FSU football: Mike Norvell making moves on and off field

FSU football head coach Mike Norvell has been putting in a crazy amount of work. His latest moves have been huge on and off the field.

FSU football is preparing to put the final touches on its disappointing 2019 season with an appearance in the Sun Bowl against Arizona State Tuesday afternoon.

That game will officially end the Willie Taggart era, but new head coach Mike Norvell has already been hard at work on the future of Nole football.

I wrote a few weeks ago how far ahead of the curve he was compared to the old regime and he’s probably increased that distance since the time of that writing.

I know, I know. It doesn’t mean a thing unless it translates to wins on the football field. However, the things being put into place are definitely calculated moves toward that eventual goal.

Mike Norvell has met with every player and all the coaches whether they are being retained or not to gauge the needs of the program on and off the field.

Norvell has already addressed  a few of the needs in the early signing period with signing all but one of the committed players for 2020.

He’s also nearly completed his entire coaching staff in less than a month on the job. It seems as though he has his finger on the pulse of every need recruiting wise and exact plan as to how he wants his coaching staff assembled.

Let’s look at a few of the recent moves he’s made on and off the field.

On Field

FSU football has some major needs at some important positions. As we know the Noles added two prep quarterbacks during the early signing period with one of them (Tate Rodemaker) being an early enrollee.

They also added a transfer defensive end who’s eligible to play immediately during the early signing period too.

However, there are some remaining needs that Coach Norvell and staff addressed just a couple of days ago.

Jashaun Corbin is a former four-star FSU commit under Jimbo Fisher who ultimately followed Fisher to Texas A&M. Corbin’s a player who can play for the Noles at running back and contribute immediately if allowed to play since he sat out last year once he tore his hamstring.

He’d immediately upgrade a running back unit that has very little experience returning in 2020.

Taylor is an offensive tackle who’ll be a graduate transfer from FIU and will be eligible to play immediately.

Of course, the FSU offensive line some a unit that needs upgrading big time. He brings a ton of experience and should be able to get snaps immediately at offensive tackle which is the area of the offensive line that needs the most help.

There are reports the coaching staff are pursuing a number of prep offensive linemen who didn’t sign during the early signing period and they’re pursuing some graduate transfers as well.

Off Field

The FSU football coaching staff is nearly complete. In fact, Norvell added some important parts over the last few days.

Welcome to FSU Coach Papuchis!!#NoleFam http

This is a huge hire and one that could change the game for FSU football moving forward along with the Director of Strength and Conditioning hire you’ll read about later.

Coach Rushing coached with Mike Norvell at Memphis.

This is arguably one of the most important hires and you can read more here.

Coach Atkins was reported a few days ago but finally officially announced Sunday. He’s comes with a lot of experience in establishing good offensive lines and coached against Mike Norvell in years past.

Final Thoughts

These are some big time moves for a coach that’s been on the job less than a month. He basically has his entire coaching staff aside from who’ll coach running backs in the fold.

The roster has been assessed and the coaching staff knows what pieces they need to ultimately right the ship.

They’ve already addressed some of those needs and it’ll be interesting to see what they can make happen between now and National Signing Day in February.

Just like the old regime, Coach Norvell is winning the off-season big time but it has to translate to success or at least progress on the field in the fall.

The biggest difference so far is Coach Norvell seems to have a plan that’s being executed really well at the moment. The organizational skills we heard about seem to be hard at work.

Whether all of these coaches can work together in unison is another question. However, the fact both the offensive and defensive coordinators have worked with Coach Norvell previously is huge.

Norvell working with the majority of these coaches and them being willing to rejoin his staff after going elsewhere is also huge.