North Florida Sports Network Podcast
North Florida Sports Network Podcast
Alabama Dethroned: Inside FSU's Stunning Upset Victory
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Majesty, do your job. You have to stay back, All right. Instant reaction time 2025, Alabama FSU. In the books Holy shit and the Noles are victorious.
Speaker 1Holy shit 31-17.
Speaker 2You were wrong, Jimmy.
Speaker 1I am here to eat my big week-long buffet of shit sandwiches hey, hey no hey, hey, we're gonna dedicate this to wilson pi down there in the tampa area. He never stopped believing. That is the reason why we won. Holy, holy shit. Everything he said came true.
Speaker 2Reno knows dick. Well, you know, nobody knew anything really, but he was optimistic, and I was, you know, and I believed that if everything fell into place but when does that ever happen? And it did.
Speaker 1Never, never, and the only one that was riding with him win or lose was Wilson.
Defense Steps Up: Tony White's Game Ball
Speaker 2We're giving him his flowers right now. Hey, we got to. Just, I just love the. It was the desperation. They played like that Kind of like. What was crazy about it is you just look at it. It was the kind of opposite of last season.
Speaker 1They came out and didn't give a shit.
Speaker 2No, but they had the 16-play opening drive 16-play. Beautiful opening drive Pure sex on the field, that's all they got. Holy shit, man, you can see their fight in the defense, making them earn it and the response to answer that long drive and be like, oh okay, right now, what are you going to?
Speaker 1do. Oh man, as soon as that, again, as soon as it was seven, they were ready to fight. No, they weren't. It was fighting all game. They weren't All game, they weren't going to stay off to Tony White in the defense.
Speaker 2They get my game ball, like if I had to give it to one. They get my game ball. If I had to give it to one, yeah, and what's great about just the instant reaction to this game is you could give it to a lot of guys. There was a lot of contributors here. There was a team effort. This was a team win.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2This was everybody contributed. I mean, there's plays. You had a. What the fumble that was picked up by the running back. You know that's not in the stack, column Right what the fumble that was picked up by the running back. You know that's not in the stat column Right, that shit won't show up, big time call on third down and long down. Seven to nothing. You're going to go deep, deep to squirrel, yeah, squirrel. Wide showed up.
Speaker 1One catch.
Speaker 2That's all he needed, but it was a big catch. The final numbers for the game for Castellanos was 9 of 14, 152 yards, no touchdowns, no picks through the air, but he did have a touchdown on the ground, as well as 19 carries for 72 yards and it was probably more. He lost about 10 or so just taking victory knees, which you'll totally understand. It was just the. They were in control. There was a lot of different threats. How about Dansby? Three carries, 56 yards and a touchdown, and a big conversion on a short.
Speaker 1I'm going to tell you right now that touchdown run.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean the weapons, the weapons. That's where I was just getting at. I mean, look at the carries. Here you have Castellanos led the way with 19 carries, but Danzy at three. Croma, seven carries, 31 yards.
Speaker 1Keeping the sticks moving.
Speaker 2Saul, chuck, six carries, 28 yards and a touchdown. That touchdown man Keeping the sticks moving Jalen Lucas six carries, 22 yards. I mean nothing's great here, but they're just positive yards. Gus Roy Williams six carries, 14 yards.
Speaker 1That's what it's going to be.
Speaker 2But then Holmes two carries, seven yards, but a touchdown.
Speaker 1Gus yeah.
Speaker 2You just commit to the run.
Speaker 1You have an identity on offense now. You have an identity on defense now, holy shit.
Speaker 2Lucas also had two catches at 66 yards.
Dominating the Trenches: FSU's Identity
Speaker 1Hey, shout out to the crowd as well. Yep, they brought it. Yep May have reduced capacity, but they were in this game, just I, good Lord.
Speaker 2Yeah, big time win for the Noles. It had gotten to 14 and a half the line had, and FSU just said no. And dominated the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1Yeah, that was. Uh, god damn it. That that's. The biggest takeaway for me is the offensive line.
Speaker 2Yeah, they're like nothing was going backwards no, I mean this is, I mean they. We had 382 yard total, 382 yards total, but they only had 341 and they had to get 254 of them through the year and that's because they were forced to do that and they only had 87 yards rushing.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And then to 230 for Florida State. There you go, ball game. Yeah, 230 to 87.
Speaker 1Put it on that ass.
Speaker 2Yards per play, 6.1 for the Nolls, 4.8 for the for crimson tide right, the effort on defense was just outstanding. It was fun to watch um the plays that they did have. You weren't questioning things, you were just like, well, tip your cap, make the tackle, get them down, do the best you can and move on. It was good to see they fought the whole game. 6-17 on third down for Alabama, 5-12 for Florida State on third down. Fourth down 2-2 for the Noles, 2-5 for the Crimson Tide. Total plays Alabama had 71-63 for for florida state. Um penalties, we had eight penalties for alabama, four for the knolls and uh florida state had the one turnover on the muff punt, but other than that, both teams, uh, you know pretty clean game there and the time possession was pretty down the middle, so it was just holy shit, it was one in the time possession was pretty down the middle.
Speaker 1So it was just one Holy shit.
Speaker 2It was one in the trenches, it was one by Florida State against Alabama, the ACC against the SEC, and it was a dominant performance.
Speaker 1Yeah, it was a dominant performance.
Speaker 2Simpson was on the run. I mean his numbers actually looked better than they were 23 of 42, 254 and two touchdowns 42 pass attempts he had to throw it 42 times and he missed a lot of them and that was due to pressure.
Speaker 1Yeah, pressure.
Speaker 2He missed on some throws, but the effort by the defense you commend and it was fun to see Florida State on offense was an absolute joy to watch in identity. Oh my God, I never enjoyed two-yard carries more than you know what I'm saying Right, oh man, positive yards, just keep it moving.
Speaker 1I've been hating Gus Malzahn for years, I never enjoyed two-yard carries more than you know what I'm saying. Right, oh man? Positive yards, just keep it moving. I've been hating Gus Malzahn for years and I don't dude. Give me that shit every week. Give it to me. All I want is identity. Man, that like oh man. Yeah it was something to see, that first touchdown from Danzy, perfect timing for it. Yep, just taking the lead into half was further than most people expected. I'm telling you, man, the effort was there all game.
Speaker 1You can't. The defensive scheme was In one game. They just rewrote everything. There were zero big plays.
Momentum Shift: Danzy's Touchdown
Speaker 2Yeah, for alabama, the biggest plays they had were the timing routes, because they gave them they had that right. You gave some, some yards up to bernard, but that was it you, you make plays, you tackle, you swarm, and I liked, I liked what I saw out of that. Defense relentless, a lot of effort. Defense, relentless, a lot of effort on the pass rush, yeah On something that. I thought would be a weakness.
Speaker 1It's still up with sacks and they have pressures. It's.
Speaker 2On paper there is. It was such a pleasant surprise. Man On paper.
Speaker 1Not only should this have not been.
Speaker 2You know the result, but it shouldn't have been competitive.
Speaker 1Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2Exactly. That's why the game's not played on paper. And you know it's a long season and I don't think Alabama should. They have a tough schedule, so they'll have plenty of opportunities to make up for it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I'm going to be honest with you. It's a bigger win for Florida State. Yeah, I mean, alabama's going to be honest with you.
Speaker 2This is a bigger win for Florida State. Yeah, I mean, alabama is going to go to the mill. You put the Paul Feinbaums. They're going to say, oh it's a terrible loss and all that crap. But I mean it's not. You think about it. I mean, on the road at Doak with a first-year quarterback you lost, it's not the worst thing in the world he lost.
Speaker 2The win for Florida State, what it meant to the coach and the team, it was way more important. You could see that on the field. It revealed itself. The fight was there, the passion was there and Alabama did not answer that.
Impact Win: Bigger for FSU
Speaker 1Yeah, I think what this highlights more than anything is when you have a quarterback that is confident in what he's doing. Yeah, I don't. Dj was confident at any point last season.
Speaker 2Nope it was. It was look back and see what, what I can do instead of just running. Yeah, and you saw just plays where I gotta run and get this freaking first down. Okay, I'll do it yeah, oh he didn't play perfect, but he didn't any. There were some throws where you could even see him overly be cautious, being overly cautious and throwing it outside when he had an easy throw.
Speaker 1Right, he missed a couple throws. He missed a few throws here and there.
Speaker 2Yes, he knew what he had to do to get the win.
Speaker 1Exactly, it comes down to being a gamer.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1This is holy shit, man.
Speaker 2It's a good combo. You know it's a if they can play off each other. I mean, even when alabama scored that first touchdown, I was like you know that took a lot of time right, 16 plays you're taking.
Speaker 1It's only eight minutes. Yeah, it's seven and nothing. All right, seven and nothing, we come down.
Speaker 2That was, that was huge the response and in response, and even before that third down conversion, they had gotten a few first downs. Yeah, and I said, even if they don't get this, it was a positive response. In fact, they got multiple first downs.
Speaker 1Right At that point you're thinking all right, make them take nine more minutes to score, you know.
Speaker 2But then the first big play of the game was the third and long, where they went deep to us.
Speaker 1Squirrel. Hey, look at, their receiver catches the ball. What, what, what happens? Great catch, and then they ran the hurry up next play, oh you get close, dude Dude Thomas is Tommy's running it in. Yeah, Somebody's running multiple backs.
Speaker 2You have multiple backs that are big and that can score. And you saw, saw chuck. You saw holmes tonight yeah, I didn't even know, holmes was still playing I didn't do it. I didn't either. I thought he was out of eligibility. I mean everybody when they had their number called was running and this is gonna be be other.
Speaker 2Well, you're going to probably play maybe clemson, but other than that, there's not going to be any tougher defenses that you're going to play well, yeah, in terms of talent on the roster that you know you're facing, I'm excited nothing but blue chips. I mean. Well, I'm excited about what the wins and losses now. I'm glad I was at eight and four.
Speaker 1Holy shit, man, you got to rethink it. Yeah, dude, everything that guy just said was bullshit. That's what you take from all my preseason. Takes Everything, reno just said was bullshit.
Speaker 2You're living in a world where you came up looking at recruiting stats.
Speaker 1Well, you're looking at recruits, You're looking at guys that haven't played together. What did I say?
Speaker 2What's different now and you can hear it is that you can turn it around. Yeah, you can also fall off a cliff. I will be honest with you. I will be honest with you.
Speaker 1Ex. I'll be honest with you. Exhibit A I did not expect the offensive line to look that in sync just right off the bat.
Speaker 2No, Florida State looked like a great team.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Nobody would believe. This is the epitome of the transfer portal.
Speaker 1Yeah, shout out to Herb Hand for being that much better than Alex Atkins at every aspect of coaching.
Speaker 2Got embarrassed at Notre Dame last year yeah, and it's like get the hell out of coaching. Got embarrassed at Notre Dame last year yeah, and it's like get the hell out of here. Right, right.
Speaker 1It was sink or swim time for some of his coaches and he just let them sink. It was time. It was time to get the fuck out.
Speaker 2Because it was desperation time for Mike. Yeah, even after such a great season, holy.
Speaker 1In 23,. You got to feel good if you're Mike. Mike, yeah, even after such a great season.
Speaker 2I holy In 23,. This you got to feel good if you're Mike, just to validate what you had done, but you got to keep it rolling, which you will in the next two games, because this is only. You can feel the momentum, you can feel it in the game. You could feel the defense getting fired up. You could feel it.
Speaker 1Yeah, I would go as far as saying this is probably as much momentum as he's had since he took the job. Even no, no, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2Even with the.
Looking Ahead: Building Momentum
Speaker 1Yeah, no, no, yeah, yeah. Even with the yeah, yeah, I mean you just took a top 10 team. After everybody's been telling you how much you suck, you told them that you were going to beat them too, For 18 minutes yeah. And right, we'll see, Like you said, 3-0 going to Charlottesville.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean now it's going to be a different story because, as everything has changed as quickly as the season has, I'm sure that will change in the actual damn season. Yeah, when all of a sudden boom, Florida State's all of a sudden back on top.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh yeah, I mean you're going to be favored going into the next three games, You'll be favored going up to Charlottesville, Right? I mean you know you're going to be expected to be 4-0 and hosting Miami in a top something matchup top 15, top 20, whatever it is, Plus 425 if his shoe was.
Speaker 2Yeah, I mean like just just on not to even say it, but just to just on the unknown alone it was worth the money if he made that bet, because what you had was what you had was the unknown, but what the potential was was something that could beat alabama right, I mean it's proven there's one guy that has been a thorn in the side of the tide. Yeah, athletic quarterback florida state fans should know this guy can run around and oh yeah, no matter how good the defense he, he can infuriate you.
Speaker 1Yeah, that's exactly what he did. The.
Speaker 2Alabama defense does not suck. No, it's a real good defense.
Speaker 1No, yeah, they've got NFL guys on all three lines.
Speaker 2There was NFL talent all over the field on Alabama and our defense was making plays on their line. Our offense was making plays on their line, our offense was making plays on their d-line and they, they got beat some plays, but they, they fought their asses off and yeah. I was proud to be a Seminole grad, proud to be FSU Fletch.
Speaker 1I mean I, I that, oh, ooh. It makes you proud to be in this city and just holy shit, man it was a good win for the town.
Speaker 2It was a good win for the university, especially after the offseason, after going 2-10, after all the you know Everything, just the stuff with the renovations, just yeah, it looks great. It yeah, it looks great now.
Speaker 1Right. Oh no, the stadium looks great.
Speaker 2It didn't look bad on TV, sounded great yeah.
Speaker 1I mean, you know they even as much as watching the. You know, referencing back to the snubs sucked seeing on TV. When you win this game, it kind of Well they're never going to change.
Speaker 2No, and they're just going to totally, like, put the whole season in three slides and one of them is that bowl game. It's an embarrassment.
Speaker 1I will give them credit. They did say that we didn't have anybody playing in it. Joe Tessitore did.
Speaker 2Right, give him credit.
Speaker 1Well, yeah, I give him credit, that wasn't produced, and that wasn't in the production. Hey man he's. You give him credit. He's got his top two buttons on buttons.
Speaker 2Well, that's because he talks to the coaches.
Speaker 1He's wearing that Italian horn on that gold chain. He's out here tomcatting.
Speaker 2Well, they know, I mean even in the bet, you talk to the coaches. They understand what's right, and that was a travesty. What took place in 2020. Yeah, and so what happened this year is a good sign in terms of what I said about kind of giving Mike a pass if he can turn it around this year.
Speaker 1And it looks like he's on the right path.
Speaker 2He's like you know what I gave too much I? I gave too much leeway to get too much trust in the wrong people yeah you know and I I was not, you know, overbearing getting the people that I can trust, and he looks like he went and got people he can trust to make those kind of decisions and he empowered them to do the same in their decisions.
Speaker 1Well, he's had a history of he played like a desperate team. You know he brings guys along. You know you look at Dan Lanning, you look at Kenny Dillingham those are two head coaches now Arizona State, at Oregon, guys that were assistants under Mike. That's been something he's done throughout his career.
Speaker 2He's let guys earn their keep, kind of make their own way, and this time it bit him in the ass.
Speaker 1You know he wanted to do it with Fuller, he wanted to do it with Atkins and they failed him. Yeah, so he said, screw that, I'm going back to what I know. I got an opportunity to get Gus. I'm going back to what I know. I got an opportunity to get Gus. I'm going to get Gus. I'm going to get Herb. You know I'm going to go hire a guy that's been a defensive coordinator at different spots, has had success, and we're going to see if we can run this shit back and dude holy shit.
Mike Norvell's Coaching Adjustments Pay Off
Speaker 2Castellanos was the right pick. I was happy when we got him just because what we needed, based on how bad it was In terms of how do you replicate what Jordan Travis could do?
Speaker 1I mean, he's probably the closest thing you could get.
Speaker 2It's true, you know, with his legs he's going to have the ability and the touch, that Travis and the procedure.
Speaker 1Yeah, but he's going to be running a different offense.
Speaker 2Oh yeah, but oh man, it's fun to watch. Yeah, it's fun to watch, kind of like the unexpected, and you had a feeling that it was in the back of your head. You know that. You know when you do, when you follow the sport like I do.
Speaker 1If only, if only. Yeah, just that, and I refuse to let myself believe it.
Speaker 2Well, no, and then you're like well, you know, I like the center, I like the combo, and we talked about the coaches at Tulsa and the records that they set. And then the ground game, and then, you know, credit to Wilson. I mean, hey, offensive line man it lined up into a big win for Florida State.
Speaker 1I can't say enough about the offensive line.
Speaker 2The offensive line and the effort on defense.
Speaker 1Yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, Earl Little coming down filling on those running.
Speaker 2I mean, they're so Barker on safety 27.
Speaker 1Yep, I just hey Blake Nicholson. I've shit on you for two years now. I'm telling you, man, that guy was making plays out there. The team played desperate.
Speaker 2They played like their coach wanted them to. It looks like they were all buying into the message, so that tells me that he did his job. That's what I mean. That's your job as a coach is to get buy-in Connecting with the players. And if they're not buying in?
Speaker 1yeah, and there was more of that than I think that we've seen out of that, we saw out of Adam Fuller, until you know year three, right, oh man Holy shit, there you go.
Speaker 2There's your instant reaction. Week one in the books. What is that? Is that a hero?
Speaker 1Is that the shuttle? Are they bringing more beer? You got us a cold pop.
Speaker 2You got to get on out of here. I ride you, but Brian Kelly going to give it a shot tonight.
Speaker 1God, I hope he beats Dabo. Is he going to bank the table? You going to bang it? You going to lose another seat.
Speaker 2I don't know what else I have to do to get these guys ready.
Speaker 1God, do I have to stop playing golf every Sunday? I don't want to. What am I?
College Football Weekend Preview
Speaker 2even doing here, guys? Brian Kelly and the Tigers will take on Dabo and his Tigers in Death Valley, in the fake Death Valley or in the real Death Valley. I think the real Death Valley is LSU. Is that right? I mean, everybody knows that, yeah.
Speaker 1Yeah, come on. Come on, dude. Nobody was scared to go to Clemson for like 40 years. You know what? Nobody was scared to go to LSU in the 80s either. I remember William Floyd's.
Speaker 2Let's see if you only do one. I mean you can call it both. It's the Battle of the Death Valleys in South Carolina tonight. Tomorrow night, we got Miami, we got Notre Dame. That's going to be a battle. That's going to be a battle. I'm pretty sure we'll have a show after that one too.
Speaker 1That's going to be a battle, I'm pretty sure we'll have a show after that one too. That's going to be a battle. We'll request for one.
Speaker 2Yeah, fantasy drafts. It's heating up. Nfl starts Thursday.
Speaker 1Hey, listen, man Cowboys, 50 home runs from Big Dumper 50 home runs.
Speaker 2Micahper 50 home runs, micah Parsons traded to the Packers.
Speaker 1Michael.
Speaker 2That's all smiles at glory holes, man.
Speaker 1I love Kirk Herbstreit talking about culture. Dude, they won a Super Bowl with Charles Haley punching people on staff In the locker room. You're talking about culture. Fuck that.
Speaker 2Jerry Jones put him in a home. How about dominating? Yeah, it's like getting the best players dominating.
Speaker 1Right, dude, it's about getting that right. We got to stop the run. Well, how about you get a quarterback that doesn't suck yeah?
Speaker 2How about you get players that don't suck? Exactly, we got two first picks for them.
Speaker 1We're going to take a tackle let me move to guard and then a kicker.
Speaker 2Knowles.
Speaker 1Knowles bitch Big win over Alabama.
Speaker 2We'll react to that more next week. We got more games to watch and we'll talk to you next time right here on the North Florida Sports Network.
Speaker 1Holy shit, talk to you next time right here on the north florida sports network. Holy shit.
