When you’ve backed yourself into a corner the way Mike Norvell has at Florida State—with underwhelming recruiting classes, an over-reliance on the transfer portal, and an unfathomable losing streak in ACC games—there’s no more margin for error. And yet, error came nonetheless. Now, it’s going to be another nervous Sunday after Florida State’s 24-10 loss to Clemson.
Is another coach at a high-profile program on his way out the door? It’s probably just a matter of time—maybe weeks, but maybe just hours. That’s the position Norvell put himself in by losing nine ACC games in a row, getting off the schneid last week against Wake Forest, then face-planting against a Clemson team that has been almost equally disappointing this year.
Here’s a stark framing of the situation in Tallahassee: In the last 12 months, UConn coach Jim Mora has more wins over ACC opponents (North Carolina, Boston College, Duke) than the Florida State coach. It’s unacceptable and embarrassing.
And regardless of what Norvell accomplished in his last job at Memphis or the 2023 season when Florida State was 13-0 and got snubbed by the College Football Playoff, you simply cannot excuse that reality—no matter what you think of his chops as a football coach.
Make no mistake, Norvell was highly regarded by pretty much everyone, enough that he probably could have been the Alabama coach after Nick Saban if he wanted to be. That’s all water under the bridge now, though. Florida State offered Norvell a golden contract, convincing him to pull out of the Alabama search, and as a result this is going to be an expensive separation to the tune of $55 million should the Seminoles pull the trigger.
Florida State may not be as good of a job as its fans think, and its administration may be more chaotic and incompetent than most realize, but there is no universe in which the on-field product should sink to these depths. Norvell has nobody to blame for that than himself, and until it has another coach in place it can believe in, the Seminoles will reign as America’s most miserable fan base in Week 11.
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## Conference Champions of Misery
### Big Ten
Though Washington’s 13-10 loss at Wisconsin wasn’t the season’s biggest upset by point spread—the Badgers were only 10.5-point underdogs—it’s certainly in the conversation for the season’s most embarrassing performance.
Not only was Wisconsin previously winless in the Big Ten, it had lost its first five conference games by an average of 23.2 points and hadn’t scored more than 10 points in any of them. Meanwhile, Wisconsin athletic director Chris McIntosh enraged his fan base this past week by announcing Luke Fickell will be back for a fourth season even though his tenure has gone horribly.
With all that swirling, Washington had no excuse to lose a game where Wisconsin only managed 205 yards of offense and whose leading passer was punter Sean West, who got 24 yards on a fake. But with the Huskies going minus-2 in turnover margin and committing eight penalties, it happened—and now they’re out of the playoff mix at 6-3.
### Big 12
Of all the stupid, meaningless beefs that make college football what it is, none is funnier than the rivalry between Houston and UCF over which school has more of a claim to NASA. Since 2017, UCF has designated an annual “Space Game,” where it wears special uniforms to commemorate its historic connections and partnerships with Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.
But as former Houston coach Dana Holgorsen once famously quipped, “They don’t say, ‘Orlando, we have a problem.’” We’ll let others figure out who’s right, but on the football field there’s no debate about which program already launched into orbit.
Houston has been one of the nation’s best stories at 8-2, while Scott Frost’s homecoming has underwhelmed so far. Not only did UCF blow a 10-point lead to lose 30-27, it’s the first time the Knights have lost a Space Game. Which makes this year a black hole for UCF.
### SEC
Between 1987 and 2017, Florida didn’t lose to Kentucky. No matter how good Kentucky thought it was or how mediocre Florida might be in a given year, this was a bug vs. windshield rivalry.
After 31 straight wins, there was little reason to believe the Wildcats would suddenly flip the script. But in the last eight meetings, Kentucky is 5-3 including this year’s 38-7 Wildcat victory.
It’s the rare result that isn’t great for either fan base. Kentucky fans are largely tired of Mark Stoops, but he’s not a hot enough candidate to abandon his $9 million per year contract. And while Florida is in the midst of a coaching search to replace Billy Napier, losing to Kentucky is historically a red line.
Florida didn’t just lose in Lexington; it turned the ball over four times in the first half, benched starting quarterback D.J. Lagway, couldn’t get anything done offensively, and logged one of the season’s most embarrassing results. Kentucky hasn’t beaten Florida by such a margin since 40-6 in 1950.
### Group of Five
Memphis is a basketball school that wants to be a football school, and if a Tigers fan went into a coma around 2011, they’d be ecstatic to wake up and learn that their favorite program is headed to a 12th straight bowl game.
But when you sustain success over this long, expectations change. Memphis has invested enough, both in the roster and facilities, to believe it should win an American Conference title and reach the College Football Playoff.
But that’s not going to happen this year, not after a 38-32 loss at home to Tulane. For the 8-2 Tigers, the real damage was done on October 18 when they lost a stunner to UAB, but this result twisted the knife.
Head coach Ryan Silverfield is now in a very strange spot where he’s 29-7 over the last three years but may need to get out while he can because the locals are getting restless.
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## Headset Misery
### Andy Kotelnicki
Everyone at Penn State is planning their next move in the wake of James Franklin’s firing, which makes it all the more ridiculous that the remaining coaching staff isn’t letting it all hang out. What do you have to lose?
Yet, after a stunning rally to take a 24-20 lead over No. 2 Indiana, with 6:27 to go, the Penn State offensive staff led by Kotelnicki completely turtled up.
In fact, on its final drive—when another first down would have basically put the game out of reach—Penn State was so conservative that it brought out seven offensive linemen for third-and-9 and ran the safest and least threatening screen pass anyone’s ever seen.
It was almost as if Penn State was perfectly fine giving Fernando Mendoza one more chance to win the game—and he did, with a 10-play, 80-yard drive that will live for decades in Indiana lore.
Penn State’s 27-24 loss was also a reminder this is still a really talented team that wasted its opportunity to do something special.
### Bill O’Brien
If nothing else comes from this season, the phrase “What’s up, Trevor?” is now etched in Boston College lore. At his weekly news conference, O’Brien did not like it one bit when broadcaster (and BC grad) Mike Gualtieri asked about his message to fans amidst a really rough season in Chestnut Hill.
O’Brien went off on Gualtieri for coming to press conferences “with these down questions.” He said, “You can go out there in your dark-clouded world or whatever it is and do what you want to do. We’re not down. The sun is up and we’re fighting. That’s my message to the fans.”
And then, just as O’Brien’s anger reached full froth, he turned his head to another reporter and abruptly said, “What’s up, Trevor?”
We found out what was up a few days later—a 45-13 loss to SMU, dropping BC to 1-9.
### Jeff Traylor
The UTSA coach talks a lot about the NIL disparity his program faces against the top of the American Conference. It seems his peers think he talks about it too much and they’ve had enough.
In the summer of 2024, Traylor said UTSA was “getting our teeth kicked in by Memphis and South Florida,” and later said the Tigers had “six times more” to spend on their roster.
Memphis coach Ryan Silverfield responded by pointing to Traylor’s 10-year, $28 million contract and suggested he should “probably give some of that money back to the school.”
Then, after South Florida beat UTSA 55-23, Alex Golesh took his whack saying, “When you start talking about other people’s roster to benefit yourself, you tread water that implies there’s not an elite level of work here.”
To be fair, there is a disparity. Memphis, South Florida and Tulane spend more. But you can understand why Traylor talking about it—even if the intent is to motivate his own fan base—rubs people the wrong way.
### Lincoln Riley
We are deep in speculation season, and after USC’s 38-17 win over Northwestern, Riley was asked to address a comment by podcaster/host Josh Pate where he suggested fans should “keep an eye” on the Trojans’ coach.
It makes some sense. Riley famously pulled a stunner four years ago, leaving Oklahoma for Los Angeles, and nobody would argue it’s lived up to expectations.
He frequently makes passive-aggressive comments about the hardships of travel in the Big Ten. There’s also chatter in the industry that Riley and athletic director Jen Cohen—who did not hire him—don’t always operate on the same wavelength.
In response, Riley told reporters, “You guys know what I sacrificed to be here. I’m where I need to be.”
Interesting choice there to use “need” rather than “want,” wouldn’t you say?
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## Moments of Misery
### The ACC took a big reputation hit
At this point, no human with a functioning brain can be gaslit into believing the ACC is a good football league. The results are the results, and the ACC is the fourth-best power conference this season—with a significant gap to the Big 12 at No. 3.
There was a path for the ACC to possibly fool some people if a few results went the right way down the stretch.
Unfortunately for the ACC, the truth came to light this week as No. 14 Virginia lost 16-9 at home to Wake Forest, Duke lost 37-34 to UConn, and Louisville lost 29-26 at home to Cal in overtime.
It means the ACC will probably be a one-bid league this year, barring a weird scenario.
Commissioner Jim Phillips better hope Georgia Tech can beat Georgia, or else everyone will know that the ACC’s only College Football Playoff contender will be the winner of its championship game.
https://sports.yahoo.com/college-football/breaking-news/article/misery-index-less-than-2-years-after-miracle-run-its-looking-bleak-for-mike-norvell-at-florida-state-050634029.html
