of playing against Alabama. They don’t have Nick Saban to save them. I just don’t see them stopping me.”

Those are certainly some fightin' words, and that quote surely found its way onto the Crimson Tide whiteboard. However, the motivation wasn't enough for 'Bama, who simply could not put a cap on Castellanos and the FSU offense for much of the evening.

Following the 31-17 victory, Castellanos and his NIL team wasted little time before launching a line of T-shirts recounting the quarterback's pregame blusters. Take a look:

https://t.co/SnRdwXEGK8 pic.twitter.com/DJdJZfmqsh
— Just Win Management Group (@JustWinMGMT) August 31, 2025

Ouch, that's got to sting for Alabama fans, especially the shirt that reads: NICK CAN'T SAVE THEM. He also has a t-shrt which says "Stand on what I said" in reference to his comments to Nakos, while another design features a caricature of Thomas Castellanos with his fists clenched and standing on top of a brick that displays the 31-17 score and the words "what I said."

Clever stuff and smart capitalization on an awesome career moment for the Florida State quarterback. The question really worth asking: What would Nick Saban himself think of the shirt? Because fans on social media took guesses all night long wondering just how angry the former Crimson Tide skipper was watching his old program melt down in Tallahassee.

If you merely look at Thomas Castellanos' production vs. Alabama, the numbers won't gobsmack you. He tossed just 14 total passes, completing nine of them for a very efficient 152 yards, then added another 78 rushing yards plus a TD as part of a potent but well-spread-out rushing attack for the Seminoles.

What a win for Mike Norvell, Castellanos, and a Florida State program looking to prove they're the same program they were in 2023, not the shell of themselves from 2024. Meanwhile, Alabama has now lost four games under Kalen DeBoer as a double-digit favorite or better.

This article first appeared on CFB-HQ on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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