Mike Norvell delivers poignant message as Florida State looks to shake 2-10 season: Will it resonate in 2025?

Five seasons into his coaching tenure at Florida State, Mike Norvell would’ve still been ascending had the 2024 campaign gone as expected. Fresh off an elite finish and ACC Championship, the Seminoles’ fifth consecutive top-10 transfer class failed to pan out, the offense flatlined and sweeping coaching staff changes were made after the worst finish in program history.

At this point, the why doesn’t matter. The most important element for Norvell is ensuring nothing close to last season’s 10-loss nightmare ever happens again.

“I’m proud of this place, I’m proud of our program and the work that we’re putting in and I’m excited about where it’s going,” Norvell said during a recent call to arms post-spring, via News4JAX. “It’s one of those things, you never get too high when you’re living high and obviously, when you get knocked down, it’s about how quick you can get up and continue to push moving forward. We are moving forward and I have great expectations for what’s in front of us. We’re going to work every day to go make that our reality.”

Climbing out of the doldrums of despair is somewhat-new territory for Norvell, whose only other losing seasons as a head coach came his first two years with the Seminoles (2020-21).

The program hasn’t yet recovered from becoming the first Power Four unbeaten to be left out of the College Football Playoff in 2023 before failing to show against Georgia a few weeks later in the consolation Orange Bowl.

The record-setting, 60-point loss lingered, leaving venom that hit the bloodstream last season when Norvell’s team opened with losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College as double-digit favorites.

“Anytime you have a season like last year, it’s extremely disappointing. I’m disappointed in it, but you don’t get caught up dwelling on the things that happened,” Norvell said. “You look at the things that we’ve done coming off of last year, some of the new additions, whether it’s coaching staff, players. The guys that are young that have grown and really established themselves in new roles and then what it is to be a Florida State Seminole.”

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Florida State restructured Norvell’s contract in December, a deal that through the 2031 season and features the ACC’s largest buyout at $63 million. Norvell’s new deal following the program’s conference title in 2023 put the Seminoles in a financial straight jacket for the foreseeable future, which at the time wasn’t nearly as worrisome as it it now.

New faces summon optimism

The arrival of Gus Malzahn to put playmakers in the right spots to succeed offensively and Randy Shannon to fix issues defensively means major schematic changes for the Seminoles. Former transfer quarterback D.J. Uiagalalelei never found a rhythm last fall, and Florida State’s expecting Malzahn’s playbook to be a bit more skill set-friendly marriage with new addition Thomas Castellanos.

The ex-Boston College starter, who was relegated to second-team duties last fall with the Eagles in a pro-style attack, signed with the Seminoles in December the week after Norvell convinced Malzahn to move further north to Tallahassee. He played for Malzahn at UCF in 2022 as a freshman and fits the RPO and run-first mindset like a glove.

The return of Roydell Williams and Jaylin Lucas in the backfield offers promise, along with summer enrollee Ousmane Kromah. He’s a top-five player at the position in the 2025 recruiting cycle and will be an immediate impact ballcarrier.

Norvell will know quickly if his program has improved with Florida State entertaining a top-10 Alabama at home in the opener. On the Crimson Tide’s initial list of targets following Nick Saban’s retirement in January 2024, Norvell quickly removed his name from interest and stuck with the Seminoles.

And Florida State intends on that lucrative agreement to yield a return that’s significantly more promising than last season’s results.