Florida State’s move on Mike Norvell was abrupt in timing, but not in spirit. After a 3-5 start to 2026, the Seminoles reportedly cut ties with the coach, and the buyout - said to be in the $46 million to $50 million range - did not stop the program from making the call. Norvell’s 10-22 record since the strong 2023 season left the school with little room to keep waiting.
Now the real scramble begins: who takes over in Tallahassee, and what ripple effects does that create elsewhere? A handful of names already make sense as possible replacements.
Jimbo Fisher has to be in the conversation. He was the last coach to lead Florida State to a title and went 83-23 in Tallahassee before leaving for Texas A&M.
Fisher’s time with the Aggies ended with one of the biggest buyouts in college football history after a 45-25 run, and he hasn’t coached since late 2023. He’s 61, he knows exactly how to win at Florida State, and he isn’t currently tied to another job.
The question is whether he’d want the return trip - or whether he’s simply waiting for the kind of offer he can’t turn down.
Deion Sanders would have looked like a perfect fit two years ago. He’s an FSU alum, he was riding high, and he looked like a coach who could handle the NIL era.
But the last season and a half has changed the picture. Sanders is 5-14 since he no longer had the best player in college football on both offense and defense, and a health scare plus concerns around the massive roster turnover at Colorado have complicated his stock.
Colorado may not be eager to keep the Sanders era going, and if he stays put, one of his assistants could be the more realistic answer in Boulder.
Mark Stoops is another name with real ties to Florida State. He was a strong defensive coordinator there before landing his first head coaching job at Kentucky.
His overall record at Kentucky, 72-80, doesn’t jump off the page, but he did far more with less than most coaches could have managed, including eight straight bowl appearances and Kentucky’s first 10-win season since 1977. After being let go by Kentucky at the end of 2025, he’s been working as a special assistant at Texas.
Stoops could come cheaper than some of the other options, and his connection to FSU’s better days gives him a natural opening. Texas would not feel his departure right away.
Mario Diaz also belongs on the list. He’s an FSU alum who began his coaching career with the Seminoles, and he’s built a respectable head coaching résumé without always having a lot to work with.
His 21-15 record at Miami wasn’t dazzling, but plenty of coaches have struggled in Coral Gables before the current revival there. At Duke, he’s 23-11 and has shown he can recruit at a high level.
The one complication is money: a Duke program dealing with the Darian Mensah portal mess might be willing to match Florida State financially, which is awkward for a school trying to climb out of a reported $46 million to $50 million hole.
Kenny Dillingham is the younger, rising option. He coached at Florida State as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach in 2020 and 2021, and at 36 he brings more urgency than most of the names on this list.
He’s 25-20 at Arizona State and may be getting restless with the limits of a middling program, even after a 2024 College Football Playoff berth. If Dillingham leaves, Arizona State would likely look west for a replacement, with offensive coordinator Marcus Arroyo mentioned as a possible fit.
In Other News...
BYU Beat Arizona State But Utah Concerns Just Got Harder To Ignore
BYU left the field with a 27-20 win over Arizona State, but the kind of victory that can make a coach happy and uneasy at the same time. The Cougars grabbed an early turnover and turned it into a touchdown, then spent much of the afternoon fighting through offensive inconsistency, especially on the ground, while the defense had to absorb more pressure than it would have liked.
The fourth quarter supplied the plays BYU needed to finish, yet the larger picture was hard to miss for anyone already looking ahead. The run game never really settled in, the third quarter went sideways, and the defensive issues that surfaced against Arizona State are the sort of problems that tend to get magnified when the opponent on deck is Utah. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Win Draws Fresh Scrutiny After Another Big 12 Admission
BYUs win over Arizona State has taken on a different kind of afterglow after the Big 12 acknowledged an officiating mistake that directly affected the scoring sequence. The conference said a touchdown by running back Sione Moa should not have counted, and the Cougars should have kept possession at the two-yard line instead of being awarded the score. It was the kind of correction that does not change the result in the record book, but it does add another layer to a game that already had plenty of attention.
For BYU, the latest admission lands only two weeks after the Big 12 also acknowledged a timing error in the Cougars game against Notre Dame. Put together, the two rulings have put an extra spotlight on how closely these games have been reviewed and how often BYU has found itself in the middle of the conversation after the fact. The Cougars still have the win, but the discussion around it is no longer just about what happened on the field. [Read more 🡒]
BYU Win Reignites Frustration Over Another Big 12 Officiating Error
BYUs win over Arizona State came with another officiating wrinkle that left plenty to sort through after the final whistle. The Cougars appeared to get a touchdown on a fumble recovery by running back Sione Moa, only for the Big 12 to later acknowledge the score should not have counted and that BYU should have been facing third-and-goal from the two-yard line instead.
It was the latest correction to land on BYUs doorstep after a recent game against Notre Dame also drew a Big 12 officiating adjustment. For a program trying to build momentum in its new conference home, the repeated errors have only sharpened the frustration around how a game can be altered in real time, then revisited after the fact when there is no way to put the play back on the field. [Read more 🡒]