FSU football: Top 3 May observations with Mike Norvell

FSU football coach Mike Norvell is less than 100 days from arguably the most important season in his young coaching career.

FSU as a whole has a lot of positive momentum. The football program has momentum on the recruiting trails.

There were four former FSU players selected in the 2021 NFL Draft and two more signed as undrafted free agents.

FSU has chosen a new president-elect. The Seminole Boosters are over 77 percent past their 13,000 member goal, and a vote passed to provide 20 million dollars towards infrastructure repairs at Doak Campbell Stadium.

FSU softball is going to the World Series, and FSU baseball made the Field of 64. FSU had youth football camps all over the state, which should pay dividends in several ways.

The program seems to be going in the right direction, completing spring camp with no major hiccups and players spending lots of time developing their talents.

Every month seems to unveil new observations and long-term vision for the Mike Norvell era. Let’s take a look at three observations from May.

Relationship With Former Players

One thing that’s stood out in May was the number of former players who were around the program.

Mike Norvell used the Youth Football Camps as a way to reach out to former players and get them involved with the program.

These are former players we haven’t seen in forever. There has always been a contentious relationship with some of the players. The way FSU handled Jimbo Fisher replacing Bobby Bowden turned some of the players that played for Bowen away.

Some of the players that played for Fisher didn’t feel welcomed by Willie Taggart’s staff. It also seemed like Taggart only wanted to associate with alumni with the biggest names like Peter Warrick.

Mike Norvell has said many times that all former players are welcome back in Tallahassee. It’s great to see these guys show up and support the program after a tough 2020 season. However, it looks as though they also believe the program is going in the right direction.

Social Media Genius

I’ve talked about the upgrades Mike Norvell and the staff have contributed to the social media team.

The ridiculous graphics of Martin Luther King Jr. with football gloves are no more, as well as the cringe-worthy Game of Thrones graphics.

The social media team is now a strength, and the coaching staff understands how social media works. Almost every staff member is fairly active on Twitter with certain things orchestrated by the staff.

The movement to get Cain Madden to Tally trending on Twitter was a prime example. The coaching staff got behind FSU football fans and retweeted while hinting about who they were talking about to get fans excited about the possibility of gaining an offensive lineman commitment.

That movement helped illustrate the power of the FSU football brand and the passion of the fan base.

The coaching staff also used social media to get the fan base excited about the recruiting dead period ending June 1st.

The FSU fan base is one of the most active online, and engaging the fans on social media is an easy way to illustrate why the FSU football brand is so iconic to recruits.

Recruiting

It’s funny because recruiting was one of the areas most folks were most concerned about under Mike Norvell. However, there is a method to how Mike Norvell and the staff goes about it.

I’m convinced there is no other staff working harder, partly because they understand what’s at stake with the 2022 recruiting class.

The staff seems to have plans A, B, C, D, and E in every situation. There’s always a plan to execute, and they’ve attacked weaknesses on the roster head-on.

The staff added a Notre Dame offensive lineman transfer in Dillan Gibbons and 2022 three-star offensive tackle Aliou Bah last month.

The Noles have three top 100 recruits committed and are in a good position for another one, according to Travis Hunter Jr.

According to Noles247, the coaching staff had seven top 150 players from the 2022 recruiting class on campus as soon as the recruiting dead period ended at midnight.

They will have hundreds of players on campus for the football camps in June. It’ll be the first time they can officially have players on campus and talk with them in person in over a year. It looks like they have a plan for all of their top targets.

This staff is positioning itself for a monster recruiting class, provided they can show some positives on the field in 2021.