The Kirby Awards, Week 1

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There were a few candidates for a “Kirby” this week.

Wasted timeouts were a theme, as both Wisconsin and Georgia Tech lost games where they blew timeouts deciding whether to go for it on fourth downs and then ran out of time at the end while driving down the field. In Georgia Tech’s case, the Kirby appeal is also high because the Yellow Jackets lost to Northern Illinois while at least Wisconsin lost to Penn State. In Geoff Collins favor though is that he lost QB Jeff Sims to an injury early in the contest, making it understandable that his team would struggle to gain its footing until late.

So those were the candidates until Sunday came around. Then, we had a series of decisions made in the Notre Dame versus Florida State game that just took my breath away and made it definitive that unless Lane Kiffin’s replacement did something truly ridiculous on Monday would ensure that the Kirby would go to a Florida rival.

So without further ado, Week 1’s Kirby goes to Florida State head coach, Mike Norvell.

Kirby Qualifications

You’re likely thinking that I am going to blast Norvell for icing his own kicker, but I won’t do that.

I certainly think it was non-ideal to have his kicker line up and call timeout right before his kicker made a long (50+ yard) field goal, but getting the play reviewed was the correct call. While I don’t quite understand why having the ball fall right by your feet isn’t intentional grounding, by the letter of the law, QB McKenzie Milton threw an incomplete pass and that netted Florida State a bunch of yardage and made the kick easier.

While you might (rightly) quibble with the timing of the timeout right as the ball was snapped, getting the field goal moved up to a 37-yard attempt significantly increased Florida State’s odds of winning the game at that point. Norvell can’t be held responsible for Ryan Fitzgerald missing that kick. It’s just that the optics of him hitting the long one and then hooking the short one make Norvell look bad even if that isn’t all his fault.

So why is Norvell getting this week’s Kirby? It’s because he spent the entire game with his best quarterback buried on the bench, and then his decision-making process for keeping that player in the game was flawed after a rule caused him to be inserted.

McKenzie Milton was a fantastic player at UCF. While I like to pick fun at their “National Championship” in 2017, Milton was fantastic in those years, putting up QB Ratings of 179.3 and 161.0 in 2017 and 2018. He also ran for 920 yards in those two seasons at five yards per attempt. What this says is that he was an elite passer with a running component that added significant to his game.

Anybody who watches college football knows that Milton suffered a severe leg injury. That’s why he’s now at Florida State. It’s reasonable to think that Milton’s running ability might have been affected by that injury, but then what you have is an immobile player who is still an elite passer.

Yet Norvell started Jordan Travis, a player who completed 55 percent of his throws in 2020 with a QB rating of 128.6 (definitely not elite). He did add a running component to the game, with 569 yards and 5.9 yards per rush, but to expect him to morph into a throwing dynamo just wasn’t a reasonable expectation.

Travis was really bad in this game. He completed only 9 of 19 passes for 130 yards with 2 TDs and 3 INTs. And because the Florida State offensive line was bad – and because Notre Dame was keying on Travis as a running weapon – Travis only added 9 yards on 12 carries. The result was a yards above replacement (YAR) result of -1.25, which rates as very poor.

But Norvell stuck with Travis, even after the Seminoles fell behind 38-20 after Travis’ second and third interceptions led to Irish touchdowns.  Norvell was actually somewhat rewarded by sticking with Travis, as he actually led a touchdown drive to cut the Notre Dame lead to 10 that started with 4:37 left in the third quarter.

Milton came into the game on the next drive, after Travis’ helmet came off on a tackle, not because of Travis’ play. But then Travis didn’t come back in the game as Milton led the Seminoles to 10 points to tie the game and force overtime.

So why am I giving Norvell the Kirby? I’m giving it to him because he had such supreme confidence in Travis that he had him go out on the field and lead a touchdown drive that lasted 5 minutes and 50 seconds and ate into the time the ‘Noles had left, but then benched him after his helmet popped off on the next drive.

I think Milton should have started all along. My colleague Nick Knudsen was texting me the entire game wondering why he wasn’t in there as Travis put up a stinkbomb. His FSU friends told him to stop texting them because they were getting mad at his incessant questioning of Norvell.

Yet Norvell stuck by Travis until he had the decision to make the change made for him. Then he didn’t stick with his convictions and bring Travis back in the game.

There will be people who laud that decision and Norvell’s decision to “play the hot hand” but the reality is that he saw Milton complete a 22-yard pass and made the decision to keep him in based on one play. That’s after having spent an entire fall camp allowing those players to battle for the starting job. If I were a Florida State fan, that would scare the hell out of me.

That game doesn’t go into overtime without McKenzie Milton coming in at QB. But I’m not sure Notre Dame gets the game to overtime if Milton had started, or even if he’d just played the second half. He was clearly healthy enough to be able to lead the offense, and his pedigree as a thrower should have informed the decision to give him more playing time.

Instead, Norvell stuck with the decision he made out of camp until he had an excuse to make the change. But that meant he made the change too late and he was left having to ice his own kicker in overtime rather than having a lead and pulling the upset.

Lots of pundits expressed how grateful they were to have Florida State nationally relevant again and that the close loss over Notre Dame was a sign of progress. In some ways, that is true. Gone are the days of wide receivers lining up in the wrong direction and just getting blown off the field by significantly less talented teams.

But this should have been a celebration for Noles fans. They should have been wondering just how good their team is after beating Notre Dame convincingly at home. Instead, they’re trying to piece together what a moral victory looks like after an overtime loss to the Irish.

And that difference is solely due to Mike Norvell, winner of the Week 1 Kirby.