TALLAHASSEE — Ousmane Kromah was the heart and soul of Florida State’s offense. Now a major injury will sideline him.
Katiatou Fofana Kromah, his mom, posted on Facebook “the bones connecting the foot and ankle are dislocated and fractured” after the injury he suffered in the 43-35 double-overtime loss to Miami.
“I love the kid,” Norvell said. “To see somebody that’s hurting the way that he was hurting, he’s such a competitor.”
In a one-paragraph news release Sunday, FSU officially confirmed Kromah will be out for the rest of the season. The school said the sophomore sustained a lower leg injury. Kromah had surgery in Miami and returned to Tallahassee. The 6-foot-1, 216-pounder is expected to fully recover.
The Seminoles (3-4, 1-3 ACC) now go into a bye week, taking time to heal ahead of a home game with Clemson (4-2, 2-1) on Oct. 31.
Here are five things we learned about FSU from the loss to Miami:
Running back depth is thin
The Seminoles will be without Kromah, who leads the team with 609 rushing yards, for the remainder of 2026. Samuel Singleton Jr. was injured at Alabama on Sept. 19, and Norvell has said he would be out indefinitely.
Tre Wisner had nine rushes for 63 yards and four catches for 56 yards (both season-highs) against Miami. Wisner is FSU’s best pass-catcher out of the backfield, and he took a screen pass 28 yards for a touchdown Saturday.
He will be FSU’s new lead back, and it’s not an unfamiliar role: Wisner was a 1,000-yard rusher at Texas in 2024. Freshman Amari Thomas (three carries for 11 yards) will also likely get more attempts.
Daniels’ legs are more valuable now
While quarterback Ashton Daniels often eludes pressure to buy time to throw, he’s been effective on designed run plays at Stanford, Auburn and FSU. Daniels had 17 carries for 136 yards and five touchdowns, an FSU record, in the win over Virginia.
The 225-pound Daniels has the frame and durability, with 79 carries in seven games, to help shoulder some of the rushing load. It will be intriguing to see how Norvell crafts a game plan during the bye without Kromah. How the offense looks with a Daniels-Wisner duo in the backfield will be one of the big questions the FSU coach must answer.
FSU is 0-3 vs. top 25 teams
An FSU loss was the expected result given Miami was a 23-point favorite. The Seminoles played well for portions of losses to a pair of top-10 teams on the road (Alabama and the Hurricanes) and battled a top-25 SMU to a three-point loss.
The bottom line is FSU needs to win some of these games. And FSU needs to show more consistency overall. Rivalry games are ahead against Clemson and Florida (on Black Friday), but FSU will also face unranked Boston College, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State in November.
There is a roadmap to the Seminoles becoming bowl-eligible. But FSU now has 12 consecutive losses in true road games and will face Boston College and Pitt on the road.
End of game uncertainty
There was confusion postgame as Norvell and Daniels each thought the Hail Mary to Duce Robinson in the second overtime was a touchdown and not an interception by Miami’s Bryce Fitzgerald.
“If it’s a tie,” Norvell said, “it goes to the receiver. I guess they had a different angle.”
Daniels said multiple times that he thought Robinson had the touchdown and at one point said, “We don’t understand it.” The play will be analyzed in the coming days, as will a holding call on left tackle Xavier Chaplin on FSU’s first Hail Mary attempt that wiped a touchdown off the board.
A request from the Orlando Sentinel for clarity from the ACC office about the call on the field was not provided Sunday.
Florida State defensive lineman Rylan Kennedy sacks Miami quarterback Darian Mensah on Saturday during the Seminoles’ 2OT loss in Miami Gardens. (Lynne Sladky/AP)
FSU’s defense made strides
Miami quarterback Darian Mensah hadn’t thrown an interception in five games. Miami scored 45, 33 and 41 points in its three Power Four wins. FSU’s defense held the Hurricanes to 28 points in regulation.
FSU’s defense made a pair of fourth-down stops and Ashlynd Barker had an end-zone interception, all in the third quarter. There were some positives despite the loss. But the Seminoles bent on a pair of fourth-quarter touchdown drives and didn’t make a stop in either overtime.