TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- When Mike Norvell evaluated what happened last season at Florida State, he took a long, hard look at himself.
The same processes that worked so well in building the Seminoles into an ACC champion had now failed him. His evaluations from the transfer portal did not translate into immediate success. He could not find a way to connect with a team still smarting from a College Football Playoff snub the previous season, one that lacked chemistry, synergy and leadership.
He admitted his body language throughout the season "sucked." He allowed his emotions to overcome his belief in staying positive no matter the circumstances. Perhaps hardest to accept of all, for the first time in his career, his teams lacked a defining edge.
All of that resulted in a team that went from 13-1 in 2023 to 2-10 in 2024, making Florida State the first Power 4 team in the AP poll era (since 1936) to have an 11-win dropoff. But Norvell now has a second chance to rebuild his team, a chance not offered to many other coaches in similar situations. Southern Miss, for example, fired coach Ellis Johnson in 2012 after an 0-12 season followed a 12-2 year under Larry Fedora.
Norvell has had the backing of those inside the Florida State administration and board of trustees from the moment he arrived in 2020. In their view, Norvell has brought a steady hand to a program that was reeling before his arrival.
While those outside the program have questioned his job security for most of his six-year tenure, those inside the program have never wavered from their commitment to him.
Even now. So Norvell got to work, making sweeping changes over the past four months to make Florida State look like an ACC champion again -- revamping his own approach to coaching, his staff and his use of the transfer portal.
"I know what it looks like to win the ACC," Norvell said during a sit-down interview in his office. "I know what it's going to take to make sure we achieve that here in the very near future. I had to look at, 'Am I doing the best job of connecting with our football team to uphold that elite standard and expectation that we have?' Obviously, it comes down to a lot of changes that I made."
The biggest change started with a phone call.
FLORIDA STATE LAST won a national championship in 2013, beating Auburn 34-31 on a touchdown pass from Jameis Winston to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left in the game. The coach on the opposite sideline, just seconds away from hoisting the trophy himself? Gus Malzahn.
He points out that fun fact sitting behind his desk, still sparse after just a few months on the job. Coaches live nomadic lives, but what are the odds Malzahn would one day be sitting inside the offensive coordinator's office at Florida State after spending the previous 13 years as a head coach?
In truth, he would not be, if not for Norvell.
Last November, Norvell announced he was firing offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and receivers coach Ron Dugans. The following week, Norvell called Malzahn -- one of his coaching mentors -- to ask for his thoughts about another candidate to fill the offensive coordinator job. The two formed an immediate connection in 2007 at Tulsa, when Norvell was a graduate assistant and Malzahn the offensive coordinator, and had grown close over the years. As the two spoke, Norvell asked a most unexpected question:
"Unless you want to do it?"
Malzahn was in his fourth season at UCF, and the job had started to take a toll. UCF sat at 4-6 and needed to win out just to make a bowl game. The fan base had started to grow restless, and speculation swirled in Orlando about his job security after two straight losing seasons. He had grown restless, too. So he gave an unexpected response to the unexpected question.
"How would that work?" Malzahn asked Norvell.
Malzahn, a former high school coach, found the idea of going back to his roots calling plays and working more closely with players more appealing the more he thought about it. Working for Norvell was a huge plus, and so was going to a school where it was possible to win a national championship.
Plus, he and his wife, Kristi, would be closer to their grandchildren in Alabama -- a huge selling point considering what his family had recently been through. Kristi nearly died three years ago following an infection that left her hospitalized for weeks.
After weeks of conversation, Malzahn decided to go for it. He stepped down as UCF coach in December to help Norvell get Florida State headed in the right direction.
"I wouldn't have done this for just anybody," Malzahn says of Norvell, whom he describes as a "getter-doner."
"He's a worker, he's driven, he's got a gift for this. He's really smart, he's really good with people. There's 'getter-doners' in this business, and there's just coaches. There's very few 'getter-doners.' In my experience in 20 years of college coaching, he's a 'getter-doner.'"
For a defensive coordinator, Norvell went the opposite direction -- with a coach he had never previously worked with but made an impression on him nonetheless. Tony White had spent time as Syracuse defensive coordinator from 2000-22, scheming against Norvell, before moving on to Nebraska the past two seasons.
All told, his defenses have ranked in the Top 25 each of the past four seasons and over that same span, have held opponents to fewer than 100 yards rushing in 25 games. What really stood out to Norvell was not only the aggressiveness with which White's defenses played, but their relentless in never taking any plays off. That's what he wanted for Florida State.
"I think fixing the chemistry part No. 1, and then giving them confidence to go out there and do it," White said. "I know we're going to make mistakes here and there, but we can overcome that with aggression and physicality and effort. That piece right there, whether they were trying to play too perfect, whatever it may have been, just being able to turn them loose and get them to a point where, it's like, 'Hey, this is Florida State.'"
SINCE HIS ARRIVAL at Florida State, Norvell has relied heavily on the portal to build his roster. Of the 10 Seminoles drafted in 2024, for example, nine came to Florida State as transfers.
Florida State had a portal class ranked in the top 10 headed into 2024. But those rankings were based largely on the way many players were rated out of high school. Florida State had previous recruiting relationships with big-name players such as LSU receiver Jalen Brown, Alabama receiver Malik Benson and Georgia defensive end Marvin Jones Jr. But they, and many others signed in 2024, did not have much in the way of on-field production after serving as backups.
Norvell opted for a different approach to the players signed for 2025.
"In all reality, I probably tied more decisions last year trying to fill guys that we lost with what I thought was great potential, but maybe hadn't had that right type of production," Norvell said. "It did not play well for us in those moments of truth, where we needed to have a play.
"I wanted production this year," Norvell said. "I wasn't going to rely on potential."
Take the offensive line, a key target for improvement. Malzahn made sure to bring along offensive line coach Herb Hand from UCF. The two have worked together at four different schools and know exactly what they wanted: Physicality and experience.
The top four linemen, Luke Petitbon, Micah Pettus, Gunnar Hansen and Adrian Medley (who played for Hand and Malzahn at UCF), signed and have combined for 105 career starts. At receiver, compare the difference. Last year, Florida State signed two receivers with a combined six starts in Jalen Brown and Malik Benson. This year, Squirrel White and Duce Robinson played in a combined 61 games.
At quarterback, Florida State went into the portal again hoping for better results. The Seminoles signed Boston College transfer quarterback Thomas Castellanos, who played for Malzahn at UCF as a freshman in 2022.
Castellanos started in 2023 and 2024 and had two of the best games of his career playing against the Seminoles -- with 579 total yards, 5 touchdowns and 1 interception -- performances Norvell points to when asked about what appealed to him about the quarterback.
Malzahn has had his greatest success when he has had a dual-threat quarterback like Castellanos -- and the same can be said for Norvell and Florida State when Jordan Travis was the starter.
Already, Norvell and Malzahn said they have seen Castellanos take on a leadership role in offseason workouts. You can feel his personality, wanting to help support, encourage, challenge teammates," Norvell said. "That's something we're seeing big-picture across this team."
Developing that leadership is huge on the list of priorities this offseason. For Norvell, so is holding his players more accountable -- particularly when it comes to playing with the edge that he felt was missing from last season.
When he talks about what it means to play with an edge, Norvell grows animated.
"You talk about the alphas, the leaders, the guys who are going to take hold and bring that desperation to be successful, that edge," Norvell said. "It's my job to make sure that I'm holding everybody accountable to that standard."
Norvell said he made it clear to his returning players when they came back in January and began their offseason workouts: "You're going to be a part of this, pouring everything you have into it, or you're not."
So far, he says he has seen results -- younger players and transfers from last season taking bigger leadership roles, meshing with the 31 freshmen or transfers who just arrived and will join them from spring practice. But Norvell knows all the talk between now and the season opener against Alabama on Aug. 30 will amount to nothing if there are no lessons learned from what happened a year ago.
"I'm not wasting last year," Norvell said. "Guys that went through this last year, for them to be aware of it and to take action is what is critically important. It's one of the reasons why I am excited about what's ahead."
