Mike Norvell has been granted the chance to turn things around at Florida State. The Seminoles head coach willingly admitted this week that the team's recent struggles are his fault, which means it's his responsibility to turn things around.

After four consecutive losses, speculation swirled for close to 36 hours that Norvell's $54 million buyout would be triggered and his tenure in Tallahassee would come to an end. Instead, Norvell was granted a stay by Athletic Director Michael Alford by means of a released statement on Monday.

Usually, the term for a statement like Alford's is "a vote of confidence." However, there didn't appear to be much confidence in this particular statement. Alford simply said an evaluation of the program would take place at the end of the season.

Alford didn't say he actually believes in Norvell to turn things around. The FSU AD just said he's "committed to helping Coach Norvell and the 2025 Seminoles strongly rebound in the coming weeks."

The unspoken message was clear: we've given you the tools. Now it's on you to fix things.

Norvell, to his credit, seemed to agree. Speaking to reporters on Wednesday for the first time since Alford's statement, Norvell echoed his sentiments from late Saturday at Stanford that he hasn't adequately prepared or motivated his team.

The Seminoles, Norvell said, have lacked cohesion. They haven't played complementary football. Worst, they've looked unprepared in the big moments on the field. 

"We really lacked that here in the last four weeks," Norvell said. "The team, there have been moments where hesitation showed up and they played a little tight."

It's a familiar refrain for FSU fans. After glaring defensive issues against Miami, Virginia, and Pitt, defensive coordinator Tony White said he hadn't done a good enough job coaching his players. He said, essentially, that he made the scheme too complicated and it slowed his guys down mid-game.

On Saturday in Palo Alto, both sides of the ball struggled. FSU could be given some benefit of the doubt in making a 2,000+ mile cross-country trip. It was 10:30 at night in Tallahassee when the game kicked off in California.

But those are the kinds of issues coaches are supposed to address in advance. Minutes after the game ended, Norvell took the blame.

"[I] just told the team, [I] didn't have them ready to play tonight," he said. "Unfortunately, the things that we knew that it would take, as you come take a long trip, coming off some disappointing results here the last weeks, we needed to come and we needed to play with tremendous energy, effort, but [also] critically just doing things that we needed to do from assignments, technique, fundamentals, and also playing with discipline out there on the field. We didn't do that."

Norvell continued: "We had 13 penalties tonight. We had multiple missed opportunities. That all goes on me."

By Tuesday, Norvell was taking responsibility not just for the Stanford loss, but for all four of the losses. FSU has fallen from undefeated and No. 7 in the country to 3-4 and on the precipice of a midseason coaching change. It takes an entire team, of course, but any chance at turning things around starts with Norvell.

"I take great ownership in our results, and it has not been good enough," he said. "That's on me and this staff and this football team to get it right."

Norvell and his staff have five games to fix it. If they don't, they're likely gone before the Thanksgiving leftovers have been finished. If they do, Norvell may finally get that proper vote of confidence.

"I know," Norvell said, "I have a lot of confidence in the long term of what this will be."

FSU is off this week and hosts unranked Wake Forest on Nov. 1.