It’s not that Mike Norvell didn’t grasp to what degree Florida State football had fallen when he signed on to take over the storied program 20 months ago after his overmatched predecessor, Willie Taggart, was mercifully shown the door.
He understood the steepness of the mountain that needed to be climbed. But anyone who thinks FSU is ready to at least be among the second tier of ACC teams behind league behemoth Clemson is probably engaging in wishful thinking.
More so than Texas’ Steve Sarkisian, USC’s Clay Helton or Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh, the circumstances under which Norvell is trying to resurrect a college football blueblood are more unique than at any program in the country.
Norvell isn’t in his first year like Sarkisian or sitting on one of the hottest seats among veteran Power 5 coaches like Helton and Harbaugh, but the 39-year-old Seminoles’ boss finds himself caught in a tough balancing act. While still being in the early stages of rebuilding FSU, he’s also attempting to cobble together a respectable won-loss record with a melting pot of players imported from programs all across the FBS landscape.
With the Seminoles riding a four-year train of mediocrity, that’s not an easy thing to do. Dating back to Jimbo Fisher’s last season in 2017, through a two-year Taggart reign that magnified the cracks in the FSU football foundation, Norvell had a hard enough challenge out of the gate just making the Seminoles into a decent program again.
But being a first-year coach during a COVID-19 pandemic, and having spring practice cancelled after just three days, Norvell is really entering Year 1.5. It’s a tough grind because he’s accompanied by handcuffs only slightly less constraining than last preseason.
McKenzie Milton part of Transfer U
The good news is Norvell has a coaching staff in place that entered spring practice already having built relationships with over half the roster. Most of FSU’s players didn’t have to transition this year into a new way of doing things.
But the reality in Tallahassee is, coming off having the youngest team among 130 FBS programs, Norvell felt compelled to bring in 14 transfers to give the Seminoles a better chance to compete at a higher level. Six of those transfers, including potential defensive end starters Jermaine Johnson from Georgia and Keir Thomas from South Carolina, are entering their final year of eligibility.
Besides those two SEC schools, the Seminoles have welcomed in since January players from Notre Dame, Auburn, UCF, Arkansas, Maryland, Colorado State, Alabama A&M and Holy Cross. Norvell was overloaded with freshmen and sophomores in 2020 and wanted to balance out the classes, which means another big learning curve this season.
FSU, coming off a 3-6 season and low-lighted by blowout losses to Miami, Louisville, Pittsburgh and North Carolina State, is counting on Norvell fast-tracking a team that will feature 41 players, including 27 incoming freshmen, who weren’t in a Seminoles’ uniform last year.
“That’s what makes the job fun,” Norvell told the Times-Union following a recent practice at the University of North Florida. “We have an opportunity to bring in older, more experienced, productive players that will come into our team and really compete for spots. They’ll help guys that have been here, that were forced into action early in their career, to rise up to that level.”
Of course, the most high-profile transfer is former UCF quarterback McKenzie Milton, who threw for 8,683 yards and 72 TDs in three years (2016-18) before a devastating knee injury nearly ended his playing days. Milton is battling returning starter Jordan Travis for a job that Norvell continues to be coy about who is leading, perhaps as much to keep season-opening opponent Notre Dame (September 5) guessing as the actual closeness of the competition.
“I don’t get into a circling a date [to name a starter], I just want to be right,” Norvell said two weeks ago.
When I asked him for further details on the quarterback battle and potential outcome, he smiled and politely replied: “We’re really looking forward to seeing it.”
Big fall from grace
The gap between long-term expectations and what the present roster makeup can deliver continues to be much wider than the desires of the Seminoles’ fan base.
It’s hard to fathom any program with the FSU pedigree could drop as far as it has the past four years. Not only are the Seminoles 21-26 over that time, but have lost 18 of those games (13 against ACC opponents) by 16-plus points.
Even in the final years of the powerhouse legendary coach Bobby Bowden built, the program never sunk that low. FSU might still have a major brand, but the on-field results have significantly lowered its national perception.
Remember, the ‘Noles were a fixture in the AP poll for a good chunk of a 30-year period starting with the 1987 season. But since Week 5 of 2017, the only time FSU was ranked came in the ‘18 preseason poll and quickly disappeared when Taggart debuted with a 24-3 loss to Virginia Tech.
FSU has been unranked since then and rarely even gets into the “also receiving votes” category. The ‘Noles have regressed into ACC mediocrity, a stunning freefall, and it could be another two or three years before Norvell can get the program back up to being a viable national contender.
For now, he wisely avoids putting a timetable on FSU’s return to relevance. Norvell’s optimism for 2021 centers mostly on how the players have responded to his demands, saying they’ve handled some of the best “workloads” in practice since he got there, plus he likes the significant upgrade in team speed.
Still, it remains to be seen how much the transfer portal can augment a pitiful pass rush that was a big factor in FSU’s 4-2-5 defense allowing 36.0 points per game last season, 105th in the country. The offensive line returns intact, but can it resolve the pass protection issues that led to 29 sacks in nine games?
Any bowl might be FSU's ceiling
FSU is counting on a full preseason of preparation, along with a coaching staff that has built greater trust with the players, to ignite a program resurrection.
“It’s all about the mindset,” said redshirt sophomore cornerback Brendan Gant. “I feel like the mindset of everybody is different now. Instead of somebody trying to install it in there, it’s already there and how we want to do it.”
The Seminoles should be a much better team in 2021, but with a schedule that includes five top-15 opponents, their record may not reflect it. A 6-6 season and going to a bowl would never have been acceptable in past years, but that could be encouraging this time around, especially if FSU is competitive in its toughest matchups.
“I’m never going to put limits on what a team can accomplish,” said Norvell. “We’ve got a group of guys that I think worked extremely hard in spring practice and over the summer. It’s going to be a season filled with a lot of close games. It’s going to come down to critical plays in critical moments.
“We hope to see the culture we have and the way we operate as individuals and collectively, that’s what gives us the edge in those moments.”
After four years of misery, the Seminoles are ready to climb back to national prominence. It’s a question of how much longer they’ll have to wait to get there.
