It appears Florida State coach Mike Norvell has been dealt a losing hand.

In the off season, Norvell pushed all of his chips to the center of the table, betting on transfer quarterback Ashton Daniels to be his quarterback savior. Last night against the No. 19 SMU Mustangs, Norvell’s poker face betrayed him last night as the Florida State passing offense played with cards dealt from the bottom of the deck in a sucker’s game of Texas Fold’em in a 27-24 loss to the Mustangs.

Norvell named Daniels as the starter after 15 practice sessions during the spring. As a transfer from Auburn and Stanford, Daniels has thrown almost as many interceptions (23) as he has touchdown passes (26). Last season at Auburn, Daniels was a backup for most of the year.

After two games this season, Daniels has thrown for 327 yards, two touchdowns and one interception. In addition, he has added two rushing scores. Daniels has averaged 6.5 yards per pass and 163 passing yards per game.

What is a cause for concern is that Daniels has only four completions of 25 yards or further. Is that a failure on Daniels, or does that fall on Norvell and his conservative play-calling? The Seminoles average 34 points per game, but you would not know it by watching them on the field.

Another casualty of this utter failure of Florida State to “effectively” implement the forward pass, a game changing aspect of the game of football that has been around since 1906, is wide receiver Duce Robinson.

Robinson is an All-American pass-catcher and All-ACC performer that uses his 6-foot-6 height advantage to consistently win battles for contested catches. Last season, Robinson came down 18 of those types of catches, the most of any returning receiver in the ACC this season. However, through no fault of his own, Robinson has been somewhat absent from the Seminoles passing offense through the first two games of the season.

So far, against New Mexico State and SMU, Robinson has caught just five passes for 75 yards, and no touchdowns. Whether it is Daniels, air mailing his passes intended for Robinson into the stands as souvenir balls, or Norvell failing to dial-up plays to take advantage of Robinson’s receiving skills that have earned him numerous preseason awards and accolades:

  • Biletnikoff Award watch list
  • Maxwell Award watch list
  • Associated Press (AP) 2nd Team All-American
  • All-ACC

For Robinson not to be targeted more by Norvell and Daniels with catchable passes is criminal, and shows how inept Norvell is as a play-caller, how poorly Daniels plays the quarterback position.

It is time for Norvell to give someone else a shot at triggering the Florida State offense on the field, whether that is junior college transfer Malachi Marshall, Kevin Sperry, or Dean DeNobile. With a bye week looming, Norvell has two weeks to get one of these backups prepped for the road game at No. 12 Alabama on Sep. 19.

Norvell’s hot seat is a raging inferno now, with no chance of being snuffed out. The remaining schedule from here on out is daunting. In addition to the Crimson Tide, the Seminoles host No. 25 Virginia, and travel to play No. 24 Louisville and No. 7 Miami, to name a few. It is the toughest schedule among all ACC teams.

Going into last night’s game with SMU, a local Florida State fan site polled the people with a survey of which team would win. 71 percent of Seminole fans said Florida State would lose the game, and 46 percent said it would be by a large margin. In the dictionary next to the word “jaded,” there is a photo of the Florida State fan base, and it is justified. Norvell has coached the Seminoles to an 8-18 record over the past two seasons.

The fans can only hope that Norvell uses this bye week wisely to correct numerous issues on both sides of the ball as they prepare to battle yet another talented and mobile quarterback. Alabama will deploy quarterback Keelon Russell against the Seminoles. Russell gained 342 total yards and one touchdown in a 48-10 win over East Carolina.

Source: Yahoo Sports