FSU football: Top 3 March observations with Mike Norvell

FSU football head coach Mike Norvell put in a lot of work his three months on the job. Here are three observations from the fourth month.

FSU football coach Mike Norvell wasted no time hitting the ground running in his first three months on the job.

He was able to hire most of his coaching staff while working to make the Early Signing Period the best in FSU football history.

Coach Norvell was able to sign two prep quarterbacks, which addressed a need that hadn’t been met since Jimbo Fisher was head coach.

They signed 17 of their 18 commitments early and had eight of those players enroll in the spring semester, which will be huge for their development.

I can’t think of any negatives as he seemed to execute his first 30 days on the job to perfection with the hand he was dealt with.

However, there were still questions about how he’d handle everything that comes with being the head coach at FSU.

It’s his first power five coaching job, and can he handle consistently recruiting at this level? What about players buying into his vision for the program?

I think most FSU football fans have seen enough feel confident Mike Norvell can get this program turned around. Norvell has accomplished a lot in his first three months on the job. Here are my top three observations from March with Mike Norvell.

Advocating For Summer Practices

The coronavirus pandemic is something no college football coach has had to deal with in history so, at least they are all on an even playing field in that regard.

However, that’s not the case when it comes to spring practices for all teams. Some college football programs got almost all of their spring practices completed, while others never got started.

The Noles did get three of the 15 practices completed, with the final practice being the first in full pads.

Spring practices will be essential for a program with a new coaching staff that’s installing new philosophies on offense and defense.

One thing he has done is sound the alarm about uniformity and fairness when it comes to spring practices being allowed this summer should things get back to normal.

The fact he’s already thinking about how different those practices would be from when they would normally take place in the spring speaks to his attention to detail.

Mike Norvell understands how critical these practices would be to the players, and ultimately his success as a first-year coach at FSU.

Recruiting

FSU football did a great job of getting recruits on campus in early March before the pandemic becoming bad enough for the ACC to cancel all spring activities.

I believe they were positioning themselves to make a huge splash going into the spring game that was scheduled in mid-April.

They had several players leave their junior day on March 7th, naming the Noles their recruiting leader at the time.

The staff has been incredibly active on social media and hired more people in its graphic arts department last month.

Mike Norvell and staff have turned it up with its social media presence during the temporary dead period which is a welcome sight.

The Noles have made several top 5-10 recruiting lists from blue-chip players as of late too. They may not win the majority of those battles, but being in the fight is a big part of those battles.

The more time they have to build relationships with players and coaches, the more battles they’ll begin to win as long as progress on the field is being made.

Organization During COVID-19

I’m not here to slander Willie Taggart, but one thing I keep thinking back to is where would FSU football be in this pandemic situation with still as the head coach?

That is beyond scary to think about. Mike Norvell spoke about some of the measures he’s put in place since spring activities were taken away.

The lengths they’ve gone to as staff in terms of providing support for the players on and off the field.

They are meeting virtually just as they normally would be as a staff and being productive in assessing past practices and addressing recruiting strategies.

Ultimately, it’s up to the players to execute what they were given, but we’ve seen how active the players have been posting themselves working out on social media.

The FSU strength and conditioning staff have been posting themselves working out too.

This pandemic couldn’t have come at a worse time because the team didn’t get deep into the installs of the offense and defense at spring practice. However, I feel like Mike Norvell would have a plan in place should they be granted time in the summer to make up those practices.