Salomon: Seminoles Should Appreciate Norvell, not Bury Him

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The Florida State Seminoles are going to face Alabama on Saturday in what could be Mike Norvell's final game as head coach of the Tallahassee school. 

As the late, great coach Bobby Bowden would say, "It would be a dadgum shame" if they let this game decide the fate of the embattled coach.

Norvell was hired on Dec. 8, 2019, to replace Willie Taggart, who left the program in disarray. Taggart was not even given two seasons to replace The House that Bobby Built.

Taggart, you might remember, took over for Jimbo Fisher who wore out his welcome in Tallahassee and bolted for greener pastures and a big back in College Station, Tx. Fisher won a national title in 2013, but did very little since.

After Norvell came to Tallahassee from Memphis, he arrived with a cupboard that was bare. He had to redevelop that program from scratch as players hit the transfer portal and were reluctant to come to the once-proud program Bowden started from scratch.

All Norvell did was turn the program around. In 2013 he led them to the ACC Championship. FSU got royally screwed as the ESPN-led Playoff Committee left them out of the big dance, aside from the fact the Seminoles were an undefeated conference champion.

That is when the music died in Tallahassee.

"I don't look a whole lot online," Norvell said at a press conference on Wednesday when asked about his potential termination. "For me all of our focus is on the team and that's where I live."

Norvell lost his team to the transfer portal and his starting quarterback to an ankle injury he would never recover from. Florida State and Norvell would never recover from those devastating losses. FSU got crushed in the Orange Bowl by a Georgia team who dominated from jump street.

The Noles are projected to be handed a miserable loss Saturday when they travel to Tuscaloosa to face the Crimson Tide. Should that happen as projected, the FSU administration is expected to bite the bullet and absorb a $48 million loss and fire Norvell before he could right the ship.

It would be third biggest pill that a school would swallow when firing a coach with a still ripe contract. It would be the highest since Brian Kelly was paid $54 million last season to sit and opine on college football on television.

This is the same fan base that chased Bowden out of town and would not give him his proper final season before retiring.

Norvell is the same coach that won the Bear Bryant Award in 2023 which is awarded to the Coach of the Year. He also won the Dodd Trophy, for the same recognition. To pull off the trifecta, Norvell was also named the ACC Coach of the Year.

Norvell has coached 38 future NFL Draft picks, 22 All-Americans and five ACC Players of the Year in his tenure on Pensacola Street. It is not as if he forgot how to coach or that the game has changed and Norvell has not met the changes head on.

The program has not been the same since they lost most of the troops to the transfer portal after not making the playoff following the 2023 season. As I wrote at the time, for a different outlet, the players gave up on Norvell and gave up on their school.

Norvell would never recover from that turmoil. Former athletic director Michael Alford was fired on Sept. 14 as the Board of Trustees apparently blames him for the contract he gave Norvell before he brought a national title to the state Capitol.

First Alford, then possibly Norvell. Norvell knows the sharks are circling in the water around him, but he is not afraid. He has the aforementioned golden parachute and knows he is a good coach.

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