The official attendance was 60,472, but the scenes in the stadium told a much different story by the time the third quarter rolled around in Florida State’s home loss to Clemson on Saturday night.
The empty seats and apathetic fan reaction didn’t match the usual pomp that accompanies those two helmet logos and the rivalry that defined ACC supremacy for more than a decade. No, this year’s game in Tallahassee was buried in the television schedule and had lower announced attendance than last year’s games against Virginia Tech, Pitt and Wake Forest.
Of course, it’s hard to blame fans for not feeling the same way about the Florida State-Clemson rivalry as they did when those two programs combined for 13 ACC championships over a 15-year span between 2009 and 2024. The tension in the air every time these two teams played showed that the winner would be the new favorite to win the ACC and compete for the biggest postseason prizes in the sports. On Saturday, the urgency was more about hot seats than playoff spots as two struggling coaches competed to sell their own fan bases on the direction of their programs. It’s also hard to blame the students and younger players at Florida State who have only heard stories about the height of this great rivalry, ever since the loss brought Mike Norvell to 1-5 against Clemson as coach of the Seminoles.
And so the grim images of those empty seats and the obvious inability to keep pace with even a struggling rival meant that Florida State finally made the decision to fire Mike Norvell. Bringing Norvell back for another year presented the potential of another year with lowered standards, less attendance and even more distance from Florida State’s memories of greatness.
“You looked up at the stands and you saw half-empty Doak Campbell Stadium and an apathetic crowd, and it became completely obvious what they had to do,” former Florida State quarterback and Cover 3 podcast co-host Danny Kanell explained in our instant reaction episode after Norvell’s dismissal.
“And those empty seats were sold tickets,” Bud Elliott added. “Next year… it could be unsold tickets.”
The mirage of 2023
No magic number could save Norvell’s job in terms of wins in 2026, just hope that he can pull off a miracle like he did in 2023. If Norvell could lead Florida State out of the wilderness and ride a 19-game winning streak, winning an ACC championship along the way, then maybe he could also find the right combination of talent through the transfer portal to bounce the program in the right direction. With a tough schedule and a realistic view of the roster, no one expected Florida State to be a top-five team in 2026. But the administration was willing to wait and see if Norvell could lay the foundation for something special like he did with a 10-win season in 2022.
We spend a lot of time talking about what happened after Florida State was left out of the College Football Playoff, but in the wake of Norvell’s firing, we should also re-examine what happened in the 2023 season and why it might have responded to the desperation to see the Seminoles return to the top. Maybe this season wasn’t a sign of Florida State’s return to the championship, but a one-off in unique circumstances.
Norvell’s ability to integrate players from FCS Albany, Western Michigan and elsewhere into his program and play at a high level was seen as reason to believe he was the right type of coach for the modern era. As one of the early adopters of the transfer portal to build the core of a competitive team, Norvell was building a reputation as one of the coaches who “got it.” After all, he was considered a candidate for the Alabama job after Nick Saban retired.
Unfortunately, the results on the ground since 2023 suggest otherwise. Florida State went 10-23 in Norvell’s last 33 games between the College Football Playoff snub and Saturday’s loss at Clemson. Combined with the 3-6 start to the term (which was already seemingly doomed by the onset of a global pandemic just a few practices into their freshman year of spring ball), 2023’s success now looks more like a fluke than proof that one of college football’s giants had regained its footing.
Investing in FSU Football Inc.
There was so much desire to get Florida State football back to where the investment had been for nearly a decade; Perhaps that’s why fans were so keen to overlook the unique nature of the 2023 race under Norvell. The disappointments of the Willie Taggart era had led to some bitter moments, halting the momentum of a resurgent Seminoles program, and with so much spilled in Tallahassee and Florida State, any whiff of excellence was going to spark an overreaction.
The 2013 national championship, which at the time included three ACC championships and a berth in the first-ever College Football Playoff, reinvigorated Florida State football for the new era. It was proof that the Seminoles were built by Bobby Bowden but could be maintained under different management. Success on the field sparked investment throughout Tallahassee, with a vision of the place Florida State would hold in the national landscape as a football program, university and campus community.
The university has invested in its academic offering and has seen improvements in the development of its graduate and research programs. Tallahassee has seen a development boom with commercial districts exploding around campus and in the shadow of Doak Campbell Stadium. CollegeTown is different now than it was when Florida State last hosted college football, with Madison Social being one of the few establishments that can claim a history dating back to 2013.
Driving down Madison St. the day before the Miami game last season, the economic impact of Florida State football was on full display. There were queues outside every establishment and a sea of fans pouring into the streets where live music and street vendors added to the festival atmosphere. Influential players within and around the program saw the potential for Tallahassee’s unrivaled game environment to expand outside of the stadium and throughout the city. Numbering in the tens of thousands, Florida State fans will historically show up, eat, drink, stay and spend all weekend long.
But to get all that spending, Florida State football has to get fans to show up. Over the past two years, the numbers have been trending in the wrong direction. After stadium renovations reduced Doak Campbell Stadium’s capacity to 67,277, fans did their part for most of 2025 and filled it, averaging 65,286 in attendance for ACC home games. After three ACC home games in 2026, that number is down to an announced 58,787. This approximately 10% drop in attendance (from 97.0% capacity to 87.3%) includes, as we mentioned earlier, sold and unattended tickets. Florida State’s concern is that retaining Mike Norvell means fans will continue to show up less, and next year they might not even buy the tickets in the first place.
And why would they spend the money to show up, eat, drink and hang out in Tallahassee’s burgeoning football social scene when the product on the field seems so different from the success behind Florida State’s football culture?
Norvell had three different losing streaks of four games or more during his tenure. Florida State, as a program, had not had a single four-game losing streak since the hiring of Bobby Bowden. The Seminoles were once one of the most feared programs in the country, and yet there is nothing intimidating about a program that loses nine straight games to conference opponents (like Florida State did in 2024-25).
Florida State football’s habits throughout the 2020s have largely been a series of failures to live up to expectations. Florida State fans, witnessing these failures, made a habit of checking. There are decades and decades of Florida State fans who could never imagine the levels of losing seen over the last two seasons, which is why you had to put an end to the current direction of the program. If you let this loss continue, it becomes a new expectation, and fans are no longer accustomed to supporting the team and program with the fervor that built Florida State’s football culture.
Largest coaching search in FSU history
You can build apartments, hotels, restaurants and bars for fans. You can upgrade the stadium and provide the team with football-only facilities to ensure they fight for the championship. Every space in and around this university received investment to support a championship football program, and the only thing missing was a championship contender on the field.
If Florida State fails to achieve this, it risks truly losing control of the championship standard. Tallahassee kids today say they “watched Jameis as a kid” and speak fondly of the title race and its aftermath in 2013-2014. But the math on that is changing quickly, and soon Florida State freshmen will no longer be able to claim their childhood memories of the last great era in Seminoles history.
This is why the soul of Florida State football could not endure another season of blatant mediocrity. Because moving forward without accountability for program standards would be disrespectful to all efforts to make Florida State the modern powerhouse it has become. First there was the athletic director, then the head coach; Florida State can now spend a few days of soul-searching to organize itself for the most important search in program history.
The Seminoles will be treated very differently by 2027 with new leadership at all levels of athletic operations. With college football poised for another change, Florida State’s name change will echo the changes underway in the sport. Through recent investments in the city, stadium and facilities, the university has ensured that Florida State has brought every amenity needed for Seminole football up to new-age standards.
Now the community needs the program to start playing winning football more often, so the new buildings can have an old-school look for the next generation of fans cheering on the championship contenders. Because the last thing Florida State can afford is to lose is its connection to the championship standard, and the decision to fire Mike Norvell showed that no buyout number can match the value of that standard.
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