Florida State Coach Mike Norvell Apologizes to Fans After Boston College Loss That Drops Seminoles to 0-2 (Video)

Florida State coach Mike Norvell immediately apologized to Seminoles fans after FSU falls to 0-2 following a 28-13 home loss to Boston College on Monday night.

The Seminoles struggled on both ends of the court for the second straight game as Boston College dominated Florida State on the field, much like Georgia Tech did on Aug. 24. An inability to stop the run, combined with an offense plagued by pass protection issues, throwing errors and dropped passes, kept the game from being as close as it could be.

Norvell said in his opening statement at the post-match press conference that he was “sick” over the defeat and said he had failed as a coach.

“I apologize to our fans, I apologize to everyone associated with the show. It was incredibly disappointing that we weren’t better,” Norvell said.

Florida State has now lost three straight games dating back to last season, since the Seminoles were omitted from the four-team College Football Playoff. FSU was 13-0 a season ago and won the ACC but missed the playoffs because QB Jordan Travis suffered a season-ending injury in the season’s penultimate game.

That game against North Alabama also marked the last time a Florida State quarterback threw a touchdown pass until DJ Uiagalelei threw the ball to Kentron Poitier for 29 yards in the third quarter on Monday, a streak that spanned four games — the final three games of the 2023 season and a loss to open the 2024 season at Georgia Tech.

Uiagalelei was scattered Monday night. He completed just 50 percent of his passes and averaged 6.5 yards per attempt. When he had time and got the ball on target, his receivers struggled, too. Florida State also struggled with drops all night.

The Seminoles also rushed 16 times for just 21 yards. That’s a number that’s on the low side because sacks count toward a team’s rushing total in college football, but FSU’s leading rusher was Kam Davis, who had three carries for 11 yards.

Florida State has Week 2 off before playing Norvell’s previous school, Memphis, in Week 4. He also didn’t directly address a question about potential quarterback competition in his postgame press conference. FSU added Uiagalelei from Oregon State via the transfer portal this offseason after Norvell and his staff were clearly uncomfortable with internal options to replace Travis this season.

“I believed with all my heart that we were going to come out and play better, and we certainly made enough mistakes that we couldn’t do that in the first half,” Norvell said. “And then obviously I thought there were a few things in the second half where we started to push and we just clearly didn’t play very well.”