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Happy hump day, Seminole! Here’s what’s on the docket today:

🏟️🥎 Softball Season Starts Now — and the Weekend Just Changed 🥎🏟️
FSU tweaks the JoAnne Graf Classic slate with a new UConn matchup, and we’ve got a deeper look at why this roster has legit championship ingredients from top to bottom.

🏖️✨ A Free First Look at the Sandy Noles ✨🏖️
Beach volleyball opens 2026 with a Garnet & Gold scrimmage — and this is still a top-10 program with hardware, academic dominance, and a brand-new Big 12 era ahead.

⚡🏃‍♀️ Shenese Walker Just Rewrote the Record Books 🏃‍♀️⚡
An ACC + FSU record, NCAA-leading time, and one of the fastest 60m marks in the world this year — the “no doubt” kind of performance.

📺⚾ Baseball Gets the Big Stage Early and Often ⚾📺
Seven national TV windows, five top-25 matchups, and a preseason No. 16 ranking — the spring calendar is loaded with spotlight series.

🏊‍♀️🏅 Kayleigh Clark Keeps Making History 🏅🏊‍♀️
Fourth Diver of the Week this season (a first in program history) and still peaking at the right time with ACCs ahead.

🧠🏈 Malzahn Out. Norvell Back In. And FSU’s Stakes Just Got Louder. 🏈🧠
The Warchant 3–2–1 frames the real lesson: this isn’t about one coordinator — it’s about whether Norvell + the new GM structure can finally fix the process behind the offense.

📉🏛️ The $437M Debt Headline — Explained Without the Panic 🏛️📉
The number is huge. The context matters more: bonds, facilities, Doak renovations, ACC legal costs, and what it actually signals about FSU’s “compete at the top” posture.

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A late change adds a new opponent — and reshapes the weekend.

Florida State softball announced a revised schedule for the JoAnne Graf Classic following the addition of UConn, whose original tournament was canceled due to weather.

All Florida State games this weekend will be available on ACCNX.

👉 Read more here for the full revised schedule and matchup details.

Your first look at a nationally respected program — and it’s free.

Florida State beach volleyball gives fans their first chance to see the 2026 squad in action at the Garnet and Gold Scrimmage on Saturday, Feb. 7 at 4:30 p.m. Admission is free.

👉 Read more here for full season context and what to expect from the Sandy Noles in 2026.

Records broken. Doubt erased.

Florida State senior Shenese Walker was named Atlantic Coast Conference Women’s Co-Performer of the Week, earning her second weekly honor of the season after a dominant showing at the Razorback Invitational.

💬 Head coach Matt Kane:

👉 Read more here for full meet context, record breakdowns, and what’s next for Walker this season.

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Prime matchups, prime windows.

Florida State baseball will appear seven times on national linear television during the 2026 regular season, with five of those games coming against preseason top-25 opponents.

📊 Context

👉 Read more here for the full TV slate and streaming breakdown.

Consistency at the very top.

Florida State redshirt senior Kayleigh Clark was named ACC Women’s Diver of the Week for the fourth time this season, making her the first women’s diver in program history to earn the honor four times in a single year.

👉 Read more here for full meet results and what’s next at ACC Championships.

Depth, star power, and real championship expectations.

Florida State Seminoles Softball opens the 2026 season Thursday at the JoAnne Graf Classic with a roster built to contend nationally. The Seminoles are a consensus top-8 preseason team and the ACC favorite, blending elite returners with one of the most talented freshman classes in the country.

Here’s the streamlined snapshot of how the roster stacks up:

🧠 Why It Matters
This roster isn’t just deep — it’s layered. FSU has elite top-end talent, legitimate internal competition at multiple spots, and a pitching staff built to survive May. If the freshmen bats translate quickly, this team has everything required for another deep postseason run.

👉 Read more here for lineup projections, early-season rotations, and how FSU stacks up nationally heading into opening weekend.

Why this wasn’t a program crisis — and what actually matters next.

Warchant’s Managing Editor framed Gus Malzahn’s retirement not as a shockwave, but as clarity. His 3–2–1 breakdown cuts through the noise and lands on a few uncomfortable truths about Florida State’s last two seasons.

1️⃣ This job requires obsession — not obligation
Malzahn didn’t leave because of Norvell or FSU. He left because the fire was gone. Being an OC at a Power Four program isn’t a “just coach ball” role — it demands total buy-in. By all accounts, Malzahn had already been flirting with retirement before arriving, and once the reality of giving up control (not just responsibility) set in, the fit never fully clicked.

2️⃣ Malzahn solved the wrong problem
The 2024 collapse wasn’t about play-calling — it was about roster construction, player development, and missed evaluations (especially on the OL and at WR). The 2025 offensive “bounce” under Malzahn looks far less impressive when isolating ACC games, where FSU averaged just 25.1 PPG. Norvell’s offenses — with better personnel — have historically outperformed that mark.

3️⃣ The real fix isn’t on the sideline
FSU’s best hope isn’t a different OC — it’s John Garrett. Expanding the scouting department and centralizing roster decisions under a true GM is the structural change that could actually prevent another 2024-style failure. If this works, it’ll matter far more than who calls plays.

How much Malzahn is still in the offense?
With the roster already built, Norvell can’t fully revert to his preferred blueprint in one offseason. Expect a hybrid — at least early — and a spring focused on figuring out what this roster can realistically execute.

Why now — and was it actually a blessing?
February timing is awful on paper. But December might have been worse. A rushed OC search, potential staff exits, portal fallout — it could’ve spiraled. There’s a case that this awkward reset avoided a bigger mess.

Norvell will simplify — or fail.
Modern college football doesn’t allow for complexity-heavy systems anymore. Constant roster churn demands clarity and speed. If FSU is going to function in 2026, Norvell must streamline his offense, borrowing some of the simplicity Malzahn brought — without losing identity.

🧠 Why It Matters
This piece reframes the entire narrative. Malzahn’s exit was an inevitability. And Norvell calling plays again isn’t the risk many think it is. The real test is whether FSU finally fixed the process behind the offense — not just the person holding the call sheet.

👉 Read more here for the full 3–2–1 breakdown and why this moment could quietly shape the future of the program.

Why the number looks alarming — and why it’s being misunderstood.

If it feels like Florida State can’t catch a break in the headlines, this week was a perfect example.

Within 24 hours of Gus Malzahn’s retirement, social media and national outlets pivoted to a new talking point:
Florida State University reporting $437 million in athletics-related debt — the most of any public FBS program.

That number is real.
The panic attached to it? Much less so.

According to reporting by Sportico and On3:

On paper, it looks extreme — especially when stacked next to peers like Cal ($432M in FY24).

This debt did not come from:

It came almost entirely from revenue bonds used to fund:

In other words:
This is infrastructure debt — not survival debt.

It’s the athletic equivalent of taking out a mortgage to build a house, not running up a credit card to pay rent.

One key detail missing from the outrage cycle:

Translation: lenders are confident FSU can service this debt.

If the finances were truly unstable, that rating would not exist.

Another number that raised eyebrows:
$33.9M in direct institutional support, up from ~$107K the year before.

FSU officials say that funding covered:

Context matters here.
FSU and Clemson were actively challenging the Atlantic Coast Conference grant of rights, which ultimately resulted in:

This wasn’t reckless spending; it was strategic positioning during a once-in-a-generation realignment fight.

FSU now sits at the top of the public-school debt list — but there’s precedent:

FSU is early, aggressive, and transparent. That makes it louder, not necessarily worse.

This isn’t a program drowning.
It’s a program betting on relevance.

FSU chose to:

🧠 Why It Matters
The $437M number is designed to shock and not to explain. When you zoom out, this looks far less like mismanagement and far more like calculated risk-taking in an era where standing still is the fastest way to fall behind.

Or put simply:
FSU didn’t go into debt because it’s failing.
It went into debt because it refuses to.

Read more here

Florida State is done reacting and clearly choosing to lean into its identity instead. Whether it’s Norvell reclaiming the offense, the program betting big on infrastructure, or spring sports flexing real national credibility, the message is the same:

FSU isn’t standing still.

Some bets will work. Some won’t.
But clarity beats confusion and this program finally has some.

We’ll be here to break down what matters next.

— The Chief 🏹