{"id":159766,"date":"2026-02-18T13:14:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:14:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159766\/"},"modified":"2026-02-18T13:14:29","modified_gmt":"2026-02-18T13:14:29","slug":"joel-klatt-on-florida-state-there-really-isnt-any-light-at-the-end-of-that-tunnel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/159766\/","title":{"rendered":"Joel Klatt on Florida State: ‘There really isn’t any light at the end of that tunnel’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following back-to-back extremely disappointing seasons for Florida State<\/a>, FOX Sports\u2019 Joel Klatt is not high on the Seminoles heading into the 2026 season. It\u2019s hard to blame him, too.<\/p>\n

Florida State enjoyed one of its best seasons in program history in 2023, finishing the regular season with a 12-0 record before downing Louisville<\/a> in the ACC Championship Game. Sitting at 13-0 with starting quarterback Jordan Travis<\/a> out for the remainder of the season, the Seminoles were snubbed from the College Football Playoff. Since that fateful Selection Show, things haven\u2019t been the same in Tallahassee.<\/p>\n

Over the past two years, Florida State is just 7-17 overall. The 2024 season marked just the third time in program history that it lost at least 10 games in a season. Things haven\u2019t been going right for Mike Norvell<\/a>\u2018s program, and Klatt can\u2019t see that changing anytime soon.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlorida State was down bad last year, and there really isn\u2019t any light at the end of the tunnel,\u201d Klatt said on the latest episode of \u2018The Joel Klatt Show<\/a>\u2018. \u201cWhat happened after Week 1 when they beat Alabama<\/a>\u2026 it did not go well. Did not go well. QB looks like it will be Ashton Daniels<\/a>, who has bounced around. Was Auburn<\/a>\u2018s backup last year until he played at the end of the season after starting at Stanford<\/a>. Is that the answer you want? I don\u2019t know. And then, late in the coaching carousel process, (offensive coordinator) Gus Malzahn<\/a> decides to retire. Mike Norvell\u2026 I like Mike Norvell. I think he\u2019s a pretty good football coach.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joel Klatt questions Florida State\u2019s roster makeup for 2026 season<\/p>\n

The Seminoles started the 2025 season with a bang by knocking off No. 8 Alabama at home. They then beat two cupcake opponents, which catapulted them to No. 8 in the AP Top 25 Rankings. Once FSU hit that mark, however, it dropped seven of its last nine games and missed the postseason for the second consecutive season.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Florida State) is a challenging place. They went the Portal route, but once you miss in the Portal route, now it\u2019s like trying to get back on the merry-go-round when it\u2019s going fast. It\u2019s tough to do,\u201d Klatt said. \u201cIt\u2019s tough to do. It hasn\u2019t worked out for them. Now, you\u2019re looking at the last two years and they\u2019re 0-9 on the road. 0-9. Is it going to get better next year? If you just base it on who they brought in (high school and Transfer Portal), I question it. I question it. How good is the ACC going to be? I don\u2019t know. But, they\u2019ve been good enough to beat Florida State. In particular, when Florida State is on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n

If it wasn\u2019t before last year, 2026 will surely serve as a make-or-break season for Mike Norvell.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following back-to-back extremely disappointing seasons for Florida State, FOX Sports\u2019 Joel Klatt is not high on the Seminoles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[56861,232,234,233],"class_list":["post-159766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tallahassee","tag-joel-klatt","tag-tallahassee","tag-tallahassee-headlines","tag-tallahassee-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}