On Halloween, Clemson at Florida State Could be a Ghost Town

The Florida State fan base is fed up with the university administration’s lack of leadership regarding Mike Norvell’s tenure as football coach. 

As a result, the fans may stay away in droves from Doak Campbell Stadium Saturday when Florida State (3-4) hosts the Clemson Tigers (4-3).

Further, a matchup of two unranked teams does not instill excitement in the Florida State faithful.

Florida State has not won at home against Clemson since the 2014 season.

The Seminoles are currently on a two-game losing streak, to Louisville and Miami.

Those two straight losses are just more nails in Norvell’s coffin that seemingly may never be buried.

Deep down, Norvell must be laughing his best maniacal, Vincent Price laugh, all the way to the bank.

The administration’s lack of action in hiring a search firm, and setting in motion the process of replacing former athletic director Michael Alford, is mind-numbing.

Alford was fired in September.

A lack of empathy over the performance of Norvell over the last two and half seasons is another source of frustration for the fan base.

Norvell has coached the Seminoles to just 10 wins (only four in the ACC) and 22 losses since the conference championship season of 2023.

Further, Florida State has lost 12 consecutive true road games. The fans no longer want to spend their hard-earned money to support a losing program.

The administration seems perfectly fine in allowing the football program to remain mired in its losing ways.

Compounding the problems is the lack of funds. These funds can be used to hire a new athletic director, and pay the buyout of Norvell’s contract. That buyout is around $50 million.

The university is reportedly hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, money coming due after facility improvements campus-wide in recent years.

So, it appears that Florida State cannot afford to fire Norvell for poor performance. Many now believe that Norvell will be retained for the 2027 season.

If that happens, Norvell will most certainly have to raid the transfer portal for yet another quarterback, for the fourth consecutive season.

However, where will the NIL money come from to lure the top players to Florida State?

The best thing that Norvell and his team can do is beat Clemson Saturday. However, it may be in front of a sparce home crowd.

Maybe a victory over Clemson will set the tone for the rest of the schedule: Boston College, Pitt, NC State and Florida.

Those are all winnable games for the Seminoles, except for Florida.

If Norvell is going to stay, presumably with the university’s blessing, the least he can do is win four of the last five games and produce Florida State’s first winning season since 2023.