There’s a strange kind of logic hanging over Florida State right now: an Alabama win on Saturday might be the outcome that stings least in Tallahassee.
That’s where the conversation has landed after FSU’s loss to SMU, a game in which the Seminoles turned it over four times and still got booed hard by their own fans. Mike Norvell heard it then, and if those same fans make the trip to Tuscaloosa, the noise could follow him there too.
The frustration around Norvell is not subtle. On FSU sites like Tomahawk Nation and Chop Chat, the message has been blunt enough to miss: some Seminoles fans are done with him.
And according to those sites, some people inside the program may be leaning the same way. A blowout loss to Alabama on Saturday might not save Norvell, but it could buy him a little time.
After the SMU loss, Curt Weiler of Tomahawk Nation wrote, "It’s also ok to admit, now that it’s over, that it was a net positive in the long term that the Seminoles didn’t win this game against SMU.
With how that game played out, the win wouldn’t have convinced anyone to hop back on the Mike Norvell bandwagon if they’re already off."
That same thinking appears to be creeping into the Alabama discussion, too. Weiler was one of 12 people making predictions for the site, and only one picked Florida State.
His call: Alabama 42 - FSU 13. Ten of the other pickers also went with a Crimson Tide win.
While the focus has shifted to Saturday’s matchup, the bigger issue for many FSU fans seems to be what comes after it. Chop Chat has spent days floating possible replacements for Norvell, with Duke’s Manny Diaz emerging as one popular name. There’s also chatter that Jimbo Fisher wants the job.
Jarrett Guerrera of Chop Chat didn’t exactly hide how that idea would land with him, writing that his "head would explode if Florida State actually brings back Jimbo Fisher."
It’s a fair reaction, especially when a school is said to be paying around $75 million for someone not to coach. That makes the idea of bringing that same coach back feel like a particularly strange turn.
Fisher, of course, would be an “again” hire in Tallahassee. He was once brought in as an assistant and coach in waiting for Bobby Bowden’s retirement. His move from Florida State to College Station wasn’t the result of a firing, though there were rumors some FSU insiders were more than happy to see him go.
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