Will Florida State's meltdown vs. Louisville be the final straw for Mike Norvell?

Florida State could not have drawn up a better start to its Friday game against Louisville, and it looked like the Seminoles and head coach Mike Norvell might be headed toward a potentially season-changing performance.

Then, at the first sign of adversity, everything fell apart.

Not only did everything fall apart, but they were completely pushed around and bullied by Louisville on their way to an ugly 44-20 loss that is only going to turn up the temperature on Norvell's already hot seat.

The moment when Florida State started to fall apart

After jumping out to a 14-0 lead midway through the second quarter, Florida State drove down to the Louisville two-yard line with a chance to take a three-score lead.

With Florida State facing a fourth-and-goal from the two-yard line, Norvell passed on the opportunity to kick a chip-shot field goal to take a three-possession lead and opted to go for the touchdown.

Given the way of modern football, going for it is at least defensible. 

But the actual play call (a wide receiver screen behind the line of scrimmage) left a lot to be desired as it was stopped in the backfield for a loss of a yard and a turnover on downs.

On the very next play, Louisville's Isaac Brown ripped off a 97-yard touchdown run to get the Cardinals back into the game,

Following a Florida State three-and-out on the ensuing possession, Louisville drove seven plays and 59 yards for a game-tying touchdown.

At that point, momentum was firmly back on Louisville's side as it scored touchdowns on four of its first five possessions to open the second half, and then added a field goal on its final drive. 

Perhaps the ultimate surrender sign from Norvell was when he decided to punt from the Louisville 35-yard line, in a 14-point game, in the second half. Did they have a high probability of converting the fourth-and-15 in that situation? Probably not. But at least it would have sent a message to your team that you were still trying. Maybe you do convert and swing momentum back in your favor. Maybe you draw a penalty and keep the drive going. Just taking a chance would have seemed preferable to giving up. 

With the loss, Florida State drops to 3-3 on the season and 1-2 in ACC play, and is now just 4-15 in its past 19 conference games going back to the start of the 2024 season. 

That's just not competitive. 

Even worse, it's not competitive in what is probably the worst of the Power Four conferences. 

What is especially concerning on Friday is the way Florida State just completely collapsed at the first sign of adversity. As soon as that fourth-down play was stopped, the energy was sucked out of the entire team, and it suddenly had no answer for anything. The Seminoles allowed 397 yards rushing in the game, which is the second-highest total the program has ever allowed in a single game. Allowing that many yards on the ground, against a team that you know is going to be running the ball, goes beyond just getting beat.

It goes to getting outworked. 

It is a reflection on effort. 

It is bad enough to not win. Losing like that is an entirely different problem.