Florida State’s football team is 1-2 against teams currently ranked in the AP Top 25. Ultimately, that record is all that matters. However, the manner in which the Seminoles earned that record leaves room for interpretation.

Plenty positive can be said about FSU’s week-one upset of No. 8 Alabama. Plenty negative can be said about FSU’s back-to-back one-score losses at No. 19 Virginia (unranked at the time) and at home to No. 2 Miami.

If you ask FSU head coach Mike Norvell, however, the underlying cause for all of it is simple: turnovers.

FSU’s offense turned the ball over three times each in losses to UVA and UM. FSU’s offense didn’t turn it over once in the dominant win over the Crimson Tide.

There is more to it than that, of course. Football is a complicated game played with an oddly-shaped ball. It’s rarely as direct as one statistic. While some of the turnovers were unlucky, some of them appeared to be symptoms of FSU’s struggles, not causes.

However, it can’t be denied that the turnover-related point swings changed the outcomes. In each loss, FSU had turnovers in the redzone that led to the other team scoring. At the very least, that’s a one-touchdown swing in games that were both decided by the score of one touchdown (and a two-point conversion). Had FSU instead scored on those drives, it would have potentially become a 14-point swing in each game.

Ifs don’t matter in the ACC standings or in the eyes of the College Football Playoff committee.

But to a team with at least seven games still to play, those ifs can be the proof needed that a bounce-back is possible. At least, that’s how Norvell sees it.

“They should have confidence because, I mean, we played some talented teams, and there's not one game that I've come out of saying, ‘Oh well, we don't belong in that.’ I mean, we've got to play our game. We've got to eliminate some of the mistakes, and I think we can play with anybody.”

Despite the six turnovers in the last two games, Norvell said his team showed a “high capability” in each loss. To his credit, the Seminoles out-scored and out-gained any other opponent to have faced UVA and Miami. If it weren’t for a batted ball here and a mistimed throw there, those are the stats we’d likely be talking about, instead of the turnovers.

Norvell said the message to his players is that, if they can correct the issues in ball control, they can get the results they want.

“You get to grow through all of it,” he said. "You want to learn all lessons through victory. We did not do what we needed to do to achieve victory, but they're going to grow from what we've gone through.”

With all the focus on the two losses to ranked teams, Norvell said the one win against a ranked team shows what they can do when they play clean. The Seminoles did have one turnover in that game – a fumbled punt return. But the offense held onto the ball and FSU won 31-17.

"We have two losses, and we turned the ball over six times in two losses," he said. "We have a top-10 win against a formidable opponent that we didn't turn the ball over, and the punt deal."

Norvell, somewhat jokingly, said his team doesn’t get the credit it deserves for that win.

“Alabama is a good football team,” he said. “I know when we beat them in week one, they weren't, obviously, but now all of a sudden they're a good team again, and we were dominant in that game. And it could have been worse, if we would have been a little bit cleaner in that.

“But you know what, we also went on the road and lost to Virginia and we just lost at home to a rival,” he continued. “We've earned all of it. We've shown all of it. So, we're capable.”

It may be too late for FSU to be in any championship conversation, with no currently ranked teams left on the schedule. But if the Seminoles can make a run, they can still reverse last year’s 2-10 record. That would be a welcome result for a program that looked ready to implode this time one year ago.

FSU hosts Pitt this Saturday at noon.

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