This is an IHeart podcast.

And just like that, we're back, another edition of the Late Kick Extra podcast.

We're jam-packed.

And you know what?

I'm going to save the intro for a little bit later. Let's just dive right in. Why don't we? Hot start here. First up this morning, Kyle, he hits us with this. Do you think Florida State is poised for a bounce back season? I.E. a respectable bull bid, nothing crazy. I was throwing this question around to Colin earlier today, and Colin, as he is one to do, doesn't even look up. He just says, well, can't get much worse than five and seven last year, can it? And I said, you know what, Colin, unless I come up with something better, that's probably going to be my answer. I think he's right. So I think there will be a respectable improvement list this year. Now, for those who have forgotten, I know Florida State fans haven't, Florida State last year was 5 and 7. Now, I thought going into the last week, which of course they used to play Florida every year, I thought that if they would have won that game, which they lost 24 to 21, I thought if they won that game, the entire perception of the season would have been different. They would have gone from 5 and 7 to 6 and 6. They would have been bowl eligible. You would have gotten to talk about your 15 extra practices, which everyone loves to focus on in December as a result of the bowl game. And then, who knows, they may have won the bowl game, and they would have been 7 and 6, as opposed to 5 and 7. Like Like that's a mountain of difference. But that's not how it happened. Five and seven was how it went down. Here's the important thing to note that if you get into the weeds a little bit, you realize it's different about Mike Norville at Florida State and the way he's handled things. Mike Norvel did not come in there and say, we're going to turn this around overnight. He didn't. Bud Elliott's talked about this a lot. He's very close to that program. Mike Norville did the opposite. Mike Norvel came in there and he let people know. And when I say people, I mean the ones with deep pockets, the ones in many respects who were responsible for hiring him. He let him know, you got a mess on your hands. I'm your head coach, I got a mess on my hands. Now we're going to try and win as quickly as possible. They leveraged the portal. So they did the things necessary to try to win quickly, but he said, we're not doing it overnight. We're not going to microwave it here. We're going to take time. That's me turn the oven on. We're turning the oven on. Then we got to let it heat up. Okay? We got to let the ingredients over here thaw. It just takes a little while to make the kind of quality meal that you want and the kind of product that they want down there. But we're not asking them to win 10 games. The question was, will there be respectable improvement? Yeah, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to expect them to make a bowl game this year or win seven games. We're three years in now. It's kind of weird because the first year was the COVID year and he didn't get spring. They were one of those new staffs that also didn't get spring, which is a nightmare. But they're three years in now. Let's be real with ourselves. It's still the Atlantic Coast Conference. If you're watching the video portion that we put on YouTube, you're looking

at the schedule right now. They open against Duquesne, which some people still try to pronounce

Duquesna, according to sources, close to the situation back home. But then they play Florida State, but they've got so many

workable games here. There aren't very many landmines on the schedule where you look and you

you start to pencil in the L already. I'm looking at it right now. Louisville, Boston College,

Wake Forest, NC State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Miami, Syracuse, Louisiana, Florida.

There just aren't a whole lot of, well, we better get these others because we're not getting that one. So, yeah, seven or eight wins, I don't think it's too much to ask. I think it's a healthy balance. Year three, healthy balance. Let's try and win us eight games this year. It's not year one. It's your three. So you told us what the deal is, Mike Norvell.

We're telling you now, okay, we gave you time. Let's try and win us eight games this year. It's not year one. It's your three. So you told us what the deal is, Mike Norvell.

We're telling you now, okay, we gave you time. Give us a little bit, just a little bit of return on investment. We need a ray of sunshine. It's been cloudy. We just need a ray of sunshine. We don't need to get sunburned today, but we need a ray of sunshine. Thank you so much for being tuned in.

I'm just trying something different this morning.

And when I say this morning, it means as we're recording, you can listen to it any old time you want to. But this is the late kick extra podcast. It is, of course, college football year round. We don't do the O word around here. We whisper it when we do have to talk about it. And that is, of course, I've got to do a promo read

when we get done recording.

And they want me to say the word in the promo read. And I told management. I may say it, but I'm going to have to whisper it. I asked you a favor the other day on Lake Kick Live, which is also available in podcast form. And you did it, and I want to ask you again because it worked. All I asked you to do was subscribe to the pod.

That's it. Obviously, if you're listening right now, you have downloaded the episode, which

helps us greatly. I appreciate that. Do me one more little favor. If you're on Spotify, Apple,

wherever you listen, just subscribe to the pub. It's free. Nothing else happens, but it does help

us internally. And you guys did it.

Apparently, by the millions and millions and millions the other day it looks like, because we got a really, really good bump. So thank you for that. That's it. That's all. I'm Josh Pate. Let's get back to it. Mailbag. If you want to submit questions, by the way, at Late Kick Josh on Twitter and Instagram. And we got a bunch of them this morning.

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