CALLED OUT: Florida State's Tony White RIPS Former Players!

0:00It's the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Hey everyone, this is Ross Jackson, one of the hosts of the Lockdown Podcast Network. Thank you for being here because your support means everything. And if you're looking for another way to support the show that you love, while getting something awesome in return, check out the Every Day or Club. You get ad free episodes of your favorite Lockdown show, access to a member's only group chat for fans of your team, and you can even jump into the national chats and talk about whatever's happening across the league. Tap the Every Day or Club link in the show notes to learn more. Fort Estate Defense of Coordinator Tony White goes off on some former Fort Estate players. You are Lockdown Seminoles, your daily podcast on the Florida State Seminoles. Out of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

1:04Back into an exciting edition of Lockdown Seminoles, I'm your host Brian Smith, long time college football recruiting animals. Thank you for making Lockdown Seminoles your first lesson each and every day, right here on the Lockdown Podcast Network, the nation's number one sports podcasting network. We're going to be talking about whether or not this year's team is dedicated to be at Florida State to wear that incredible helmet, to be a part of the Tallahassee community and represent you for the state fans. After we get to the first point, I'm going to read the quotes, I'm going to go through the specifics, but how will you? It is rare in today's world that a coach openly calls out players, whether they're currently on the roster, formally, whatever it may be, but the people that cause issues, there's too many cry babies, too many people that are around them, whether it's a seven on seven coach, they're going to make Matt a parent, oh God forbid, you yelled at my child, whatever it may be, hats off to Tony White at Florida State for calling out players and we'd heard

2:08this in the media, and I'm sure many of you did too over the last couple of years, too many entitled people, too many guys that were quote unquote, bought in to being at Florida State, talking during meetings when Mike Norbell was speaking, whatever it may be, if you take nothing else from this podcast, note that hats off to Tony White for doing that. As a matter of fact, golf club, I'm just very, very happy in general because it's not just because it's Florida State and I cover the goals, again, this is a cross sport, baseball, pro football, college baseball, I don't care, private one day, but doing it publicly unsolicited at a press conference on a Monday in the middle of spring practice, that's memorable, that's hilarious and needed. So I'm going to dive in, we're going to look at it from a perspective of some of the quotes,

3:09we're going to look at what I think are some of the culprits and what, well, I'll use one, I shouldn't dive in too far, but we're going to go into why, for lack of a better term, not only Tony White feels a little bit better about this year's team, but I thought this might be a possibility, now I know, and it could lead to some dividends in this thing that's pretty important and that is the win-wash record. Let me just see it, and I still have a lot of concerns about the roster, but the quotes that Tony White gave were honestly kind of refreshing, the ones that I'll get to a little later about film study and the comments about whether or not Florida State players really want to be there, that's something that I was really curious about, again, unsolicited, he went into it. So here it is, this, I'm just kind of reading from Moore Chan at one of their articles and it's pretty well put together, it gives you the perspective, but mostly it just allows White to speak. So he recapped how Saturday's first spring, which went into insider and a player is excited

4:12about, and maybe more noteworthy, really well-worded by the way, referenced some others that he's excited aren't in the program anymore, really well went into, and here goes Tony White's quote, this group of guys is showing up, White said, you don't have all the off-the-field bull crap, and the guys that don't respect this logo and school and what Coach Mike Norville provides and what FSU provides, like you don't have that with this group, you've got a bunch of guys that, as of right now, want to win, and they're doing it with action. They're showing up in the building, you've got guys showing up at 5'30 and 6'o'clock in the morning, that's awesome, by the way. It's sitting in Coach's office and watching film, you've got 15-20 guys sitting in there and watching film, trying to watch it with the coaches and do all that kind of stuff, that's why you're going to be good. That's why you're going to be really damn good, and it's fun to watch the change in this

5:16team, the change in the attitude that way. Those guys don't have to do it in that manner, so Coach White is correct, maybe that's the second thing you should probably think about it. It caught my attention when I read that, and I had heard about it, I haven't even watched this press conference yet. I'm so happy about this, once I just saw that quote I stopped, I was going to go in to press conferences, had some other stuff I had to do today after the underarm event, the whirlwinds with all the film I was going through, so I didn't get to this quite as fast, but I'm okay with it, because that little quote right there, there's two paragraphs. It's a potential game changer, not just for Florida State's defense, nor the Florida State 2026 season, but the long-term trajectory of the program, and here's why. Florida State needs to have guys off the roster that aren't bought in as much as this sucks. This is the two steps back kind of thing for one step slowly, for the next few years

6:19kind of, I hate this, but it's true, sometimes you've got to lose some really talented guys that athletically you can't do without to fix your culture. It's not a quick fix, it's an extremely excruciatingly slow fix, it is what it is, because you need to stack classes, both in recruiting, transfer for and combine them. Some of the guys they brought in from both have not gotten it done. To that end, I have a question. Just for Florida State fans, I'm going to ask it now, then after the break, when we come back, we're going to discuss it from a perspective of what I think, and we're going to compare a few things. Here's the question, do you think that the former staff, the ones that came in with Gus Malzahn and them, in onward, probably all different, they're better recruiters by the way? Do you think part of the problem was that the former staff didn't do their due diligence, whether it was transfer for the guys or recruits, they just took the low hanging fruit and

7:23just went after talent and didn't look at the evaluation of what this young man's makeup is, because too many of the guys are from two, three, four years ago, prior to the Malzahn and those guys coming in, in my opinion, what do you think? We're going to talk about that next right here, unlocked on Symmonels. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at Robinhood. What if sports were traded like markets? Now you can put your sports IQ to work in real time with Robinhood prediction markets. It's not you against the house, it's you participating in a live market. You can buy or sell your positions live all game long, use your sports knowledge in the moments that matter, Robinhood prediction markets change the game. It's people moving the action. So when momentum shifts, you move with it. You always knew the game, but never had a dynamic way to applaud that knowledge. Now actually take part live in a market powered by people. You're no longer just a spectator, play by play, you decide. Trade every play with Robinhood.

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9:27jobs, spend less time searching. Other time actually interviewing candidates to check all your boxes, which means less stress for you, less time or results. And the show will give you a $75 dollar sponsored job credit to help out get your job premium status. It deserves at indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to indeed.com slash podcast and again, indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply. This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. Make sure you check out the every day or club in the show notes down below. There is a link that you can get it taken care of, but here's the key. If you use the code March and that link, you will get a free month to unlock, add free episodes all across this episode and every one you would ever use. Check it out. The link below in the every day or club. All right. I said before the break that we were going to talk about whether or not. The old staff, in my opinion, this is kind of touchy, but too many guys that sounds like

10:34they brought in whether it was portal or high school, didn't have the right mental makeup. Some of the guys that went on, whether they graduated, whether they were transfers and they pushed out or guys that transferred because they didn't get what they wanted in an aisle. There's a lot of different scenarios that will combine. What do you think? There's been a lot of people that have posted on lockdown signals, YouTube page to discuss this, and it's really touching. But if you do not have the right chemistry and guys are bitching and mowing at each other, because Johnny over here is making more than Randy or I didn't mess up, that's you, whatever, maybe both. It doesn't work. We know that. The 2014 that's been at nausea discussed that there were problems. There were some problems last year, I don't think it was quite as bad, and they went to one five games compared to two if that wasn't the case, but just think about this. Just games last year, Virginia game goes down to the wire.

11:39They even made the Miami game close and they were getting hammered. They had the games at the end, NC State, Stanford, Florida, all those games at points in the second half, they were competitive games. One way or the other, whether they played bad early, bad in the middle, whatever, they were one score games in the second half. These little things that take place off the field, you may take them for granted, but if somebody's been around team sports, it covered it in some capacity, his entire life. Well, if this is not an easy way to do business, but you're going to have years that you do everything right as a staff, and it's still not going to go the way you want. But when Tony White, Gus Malzahn, Tim Harris, and a plethora back office, all of it, when they came in, there's going to be some reshaping up the roster, and it is my opinion, again, make your own comments down below on the YouTube page. Did some of the former, not all of them, but some of the former guys, they weren't great

12:43recruiters, and this is something that I've worn as being at recruiting analysts, they almost always do two things. Number one, they don't spend enough time just watching film, and number two, they really don't spend enough time with the peripheral. What is that? Do they have a third uncle, an idiot that's around him that's always trying to get him to go into the office and get more money, because the uncle wants some of it. Do they have people around them that think they should transfer, because they want him to portal again, because they want to get some extra money out of another school holding them hostage, whatever, when you have a bunch of players like that, in addition to, players are going to argue in the locker room, again, sometimes you do it right, and it still doesn't work. It's over 100 guys, it's difficult. When you add all those things together, the elixir can be very toxic. It sounds like from Tony White, Board of States defensive roster is much better this year, and to that end, I want to read on a little bit. This again, I'm just reading off the work chant, they put up the quotes, they're pretty good.

13:44I think this is kind of fun, because I have no idea how many games, Board of States is going to win this year, but if they're at least taking the initiative to go in and watch extra film at 5.36 in the morning, I'm not going to sit there and knock them for that. It's pretty interesting. Talking about practice, this is what he said about his side of the ball, take it for what it's worth, but after him offering stuff, I'm going to think it's worth a little more serious than with some other guys, which, be honest, they were disruptive, White said of Noel's defense front, and it was good to see some guys come alive for the first time, practice, when it's controlled, and coaches are out on the grass, and what not, you get a sense of a player, but you don't know until you get in the hell out of his way, and let them go, and you be quiet, and you're just watching them play. And there were guys who really upped their game. That's a really good start. I didn't honestly expect that. You got to remember like the front.

14:46What is it? Nine guys in totality that are either freshmen, Juco that are coming in, plus you've got a situation where they also have violent Kennedy, it's double digits, so there's a lot of newness. That's a lot. As far as new guys, he mentioned Franklin Whitley, the big defense line, and we're going to like this film, it's a kid out of Atlanta that was under recruited. He's been a pleasant surprise, according to Tony Whitley, not surprised. One that I didn't know, because he's a real raw, but he's really athletic, mentioned Jayman Pinkley. He's a kid, I believe he's South Carolina, he's got some Wayne tooling, he's got some athleticism, but I thought he was pretty raw. This is to quote from Tony Whitley, take it for what it's worth. He's made some plays, he's wonky, he's gained about 10-20 pounds since it's got over here, and he ran around and made some plays. Those are good signs, because those aren't necessarily the guys that I thought. Ernest, like he's a freshman that's 6'5, 6'6", 280 pounds, like they've had him out

15:48there in front of the media, press conference. I know he's going to play Ernest, he's a different guy, but so here in Pinkley and Whitley, that's a good sign. He also mentioned Trey Bell, Noel Abelie, Karrion Maycock, some freshmen. I thought this was a pretty good freshman class, but I'm not going to stay here and take credit, like I thought there were going to be 5'6", 7'6", guys that were going to play a bunch. Year one, I did not. For him to say this in his first appearance in spring is a little surprising, and it's good news, but I didn't expect, like, Maycock, I kind of thought, because he's a thumper, get on Miami Central, Trey Bell to a certain degree, Noel, like linebacker is really hard in this scheme and every other, because you got to be two places at once a lot of the time with all the run pass-option stuff, like, freshman playing, it makes me nervous at linebacker to a certain degree, and at least Maycock, you can just send him downhill

16:50on Blitz, and he's a run stopper, Noel has probably got to play in space more, which is harder. I'm really happy to see his name mentioned. Overall, it was a good group of young defenders, white said, and they're doing some good things. Okay, that's fine. Look at the group overall, like, the freshman, and I know, kind of going away, but there's a point to this. He's talking about the effort of young guys and how they approach practice, and they just let them go, and they're just playing football. It sounds like they want to be at FSU, I think that's his point, compared to some other guys. Now, here's, you can take this any way you want, but there's a certain DB that was at four to state the last couple of years. Pretty talented. I'll give you a hint. He had a very big mistack, or even though we thudded the guy in the Virginia game, and he's now transferred to Ohio State, that I think is one of the players that has been called out. Let you guys go look at that for your own accord, but there's a couple other players that

17:53either graduated or transferred out, I think, that Coach White is talking about. But he's definitively not just using these freshmen as an example, he's murdering that. This is a very educated man. Tony White is basically saying, we have talented guys here, like we did last year, but these guys are mentally dialled into what we're doing in the respect what we have to say, so we can work together. That's the nuts and bolts of it. I'm good with that. I'm really good with that. When we come back, I have one more thing that I want to talk about, and this is something that could permeate long-term for four to state. Again, I am not bought into all the sudden. Being a sunny four to state is nine and three or better this year, that's Malarkey. They got to prove all kinds of things. But sometimes, again, you got to take a couple of steps back to get where you need to go, and that's what we're going to talk about next, right here, on a walk-on sentence. Today's show is brought to you by our friends over at five-hour energy. Welcome to the five-hour energy flavor draft, 18 different flavors to choose from, including

18:53new options, like confetti crays, pretty rainbow, or cotton candy. There is something for everyone. I've got my number one pick for the five-hour energy draft. It is always blue raspberry, but I tell you that every day. So let's look at this from a little different perspective. If there was an upset in around 32 or 16 or whatever, it may be kind of like the Michigan internet beating some teams and becoming a top team this year, or Connecticut made that crazy run against Duke in the tournament this year, whatever you want to talk about. We're going to have a little bit of a fun scenario with this. Cotton candy is one that I think is an intriguing player. I have not tried it myself, but it is something that I think would be good if you want to mix up your five-hour energy collection, if you will, because it got 18 different flavors. I like vanilla a lot. Cotton candy has got some pretty notes to it, but it also has vanilla in it. I think that's going to be something that I would try, and I think you should try out something different once and all, too. It's good to mix it up. Find your new favorite flavor, five-hour energy, over at five-hourenergy.com, or on Amazon.

19:58All right, this is the big picture that I want to take from today, and again, thank you to Tony White for the authenticity. We don't get enough of that in society, but around Florida State, to defense, whatever. So I'm very happy that he had the guts unsolicited to take on a problem that apparently needed to be addressed. To that end, it is, of my opinion, I should have said this early on right at the beginning, he didn't just spout off at the mouth about speaking to others around. In some capacity, I think we kind of took up for Mike and maybe offer it in other people. They make a lot of money so that they take a lot of hits on the channel, rightfully so, but I respect him for supporting the people that he works with, and I'm sure that they were notified in some capacity, but this was going to happen. I'd be shocked if that wasn't the case, but so be it. To that end, what does this mean for Florida State not only this season, but long term? This is my gut.

20:58Remember, all four recently did sit down with like a word chant, et cetera, and spoke about, as much as his pains me, his support of Norvell, et cetera. I mean, I don't know what else he's going to say. He can't say if Norvell doesn't win this, I'm fired and he's in a bad spot. But he also was just supportive of one other point about it, bringing in the right staff, bringing in the right people. This so goes into what Tony said today, or excuse me, on Monday, bringing in the right people to evaluate and get the right players on the campus. Is it ironic that Tony like the defensive coordinator of the Florida State Sembers basically just said they didn't have the right people right after, right after. Did that interview took place? No, it's not. I'm sure Alfred is spoken with White, Norvell, et cetera. And they realized, again, it doesn't matter who it was, they weren't getting the right players, not just physically, but the guts and the glory of being all in, Matt Rills,

22:05you know, they call it tour duty now, but it's the same thing. All those kinds of things, all the way through spring, summer conditioning, and even in spring crack, like all the stuff that you do, there has to be cohesiveness. You have to believe in the helmet, like it is an honor to play a college football at Dartmouth, let alone the opportunity to play major FBS at Florida State, and he made it clear that in his opinion, Tony White, they did not have enough players at Florida State that did last year on the Diva. He was just talking about his side of the ball, I give him respect for that too. I'm guessing he probably would like to call out some of the guys. On the other side of the ball too, but I digress, the point is still to say, Florida State is probably in a better spot. That means it's going to be a little bit easier this year in close games, so I just bring it up again, Virginia, NC State, Florida, even the Miami game at the end, but they would have played just a little more cohesively early than him.

23:05Maybe they have a shot at a crazy finish. Again, like Duke was killing Yukon, you screw around for a few minutes, you can lose. College basketball, college football, et cetera, with young people, things can switch. Cohesiveness, believing in the coaching staff, it matters. I think that having more players that are bought in, watching all that film, they're at least going to be more competitive, it would be more fun to watch this year. How the record bears out again, that's for anybody, and it's the eye to beholder, I'm not going to try to sabotage anybody's thoughts of good record, bad record or anything else. I'm just saying, you're not going to win big when you have guys on the roster that aren't happy to be there. They're key players, they're very talented players, and it sounds like from Coach White, that was the case. I digress, but thank you once again for checking out Lockdown Semitals. This was an intriguing podcast for me to do, and one that I'm very blessed to be able to do, because it took a lot of guts from Tony White to say that in a pause.

24:08Thank you very much. We will see you again soon, right here, on a wide range of things.