FLORIDA STATE COACH Mike Norvell surveyed the scene from a raised platform near the end zone, hoping to find his wife and daughter among the fans that had flooded the field like a tidal wave.

Norvell quickly scanned the crowd. Just steps away, quarterback Tommy Castellanos was riding on the back of right tackle Micah Pettus , high-fiving everyone around him, as he fought to make his way to the locker room.

Castellanos ended up being right, after all. Alabama could not stop him.

This one game, a decisive 31-17 win, and the celebration that followed, provided a cathartic release from everything that had come before: the playoff snub, the miserable 2-10 season, the questions that piled up about Norvell and the direction of the program.

Within minutes, rain poured down from the sky,

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