Mike Norvell and the Florida State Seminoles were playing with heavy hearts in Week 2. Last weekend, after the team’s huge win over the Alabama Crimson Tide, freshman linebacker Ethan Pritchard was the victim of a shooting. Pritchard remains in stable, but critical, condition.
The Noles had the chance to embrace the Pritchard family, and they did so in a special way. Ethan’s father Earl was with the team on the sidelines during the game, and after the dominant win over East Texas A&M, Earl broke the rock in the locker room in an emotional moment.
After the game, Norvell spoke about the emotions of the week.
“You don’t always know why you have to go through things in life. You don’t understand the reasoning,” explained Norvell. “But I do believe that God has his hand over Ethan and this football team and just all the relationships.”
Norvell also spoke about Ethan’s father Earl being involved.
“But just to have Earl here today, he’s a wonderful man, and being with him, I know it’s so very hard, and I know it’s so hard for anybody to have to go through. To see the team and just the embrace for that, like, it’s special,” the coach said.
It was definitely a performance that could make Ethan proud. The Seminoles got off to a fast start against East Texas A&M, and had a 21-0 lead after the first quarter. Tommy Castellanos had a quick, but effective, performance, completing 8-of-11 passes for 237 yards and three touchdowns.
The star quarterback was quickly replaced by Kevin Sperry and Brock Glenn, who took over the offense for the rest of the day. In total, the Noles racked up an insane 729 total yards of offense and won 77-3. Of course, it was an FCS opponent, so it shouldn’t have been close, but it was still encouraging to see such a perfect performance especially after the emotions of this week.
