The Florida State Seminoles just can't seem to break out of the slump that all started when star quarterback Jordan Travis was lost at the end of the 2023 regular season with an unfortunate injury. Since that 11-0 run, Florida State has gone 9-17 and can't seem to bring in another star talent under center to lead them out from the gloom.
Head coach Mike Norvell is the chief architect who attempted to engineer the Seminoles' much-needed rebound and so far, he's failed miserably. So what does Florida State decide to do? Keep him around for another season, of course.
It was probably the most surprising head coach retention in all of college football this year. Norvell had given Florida State administrators every reason to move on from him, and the fanbase is practically begging for someone's head to roll for the results of the last two years. Ultimately, the school determined the football program was on the best possible path with Norvell at the helm.
Granted, the Seminoles did achieve two 10+ win seasons under his leadership, including that controversial undefeated regular season where a team typically would have an opportunity at a national championship. Some could point to those years and say Norvell has proven he can coach a winning team, but recent transfer portal decisions have seemingly stunted the program's growth.
Florida State may fear the buyout reaper more than another year of failure under Mike Norvell
You can look at the available coaching candidate pool this season and ask whether Florida State could legitimately land a better leader than Norvell. Administrators' answer to that question was seemingly no. Either that or Norvell's $59 million buyout was just too much to swallow this offseason.
But why would Florida State want to pay Norvell to potentially flop again next year and then just have to pay the buyout anyways? It's unlikely he turns the program around in a single year to convince athletic director Michael Alford that there's yet another year for Norvell justified.
Norvell's questionable recruiting tactics in the portal — QBs DJ Uiagalelei and Tommy Castellanos were disappointing to say the least — pose a real risk to the success of the 2026 season. There's no reason to believe it won't just be more of the same, if not marginally better. It seems more likely the Seminoles will just be right back in this position come next November and at that point they'll have just wasted a year and will fire Norvell anyways.
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. We're six years into the Norvell experiment, going on year seven, and so far four of those six have been suboptimal. It's time to admit 2022 and 2023 were outliers and move on.