Florida State’s reluctance to move on from Mike Norvell traces back to a January 2024 moment that looked smart at the time and now feels like the kind of decision that can haunt a program for years.
Norvell had just put together a two-season run that included a 23-4 record and a 13-0 start in 2023, only for Florida State to be left out of the College Football Playoff. The Seminoles then dropped the Orange Bowl with most of their major pieces unavailable, including Jared Verse, Trey Benson, Braden Fiske, Keon Coleman and Johnny Wilson, along with several others who opted out or were sidelined by injury. In that same stretch, the idea that Norvell might be headed to Alabama suddenly changed everything.
Nick Saban’s retirement on Jan. 10 after 17 seasons and six national titles at Alabama - seven overall when his LSU championship is included - opened the door to one of the sport’s biggest coaching searches. Norvell, then 42 and coming off that sparkling run at Florida State, was believed to be among the names in the mix.
Athletic director Michael Alford had already given him a three-year extension the previous year, but keeping him away from Tuscaloosa would have required a major commitment. On Jan.
12, Florida State answered with a new contract worth more than $83 million in base salary over eight years.
“As we move forward into a bright future, it is incredibly reassuring to know that Mike remained steadfast and focused on continuing his unifying, collaborative relationships with all of us at FSU,” Alford said at the time. “I am elated to continue this journey together.”
Fast forward to now, and the timing of that decision looks brutal. Alford was fired Sept. 14, just before Florida State heads to No.
10 Alabama on Saturday in what could be Norvell’s final game as the Seminoles’ coach. Since that extension was signed, the program has crashed into a stretch defined by the 2-10 season in 2024, Florida State’s worst since Bobby Bowden took over in 1976.
Remove that two-year surge from the equation, and Norvell’s résumé at Florida State looks rough: 16-33 in his other four-plus seasons, plus 11 straight road losses. The mood around the program has turned openly sour.
Fans booed Norvell at the Sept. 7 game, and they’ve done it multiple times as the slide has deepened. The problem, of course, is that buying him out would not be cheap, especially with the school still working through Jimbo Fisher’s buyout from 2017.
The Alabama angle only adds more intrigue to how this all played out. At the time of Saban’s retirement, Norvell was widely discussed as a possible successor.
ESPN’s Chris Low reported in March 2024 that the choice had come down to Norvell and Washington’s Kalen DeBoer, with Lane Kiffin as a possible Florida State replacement if Norvell left. Bookies.com had Norvell listed as the No. 3 favorite for the Alabama job behind Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Clemson’s Dabo Swinney.
But Matt Hayes of USA TODAY reported on Sept. 14 that Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne told him he had never spoken to Norvell. That contradicts Low’s report, which said the coach and the school had “serious discussions” the day after Saban retired. What both versions agree on is the same basic outcome: Alabama never made Norvell an offer.
The Crimson Tide went another direction and hired DeBoer, who had already built a fast-moving winner at Washington and pushed the Huskies to the national championship game in 2023 after just two seasons. Alabama fans have certainly had opinions along the way, but DeBoer has produced a 22-8 record in his first two-plus seasons, along with an SEC championship appearance and a CFP road win last year.
If Florida State fires Norvell after Saturday’s game, the school would owe him about $48 million, according to contract information obtained by USA TODAY Sports. That would rank as the third-largest buyout in college football history, behind only the $76.8 million Jimbo Fisher received from Texas A&M in 2023 and the $54 million Brian Kelly got from LSU last year.
Florida State and Alabama will kick off at 3:30 p.m. Saturday on ABC from Bryant-Denny Stadium.
Sean McDonough and Greg McElroy will call the game, with Katie George reporting from the sidelines. Streaming is available through the ESPN app and Fubo.
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