Two seasons ago, Florida State climbed back to the ACC mountaintop, winning their first conference championship since 2014.

Although the Seminoles were snubbed from the College Football Playoff in 2023, Mike Norvell’s team ran roughshod through the ACC and finished the year with a 13-1 overall record, including a perfect 8-0 mark in conference play.

Their only defeat that year was a 63-3 drubbing at the hands of Georgia in the Orange Bowl, with more than two dozen Noles players missing the game due to injury, the NFL Draft and the transfer portal, including star quarterback Jordan Travis, who was out because of injury.

“Well, you know, you talk about the climb, and we all have a desired destination. Everybody wants to get to the top. We’ve seen that. A couple years ago, we got to lift the trophy. Most people talk about it — we’ve seen it. We know what that looks like,” Norvell said on Wednesday at the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff in Charlotte.

“But on the flip side of it, when you’re climbing a mountain, there might be some times where you slip and where you stumble.”

To say Florida State slipped and stumbled last season is an understatement. The Seminoles fell off the mountain entirely in 2024, finishing with a 2-10 record (1-7 ACC).

It marked FSU’s first season with double-digit losses since 1974 – two years before Bobby Bowden took over as the program’s head coach.

While it was a disastrous campaign for the Noles, Norvell says his team isn’t looking in the rearview mirror but only focused on what lies ahead this season.

“The most important step along the journey is the next one,” he said. “People that are willing — regardless of the circumstance, regardless of what you find yourself in, that you’re willing to take the step to go be your best, to put everything that you have in — I don’t want a team full of sidekicks. I want guys that are willing to grasp it, to hold it, to push it, to step for it and to go be it, and that’s what’s needed, and that’s what I believe I’m seeing within this football team.”

FSU starts fall camp next Wednesday, and Norvell says he wants his players “to be pissed off” and “to go be their best every single day.”

“It’s not about last year,” he said. “It’s not about anything that they’ve done up to this point in their career. It’s about this season with each day and every step that’s in front of us to go put it on display for what you want to be. Don’t talk about it — let’s go do it. I feel the confidence within the team because once again, I see their work. I believe in who they are. I believe in the journeys that they’ve had. No player on our team has had a seamless, perfect journey. There’s been ups and downs for every one of them.

“But when they come, whether it was the recruiting process, whether it was the opportunity to come back and to be a part of what this team is going to be, I wanted guys that were on the edge of their seat ready to go attack that work.”

Norvell, who is entering his sixth season at FSU, knows there’s a lofty standard and high expectations for a Seminoles program that has won 16 ACC Championships, the most among all ACC programs since FSU joined the league in 1992. The Noles have won three national titles, but haven’t won it all since 2013.

“I can’t wait for fall camp because I’m going to challenge them every single day in everything they do, physically, mentally, relationally, all parts of it, because that’s what the season is going to hold,” Norvell said. “As we’ve seen that at an elite level, we also know — we know how hard it is to win a game, to win a play, to win a rep, obviously what it takes for a season.

“But I believe in the group of guys that we have that have come together. In today’s age of college athletics, everybody has a choice because it’s easy to leave. It’s hard to stay, and it’s hard to say yes when you know the expectations that are going to be put in front of you. When you come to Florida State, you’d better embrace the highest of expectations, because it’s what I have, it’s what our program has. There is a standard of what it needs to look like, and I’ve got to uphold it and so does everybody else a part of our team — players, coaches, every single one of us.”

Clemson will face Florida State at Memorial Stadium on Nov. 8. Clemson has won eight of its last nine meetings against the Noles, including a 4-1 mark at Death Valley.

Clemson and Florida State have played each other in 13 of the last 14 seasons since 2011, and the winner has won the ACC in 12 of the 13 seasons in which the Tigers and Seminoles have squared off in that span.

Florida State is set to open the 2025 season at home against Alabama on Aug. 30 (3:30 p.m., ABC).

 “I’m excited to get back on that practice field as we build as we continue to climb to August 30th for our first opportunity to go put on display what this team has the potential to be,” Norvell said.

–Photo courtesy of Nell Redmond/ACC