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Yesterday’s Poll Results
Today’s Poll
If the 20-team cap became law, where should FSU land?
🏹 Welcome to The Chief Brief! 🏹
Good morning, Seminole!
Happy October. The first availability report is out, and it’s a long one: 10 Noles are listed as out for Virginia. Mike Norvell called Tuesday’s practice “outstanding,” Virginia’s coordinators called FSU’s front “massive,” and one veteran coach says the plan on offense is as simple as three jersey numbers.
Here’s what’s on deck this morning.
📋 In Today's Chief Brief:
📋 The Availability Report 📋 - 10 out, seven probable, and a big name trending
🎯 Norvell’s Keys 🎯 - Rattle Pribula and copy West Virginia’s homework
🕵️ Behind Enemy Lines 🕵️ - What Virginia’s coordinators are worried about
🏃 Kromah Isn’t Satisfied 🏃 - Elite company, and a Tre Wisner tease
📊 By the Numbers 📊 - FPI, ACC title odds and some bold predictions
🗺️ FSU to the SEC? 🗺️ - One projection of a 20-team world
⚾ Fall Ball Is Set ⚾ - FSU adds a game in Clearwater
🎯 Recruiting and Around the Noles 🎯 - Visitors for Saturday and a five-star guard’s first offer
Let's dive in. 🍢
Headline Your team. Official merch. All in.
Saturday in Tallahassee runs on garnet and gold. Desert Cactus has officially licensed FSU flags, stickers, keychains, and magnets for the tailgate, the ride home, and everything in between. Pick the pieces that make your gameday feel like yours.
The ACC’s first availability report dropped Wednesday night, and Florida State listed 10 players as out for Saturday. It will be updated Thursday and Friday nights, with a final version two hours before kickoff.
❌ Out for FSU
DL Darryll Desir, RB Samuel Singleton Jr., WR Devin Carter, DB Karson Hobbs, DB Jamari Howard, LB Blake Nichelson, DB Zae Thomas, LB Izayia Williams, DB Antonio Cromartie Jr. and LB Daylen Green.
Desir already sat out two of the last three games. Cromartie is a tough loss for depth after he impressed as a reserve against UCA, per The Osceola.
✅ Probable
CB Quindarrius Jones and LB Caleb LaVallee, who both missed UCA, are listed as probable, along with Ashlynd Barker, Chris Jones, K.J. Kirkland, Donny Hiebert and TE Xavier Tiller.
Norvell on LaVallee: “I do think there’s an absolute path there… He’s definitely trending.”
🏥 Virginia’s List
UVA lists 12 players as out, including WR Dillon Newton-Short and kicker Tim Hamann, plus three as questionable: RB Peyton Lewis, OL Grant Ellinger and DE Devon Baxter.
Why It Matters: Getting Q Jones, LaVallee and Kirkland back helps a secondary and linebacker room that has been running on fumes. The front, though, is still thin, and Desir’s absence takes away another edge body against a team that wants to run 44 times. 🍢🍢
🎯 Norvell’s Keys 🎯
Norvell met the media for the last time before Saturday and called Tuesday one of the best practices FSU has had in a long time. “It was outstanding,” he said. Here’s how he wants to turn that into a win.
Per 247Sports’ John Evans, Beau Pribula averages 9.8 yards per attempt with a clean pocket but just 5.8 under pressure, and his EPA per dropback falls from 25th nationally to 57th.
The problem: FSU ranks 71st in pressure rate and 101st in sack rate. Norvell: “We’ve had too many missed opportunities on sacks where we’ve had a free runner or got somebody in position, and we’ve got to capitalize on that.”
On the run game: “Every person on the defense will find themselves in fitting the run this week.” A reminder of the stakes: Alabama ran for 27 yards in the first half against FSU and 220 in the second.
NC State managed just 168 total yards against UVA. West Virginia put up 38 points and 437 yards, including 247 on the ground, with two players hitting exactly 123 rushing yards, including QB Michael Hawkins Jr.
Norvell’s read: NC State became one-dimensional, while West Virginia had “a good balance of the run and the pass so that UVA wasn’t able to tee off on any one specific factor.”
That’s where Ashton Daniels’ legs come in (142 yards, four rushing TDs). “If they don’t account for him, then you’ve got to make them pay.”
Why It Matters: Former FSU assistant George Henshaw told Warchant the same thing in fewer words: “You’d better put your big-boy pads on, because this team is gonna try to ram it down your throat.” West Virginia won by being more physical, and it isn’t more talented than FSU. 🍢🍢
Virginia’s coordinators spoke Wednesday, and they sound a lot more worried about FSU’s roster than FSU fans are.
🗣️ What UVA Sees
DC John Rudzinski on FSU’s run game: “They’re massive up front. Really good O-line. Multiple guys that are NFL talents. Their running back is an NFL talent. They’re schematically well coached. Goodness, that’s what worries me.”
OC Des Kitchings on FSU’s defensive front: “Probably the biggest, most athletic front that we’ve faced thus far this season.” On the linebackers: “We’re going to see a bunch of Kam Robinsons out there on Saturday at 235 pounds.”
Rudzinski on Duce Robinson: “Really good catch radius. You put it in the vicinity, he’s going to go pluck the ball.”
Kitchings admitted UVA “probably got a little stubborn in the run game” against West Virginia. Their motto: “throw the ball to score and run to win.” And on last year: “We won’t be surprising Florida State Saturday in Tallahassee.”
🥶 The Cold Take
Asked by Virginia’s 247 site to preview FSU, Noles247’s John Evans didn’t sugarcoat it. He noted Daniels has held the ball longer than any QB in the country and leads the ACC with five interceptions, and he picked Virginia 31, FSU 20.
Why It Matters: Bulletin-board material cuts both ways. Virginia’s staff is talking up FSU’s talent while a beat writer who watches FSU every day is picking the Cavaliers by 11. Saturday decides which read was right. 🍢🍢
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Beach, boat, pool deck, campsite. The places you most want a nice drink are usually the places real glass is a bad idea. Rowdy Crowd solves that. It looks and feels like glass, but it is unbreakable Tritan, so it goes where glass can't.
There is a sustainability angle too. One reusable set replaces a season of disposable cups, and Rowdy Crowd puts real work into their footprint, down to restoring farmland. Better for your sand and your conscience.
From the tailgate to the sandbar, one set does it all.
Ousmane Kromah is having the kind of season FSU running backs used to have regularly, and he still isn’t happy with it.
📈 The Numbers
Kromah has 397 rushing yards and five touchdowns on 64 carries (6.2 per carry). He ranks 18th in FBS in rushing yards and has topped 80 yards in every game.
He has a rushing touchdown in all four games, putting him on a short list of FSU backs, including Warrick Dunn and Pooh Bear Williams, to do it since 1995, per The Osceola. As a freshman, he had 408 yards and zero rushing TDs.
🎙️ In His Words
“I personally feel like I got to be better. I see the good stuff… but I see a lot of little things that I could tweak.” He credited his mom for his work ethic.
On the matchup: Virginia has a good defense, but FSU is a “better offense.” On Daniels: “Ashton is having way more confidence to do what he wants on the field.”
And the tease of the week, on Tre Wisner: “Just wait until Saturday. I’m not going to lie, that boy has had a week.”
Why It Matters: Henshaw’s game plan fits on an index card: “Put the ball in 32’s, 0’s and 15’s hands, and let them go play.” That’s Kromah, Robinson and Boggs. With Singleton out, Kromah carries a bigger share than ever. 🍢🍢
📊 By the Numbers 📊
Here’s the numbers picture heading into Saturday.
ESPN’s FPI ranks FSU 9th in the ACC and 45th nationally. Virginia is 3rd in the league and 26th nationally.
Polymarket traders give Virginia a 56% chance to win, with the over/under at 51.5. FSU’s ACC title odds sit at 2%, tied with seven others; Miami is at 66%.
Virginia leads the nation with 31 players in at least their fifth year of college, per CBS Sports.
FSU leads the series 15-5, but Virginia has won the last two meetings and three of the last four. UVA’s only win in Tallahassee came in 2011.
Jayvan Boggs scores on another 30-plus-yard touchdown.
Ashton Daniels runs for 100-plus yards, like West Virginia’s Hawkins did.
On the less fun side, Pribula tops his career high of 334 passing yards against a defense allowing 290 per game.
Why It Matters: The models say Virginia, the history says FSU, and the market says it’s close to a coin flip. That last part is the most honest read. 🍢🍢
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Monday’s Senate version of the Protect College Sports Act caps every Power Four league at 20 teams. On3’s Wilson Alexander gamed out what that world could look like, and FSU lands somewhere fans will like.
In his projection, the SEC adds four: Clemson, Florida State, North Carolina and Virginia Tech. He acknowledges Florida might object to its rival joining, but writes “much like Texas A&M when Texas joined, they’re overruled here.”
The Big Ten takes Miami and Virginia, and a gutted ACC refills with schools like Army, Navy, Tulane, USF, Memphis, James Madison and UConn.
He also notes the ACC’s exit penalty drops to $75 million after 2031, around when the bill’s six-year waiting period ends.
The catch: Yahoo Sports reported that lawmakers drafted a letter to House leadership suggesting the expansion provision be eliminated, and many doubt the bill passes the House at all.
Why It Matters: Nothing is close to final, but it’s a useful window into how the national media views FSU’s brand: still a program the SEC would want, 2-2 start and all. 🍢🍢
Baseball season is closer than you think. Link Jarrett’s club added a game against South Florida on Saturday, Oct. 24, at 1 p.m. at BayCare Ballpark in Clearwater, spring home of the Phillies.
Oct. 10: vs. Auburn in Pensacola (2 p.m.)
Oct. 16: vs. Jacksonville at Dick Howser (5 p.m.)
Oct. 17: vs. North Florida at Dick Howser (1 p.m.), followed by Fan Day
Oct. 24: vs. USF in Clearwater (1 p.m.)
Oct. 30: Garnet & Gold All-Star Game at Dick Howser (6 p.m.)
Why It Matters: Five events, two in pro ballparks, and a Fan Day. If you’ve been waiting for an excuse to get to Dick Howser before spring, the 17th is your day. Tickets are at Seminoles.com/FallBallTix. 🍢🍢
🎯 Recruiting and Around the Noles 🎯
👀 Saturday’s Visitors
Jacksonville Zarephath Academy OT Omari Lawson, a four-star 2028 Syracuse commit, will visit for Virginia after FSU offered this month. “Just being close to home is mainly the reason,” he said. Florida, LSU and South Carolina are also in the mix.
2028 Top247 RB Noble Williams of Louisiana plans to visit FSU’s next home game and lists the Noles with Tennessee, Texas, LSU and Miami.
247Sports lists FSU among the contenders for Sarasota 2028 QB Hudson West (23 TDs, 2 INTs this season), though it gives Florida the edge.
Five-star PG Cayden Daughtry of Palm Beach Calvary Christian, the No. 6 overall prospect and Peach Jam MVP, has taken an official visit to FSU. Leonard Hamilton gave him his first-ever offer in eighth grade.
“After he left, I didn’t think they would have a chance. When Luke (Loucks) came, I just saw how the program is going upward.” Miami, Louisville and Arkansas visits are next.
Jared Verse and the Browns host Jalen Ramsey and Asante Samuel Jr.’s Steelers on Thursday Night Football. Jameis Winston and the Giants host Arizona on Sunday.
Why It Matters: A Saturday win at home is a recruiting pitch on its own, and FSU has visitors in the stands who need to see one. 🍢🍢
And that’s a wrap!
Thanks for riding with us today, Seminole!
Two more availability reports to go before kickoff, and we’ll track every update. And if you’re headed to Doak on Saturday, Henshaw has one request: be loud for all 60 minutes. See you tomorrow.
Go Noles,
– The Chief Briefers
