FSU football head coach Mike Norvell finished up the hiring process with his coaching staff last week. They finally speak with the media.
FSU football head coach Mike Norvell wasted no time in assembling his coaching staff like Voltron in less than a month’s time.
The last hire was running back/recruiting coordinator David Johnson a few days ago. The moves likely would have been done sooner had some of the coaches not have to coach their bowl games.
This is the first time any of these new coaches aside from the offensive and defensive coordinators have had to speak with the media.
The video interviews are a nice glimpse into their personalities, mindset, why they choose FSU, expectations and a number of them spoke about Coach Norvell.
I’ll give my thoughts on it one, but the resounding majority was the FSU football brand is still one of the best brands in college football.
It seems as though almost all of them had some sort of previous relationship with Coach Norvell and all of them have a tremendous amount of respect for what he’s accomplished and how he does things.
Let get to the interviews and my thoughts on each.
One of the first things that stand out to me about Coach Johnson is he seems very sure of what he wants to do. He knows exactly what he’s looking for in a player and one of the keywords I heard was tough.
The amount of respect he has for Coach Norvell is telling in this interview too. The fact he was willing to move his family to come and help Mike Norvell build FSU back into the powerhouse we know it can be sent chills down my spine.
He said he trusts Mike Norvell. It also seems like he has a plan already in regards to recruiting since he’s the recruiting coordinator. I like that he’s going to be recruiting S. Florida and every coach will have a piece of Florida.
I just hope they put Odell Haggins back in Polk County. It looks like he’s already hit the ground running with recruiting, but did stress it’s going to take some time to establish the relationships needed to get the type of recruits they want.
What I liked most about this interview is Coach Thomsen seems to be very much in the mold of someone with a lot of experience willing to do whatever it takes to make this coaching staff operate at optimal levels.
The fact he said he wants to support all the coaches and wants to learn from the other coaches on the staff was enlightening.
He too spoke about his willingness to leave somewhere he was very comfortable at in TCU to come and help Mike Norvell build something special.
It just makes you feel like FSU football is in good hands with so many experienced coaches willing to team up have one common goal in bringing FSU back to prominence.
I must say I expected him to be more intense from the one still photo I saw!
It was cool to hear how the hiring process went with Coach Atkins since he wasn’t who most thought Mike Norvell would hire as his offensive line coach. I also wasn’t aware he and the defensive coordinator Adam Fuller coached together previously
It’s cool to note his wife is a huge football fan and will be in the some team meetings and practice. You can tell it’s all about the relationship with him as he spoke a great deal about that.
In fact, his job interview seemed similar to Coach Fuller’s with Mike Norvell in that the conversation was mostly about life and not football.
It’s clear Coach Atkins has a great respect for the FSU football brand and has a lot of respect for Mike Norvell.
I think it’s interesting how he spoke about the offensive linemen he’s met with. I’m sure they’ve had some crazy stories being this will be most of them’s third or fourth offensive line coach.
Coach TJ Rushing came across just as I thought he would from some of the things I’ve read about him. He already has a working relationship with Coach Norvell being they coached together at Memphis.
One of the things he mentioned was the leadership qualities of Coach Norvell and named it as one of the reasons so many coaches want to work for him or leave and rejoin him.
The other thing that stood out was how he talked about the way Coach Norvell motivates everyone to bring it every single day.
He also talked about the importance of waiting to evaluate the players in inherits because he doesn’t know what’s been talk to them. I think that’s fair and allows everyone to start off with a clean slate.
I love Coach Marve’s energy and that’s something that’s been missing from the linebacker coaching position.
It’s clear he has a healthy respect for FSU football and the weight the brand wields. He also has a lot of respect for Coach Norvell, and it’s amazing how Norvell has formed relationships with so many coaches in such a short time frame.
Marve is another coach that seemingly left a position with a SEC school to help Mike Norvell bring FSU football back to where it’s supposed to be.
He talks about leadership being important to him regarding his players. The ability to be the quarterback of the defense and it feels like FSU hasn’t had that since Telvin Smith donned the garnet and gold.
This is the hire a lot of folk thought came out of nowhere as there were not any real ties to Coach Norvell.
In fact, Coach Papuchis basically admitted he wasn’t even looking at going anywhere when this opportunity came about.
Again, it was the allure of working at a place like FSU and the opportunity to work with Coach Norvell in building something special in Tallahassee.
It’s clear he has a passion for special teams and understands the importance of that phase of the game.
Like all the other coaches it’s like he feels he has a specific role on this coaching staff and believes if he does that this team will find success.
Final Thoughts
I really like the feel of this coaching staff. Of course, they still have to learn how to work together and teach and manage the players they’ll be coaching.
They’ll need to hold them accountable and that’s something we heard from a couple of them. It feels like each coach has no ego and came to FSU football to do something special.
I can’t wait to see it play out on the field.