FSU football: One writer ranks Mike Norvell a top 10 coach in the nation

The book on FSU football head coach Mike Norvell is far from complete, but I think folks have begun to notice what he’s done in a short amount of time as a head coach.

Norvell’s only 41 years old, still among the youngest coaches in big-time college football, who has FSU football on the precipice of where they’re supposed to be after a rough first two seasons in Tallahassee.

Those first two years in Tallahassee caused some folks to penalize him based on sheer results, with no context as to what he inherited or had to deal with in a pandemic-filled first season. I’ve always taken a wait-and-see approach as someone that’s intimately familiar with the program.

I knew it wasn’t an overnight fix, especially with the pandemic de-railing progress, and I knew the hire of a new athletic direction would either speed up the process or FSU football would be lost and forgotten.

Thankfully, the Michael Alford hire as athletic director has proven to be the right move, and he and coach Norvell have worked hand-in-hand to get FSU to where it is on the brink of the 2023 season. Is Mike Norvell a top-10 coach nationally?

One writer thinks so:

"Mike Norvell has Florida State back on track as an ACC and national title contender and has centered the rebuild with his offense. Norvell has averaged 37.4 points per game in seven seasons as head coach/play-caller at Memphis and Florida State, which ranks No. 3 nationally during that time. He and Nick Saban are the only coaches to lead teams to 500-plus points between 2016 and 2019. The 2022 Seminoles led the nation with 7.5 plays of 20 yards or more in each game. Norvell enters the upcoming season with a Heisman Trophy contender at quarterback (Jordan Travis) and a suddenly-elite offensive line.Norvell hasn’t been a head coach for long but he has already produced five head coaches from his coaching tree, including Oregon’s Dan Lanning and Arizona State’s Kenny Dillingham."

If FSU football has the season everyone expects, it’ll be hard to argue against it. He’s a coach that produces prolific offenses, has won 64 percent of his games as a head coach(influenced by the inherited mess and pandemic at FSU), and coaches that work for him go on to receive promotions at other respected programs.

I would bet money the last season and the 2023 season will be more indicative of what’s to come at FSU, as opposed to the first two seasons.

FSU has a solid foundation to build upon and the roster is as talented as it’s been in the last 6-7 seasons, and FSU football should be among the top programs nationally for the foreseeable future.