Ira Schoffel: Under Norvell, the truth about some FSU players is often left unsaid

Mike Norvell has been in our lives for nearly five years now. And at some point, I have to believe we in the Florida State community will get a better understanding of how he handles his team’s injury information.

I’m not blaming anyone if they haven’t picked up on it yet. It’s almost impossible if you’re not actually at the practices or around the team.

But I do believe at some point, some day, people will at least pause before jumping to conclusions.

The latest situation stemmed from Sunday’s release of the Florida State depth chart for the Seminoles’ season opener against Georgia Tech. There are at least a few players who are not mentioned prominently on that depth chart — or at least not as prominently as some fans would like — and the immediate reaction from some was that those players must be busts. Or that they’re not developing quickly enough.

That could be true in some cases. But I can absolutely tell you it’s not true in all cases.

Like all college football teams across the country, Florida State has some players who are either battling injuries, recovering from injuries or have recently returned from injuries. And depending on their individual status, those players could be limited slightly — or greatly — for the Georgia Tech game.

It’s impossible for most people to know that, of course, because Mike Norvell rarely talks about injuries. And as one of his conditions to allow reporters the opportunity to watch practices, we have to agree to not report on injuries that we learn about through that access.

Once the season begins, things change a little bit. If a player is hurt in a game or is seen on the sideline with an obvious injury, we obviously can report that information. But if we’re watching a practice, and a player goes down with an injury, that’s off-limits … unless Norvell decides to talk about it publicly.

Why do we agree to that policy? Well, it’s a trade-off for access that almost no other college football beat enjoys. It affords us the opportunity to do daily practice reports and observations, including details on which players are excelling and which ones might need more time to develop.

It gives us a chance to observe players like Kevin Knowles having a great run of practices and reporting that fact long before he appeared on the depth chart as a co-starter at nickel corner. It also allows us to chart the journey of Florida State’s wide receivers, who had a rough start to the preseason but bounced back strong this week.

It’s just the injury thing that we can’t really touch. And I get where Norvell is coming from. The last thing he wants is for an opposing team to know that one of his players is not 100 percent.

Say it was a defensive back with a bad knee, for example. If that information was public knowledge and the player suited up — but was not quite 100 percent — you can rest assured that Florida State’s opponents would look to exploit him in coverage. Or if it was a running back with bruised ribs. Or an offensive lineman with a broken hand.

That information could obviously be used to gain an advantage. And while it might become apparent to the opposing team during the course of a game, Norvell clearly wants to make sure that information doesn’t leak out any earlier than necessary.

That’s not to say Florida State’s head coach never talks about injuries. At different stages of this preseason, he has gone on record about linebacker DJ Lundy, offensive lineman Bryson Estes, tight end Landen Thomas and others dealing with ailments.

When he makes comments like those, it typically means a player has returned from his injury, or is about to return. If a player is going to deal with a physical impairment for a long time, Norvell might never mention it at all.

That happened in at least two cases last fall — with defensive back Kevin Knowles and linebacker Omar Graham — and both circumstances led to those players being unfairly judged.

After starring at nickel corner earlier in his career, Knowles struggled mightily when he was moved to safety last season. And while part of the reason was his lack of comfort at the position, another contributing cause was an injury he played with throughout the season.

Knowles took a ton of heat from people outside the program because he seemed to really struggle with tackling. Well, imagine trying to tackle Division-I football players if you are already dealing with an upper body injury.

That doesn’t totally excuse the miscues. If you get out on the field, you’re expected to perform. But the knowledge of that injury — something that DBs coach Patrick Surtain confirmed this past week — might provide some much-needed perspective.

Same goes for Graham. As a redshirt freshman in 2023, the Fort Lauderdale product played substantially as a backup linebacker. He finished the year with 23 tackles and two tackles for loss.

But like Knowles, he also struggled at times. And it wasn’t until after the season that we were able to report he was slowed by an ankle injury for the entire season.

When we asked Florida State defensive coordinator Adam Fuller about Graham’s injury earlier this year, he lamented that it had a major impact on Graham’s performance. He insists that during preseason camp in August 2023, there were times Graham looked like he might take a starting job from seniors Tatum Bethune and Kalen DeLoach.

Once the injury occurred, that was no longer the case. Just making routine plays became a struggle.

And fans, of course, had no idea. So a great many of them, and plenty of media, assumed Graham simply wasn’t very good.

When it comes to situations like those, I personally wish Norvell would be a little more forthcoming with injury information. I think it would provide important context and might lead some fans and media to hesitate before judging players harshly.

At the same time, I realize Norvell can’t really worry about that. His job isn’t to protect the reputations of individual players. It’s to win football games.

And he believes keeping those things under wraps gives him the best chance to do that.

It isn’t good or bad. Wrong or right.

It’s just the way it is.

And at some point, we’ll all come to recognize it.

Contact managing editor Ira Schoffel at ira@warchant.com.

Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State football fans on the Tribal Council.

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