FSU football head coach Mike Norvell is wasting no time assembling his staff in Tallahassee. His former offensive coordinator rejoins him from Auburn.
FSU football hired Mike Norvell Sunday and he’s wasting no time getting to work much to the same way Willie Taggart did.
Norvell has already contacted some of FSU’s commits and recruits as Taggart did, but the biggest difference is how fast he’s putting his coaching staff together.
It’s been reported Auburn offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham will join the staff as offensive coordinator.
That means the Kendal Briles experiment and likely Randy Clements will be one and done to the delight of many Nole fans.
The offense though improved was frustrating to watch at times in 2019. Briles improved the offense from No. 97 to No. 45 which is remarkable, but the offenses struggled mightily against good defenses in 2019.
Source: Florida State is hiring Auburn OC Kenny Dillingham as the offensive coordinator. He worked under Mike Norvell at Memphis and Arizona State is considered one of the country's rising OC stars.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 9, 2019
Mike Norvell will be the primary playcaller on offense even with Dillingham onboard, but their offenses finished higher than any of Kendal Briles’ offenses during their time at Memphis according to SP+.
The 2018 season saw Memphis finish No. 14 in the nation compared to Briles finishing No. 20 at Houston.
How will the hire impact the Noles?
Cost
Here’s one of the important aspects of the hire that most people wouldn’t think of, but it’s important to note at FSU.
Mike Norvell has a FSU friendly contract at less than four million dollars per year which means more money for assistants and support staff.
Dillingham’s salary at Auburn was $500,000 and more importantly he DOESN’T have a buyout even though he has another year left on that Auburn deal according to AL.com.
Kendal Briles was making one million per year as FSU offensive coordinator, but it’s likely Dillingham will make closer to what FSU was paying Willie Taggart’s first offensive coordinator Walt Bell.
Bell was making $700,000 while at FSU and wasn’t calling plays just as Dillingham will not, but would be $200,000 more per year than what Dillingham made at Auburn.
FSU football isn’t broke, but anywhere they can save money and allocate it elsewhere on top of getting quality coaching is a win.
I’ll talk more about what Dillingham brings to table in the next slide.
Recruiting
I’ll talk more about this in a bit, but the ability to understand the type of athletes needed to run the offense is huge.
Dillingham and Norvell having a year together should be huge there. Dillingham is a capable recruiter and has made his mark felt at Auburn this year.
FWIW, Dillingham is the primary recruiter on 3 JUCO OT commits...ranked No. 2, No. 3 and No. 7 at their position.https://t.co/NrAPAIXe3C https://t.co/4VpaRgolv7
— Brendan Sonnone (@BSonnone) December 9, 2019
If you’re a FSU recruitnik you understand what that means as FSU football is in dire need of offensive tackles for 2020 and beyond.
Not only that, they are in dire need of offensive tackles that can come in and play right away as the offensive line has been abysmal for years.
The experience of working at Auburn should pay off as Dillingham was experienced to the rigor of what I call “big boy” football which was likely a different experience than what he had at Memphis previously.
Dillingham has also recruited the state of Florida some for Auburn which should also be helpful.
Cohesion/Familiarity
I can’t express how important this is to being successful. If you think about the Willie Taggart era he had to hire two offensive coordinators with whom he had never worked with in the past.
The same goes for the offensive line and we saw what the offense looked like in 2018. It was a complete cluster as a result of a coaching staff that was put together like patchwork.
A combination of new coaches having never worked together coupled with transitioning from a pro-style offense to spread was a nightmare. Did I mention the offensive line was terrible and the quarterback play was just as terrible.
It took Norvell less than 24 hours to hire his offensive coordinator and it took Willie Taggart until January to finally settle on Walt Bell that first season.
Having the coaching tree Mike Norvell does will allow him to hire staff that know exactly what he expects and they can coach as the results speak for themselves with what they were able to do at Memphis.
That’s something that’s been missing at FSU football the past couple of years, not to mention the difficulty of trying to change and establish a new culture with so many new moving parts.
I can’t wait to see who Norvell hires as the offensive line coach, defensive coordinator and most importantly strength and conditioning. He has some great options for two of those positions at Memphis right now.
The first hire looks like a great start to a staff that will be counted on to return FSU football back to elite status.