There is perhaps no team with a wider range of outcomes in the 2025 college football season than Florida State. The Seminoles are coming off of an abysmal 2-10 record that forced an entire rest to their roster, which brought in 23 players through the transfer portal. FSU also made big moves on its coaching […]
There is perhaps no team with a wider range of outcomes in the 2025 college football season than Florida State. The Seminoles are coming off of an abysmal 2-10 record that forced an entire rest to their roster, which brought in 23 players through the transfer portal.
FSU also made big moves on its coaching staff, bringing in new coordinators on both sides of the ball. Former Auburn and UCF coach Gus Malzahn is set to lead the offense, while Tony White takes over as the defensive coordinator after two years on Matt Rhule‘s staff at Nebraska.
All those moves have created a lot of optimism among Seminoles fans that a better season is on the way. But with so many changes, it also makes Florida State one of the more difficult teams to predict, as was discussed on a recent episode of ESPN’s College GameDay Podcast.
“They’re the toughest team (to predict) in the ACC,” former Wake Forest coach Dave Clawson said.
“It wouldn’t shock me if they went 10-2 and it wouldn’t shock me if they went 4-8. I think they have the greatest range, and a lot of it is gonna be on the quarterback. He’s, right now, talking a pretty good game and he is a good player. But basically, they have to have a whole program reset.
“You bring in Gus Malzahn, you make a change with your defensive coordinator. They’ve always had resources and players, but when something like that happens, clearly there were problems in the locker room. You just don’t go from 13 wins to two wins because you’re that much less talented.”
Florida State brought in former Boston College quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who began his career under Malzahn at UCF in 2022. There is hope that the reunion between the pair can help to unlock the full potential of Castellanos, who ended up being benched midway through last season.
Still, Castellanso has flashed his elite upside as a dual-threat quarterback, rushing for more than 1,000 yards and 13 touchdowns as a sophomore in 2023. Perhaps the new offense scheme is just what he needs to unlock that part of his game again.
“I think he fits what they do better than what BC wants to do with Bill O’Brien,” Clawson said. “You’ve seen it a lot of times. Sometimes a fresh start for a quarterback does wonders. I think that’s gonna be a lot of cases in the ACC. The staffs and the coordinators that can reset these quarterbacks the best are gonna be the teams that surprise. The ones that don’t are gonna be the ones that are disappointed.”
It wasn’t just Castellanos that Florida State brought in that has fans excited. The Seminoles also added a pair of weapons at receiver with Squirrel White and Duce Robinson. If all those players reach their ceilings, it could be a dangerous aerial attack in Tallahassee.
It’s been a rough past year-plus for Florida State, which finished the regular season undefeated but did not make the College Football Playoff in 2023 following an injury to Jordan Travis. Dan Wetzel pointed out that this is a team that could use a break, but again reiterated how much is still unknown.
“This program, I think all you can do is laugh if you’re a Seminoles fan,” he said. “You couldn’t catch a break since the playoff snub. Maybe since when Jordan Travis got hurt, you just haven’t caught a break. Everything’s gone wrong. Castellanos is an exciting player. More of a runner. He can certainly talk a big game. We’ll see what he will do there. …Two years ago, they had a great portal class and really should have made the playoff or was a national title contender until the injury. Last year they brought in a portal class that they were excited about and it all went wrong. This year, who knows?
“I kind of felt bad not bringing them up as a sleeper, because I agree with Dave. If they win 10 games this year, am I gonna be surprised? Not really. It’s Florida State. It’s Mike Norvell. But, it’s just hard to shake that two-win season. There were some awful losses. It just all went wrong. So can they reboot? Is this like when a computer freezes up and IT just tells you to turn it off and then turn it back on? That often works, so that’s kind of where we’re at with FSU. I don’t know what to make of the team going in, but it’s still Florida State and when things get going well, Mike Norvell certainly knows how to capitalize on that.”
Category: General Sports
