Bianchi: Yes, Mike Norvell should be on the hot seat, but FSU fans shouldn’t be pouring gasoline on it

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The power went out at Doak Campbell Stadium on Monday night.

And, really, could there be a more perfect metaphor for Florida State football?

The lights went dark. The scoreboard disappeared. The Wi-Fi went down. The helmet communication stopped working. Kickoff against No. 19 SMU was delayed nearly two hours while crews scrambled to restore enough electricity to play the game.

Eventually, they got the power back. Now if somebody could just figure out how to stop a vocal segment of Florida State fans from sucking the energy out of their own football program.

FSU lost 27-24 to a good SMU team on Monday night, dropping Mike Norvell’s team to 1-1 after an unimpressive season-opening victory over New Mexico State. And you know what that means:

Fire Norvell! Bench the quarterback! The season is over! The program is doomed!

On social media, the torches and pitchforks are already out for Norvell, who unquestionably has himself perched precariously on the coaching hot seat. I’m not suggesting Florida State fans should be happy. Monday night was a gigantic opportunity squandered.

SMU practically gift-wrapped the game for the Seminoles with four turnovers, a missed field goal and twice as many penalties. Yet FSU still couldn’t win. The Seminoles went an almost incomprehensible 2-for-15 on third down. Quarterback Ashton Daniels threw for only 125 yards while SMU’s Kevin Jennings strafed FSU’s secondary for 430 yards.

Criticism is warranted. But there is a difference between criticism and toxicity.

Ron Zook, during his turbulent tenure at Florida all those years ago, had a term for the relentless criticism that eventually infects everything around a football program: Zooker called it, “Noise in the system.”

FSU right now has enough noise in the system to drown out the Marching Chiefs. Every incompletion is a referendum on Norvell. Every missed tackle is another reason he should be fired. Even after the season-opening victory, the prevailing reaction wasn’t relief or encouragement. It was ridicule because the Seminoles didn’t win impressively enough.

And here’s what fans sometimes forget: Players hear the noise, too. They live on social media. Their parents see it. Recruits see it. Opposing coaches certainly see it and undoubtedly use it against FSU in recruiting.

Tell a football program often enough that it’s terrible, and eventually the players start wondering if you’re right. Negativity becomes debilitating. And self-fulfilling.

Which brings me to the late, great George Edmondson.

In 1949, Edmondson attended his first University of Florida football game after serving as a Navy fighter pilot during World War II. The Gators were the laughingstock of the SEC, only two years removed from a 13-game losing streak. Florida was playing The Citadel — Edmondson’s alma mater — and he couldn’t believe what he heard when the Gators ran onto the field.

Their own fans were booing them. When coach Raymond Wolf’s name was announced, they booed even louder.

“I was appalled,” Edmondson once told me. “It was terrible. I didn’t understand it. How could you boo your own team? They were just college kids out there trying their hardest.”

So Edmondson decided to fight the boos. He stood up and started screaming:

“Two bits!
Four bits!
Six bits!
A dollar!
All for the Gators,
Stand up and holler!”

His buddies joined him. Then his section joined him. The Gators won. And Mr. Two Bits was born.

For decades, Edmondson became the personification of what a college football fan should be. He didn’t cheer only when Florida was winning national championships. His tradition began when Florida was awful.

That’s the point. It’s easy to be a fan when you’re 12-0. Try being one when your coach is on the hot seat and Alabama, Virginia, Louisville and Miami are among the next five opponents.

Norvell absolutely needs to coach better. His quarterback needs to throw better. His secondary needs to cover better. His team needs to convert third downs. But Florida State fans might ask something of themselves, too: Are you helping your football program, or are you helping destroy it?

Interestingly, SMU coach Rhett Lashlee said something after the bizarre power outage that applies perfectly to FSU’s current predicament: “If you whine about how hard it is, you’re not going to solve the problem.”

Amen.

Mike Norvell doesn’t need anybody telling him everything is wonderful. But he sure could use his own Mr. Two Bits.

Somebody to drown out the boos.

Somebody to stand up and holler.

Somebody to turn the power back on.

Email me at mbianchi@orlandosentinel.com. Hit me up on social media @BianchiWrites and listen to my radio show “Game On” every weekday from 3 to 6 p.m. on FM 96.9, AM 740 and 969TheGame.com/listen.

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