On Monday, Florida State knocked over the first domino of its impending overhaul, firing athletic director Michael Alford after four years on the job. With Alford gone, whether it happens on Saturday night after a likely loss to Alabama or once a new athletic director is in place, it’s clear that Norvell is on his way out too.
There’s a good chance that Florida State just rips the band-aid this weekend if the Seminoles can’t recreate last year’s magical upset win over the Crimson Tide, and there’s little reason to believe that they will.
The person ultimately tasked with eventually finding Norvell’s replacement isn’t in Tallahassee yet, but once they get there, their short list should look a little something like this:
Refusing to hire an up-and-coming head coach like Charles Huff simply because he hails from the same program that Florida State plucked Mike Norvell from is bad process. If you think he’s the guy, it shouldn’t matter that he’s coming from Memphis. But in the eyes of a beleaguered fanbase, it will matter and might even disqualify Huff.
There’s also a case to be made that with Memphis’s FedEx support and subsequent spending advantage over the rest of the American, there’s a greater chance that any coach’s success at Memphis, unless it’s complete dominance over the rest of the league and a CFP bid, is probably fool’s gold.
Indiana defensive coordinator Bryant Haines is probably the best DC in the country; he won the Broyles Award last year, but it’s hard to say Blake Baker is any lower than No. 2. Last offseason, programs like Cal and Kentucky took a chance on hiring highly-touted assistants, coincidentally both away from Oregon, so maybe Florida State will consider giving a first-time coach like Baker a shot.
It’s hard to imagine he doesn’t land a head job this offseason, unless he’d simply prefer to stay with Lane Kiffin at LSU.
And if Florida State is considering going the coordinator route, maybe it should look south to Shannon Dawson, Miami’s OC. Dawson constructed an elite power-spread attack with Cam Ward at quarterback in 2024, then scaled back the air-raid principles to play to Carson Beck’s strengths in 2025, and now he’s opened it back up with Darian Mensah.
He can do it in multiple ways, and he’s learned how to build a program back into a powerhouse in the state of Florida from Mario Cristobal. That will be appealing when the Norvell move is made.
It wouldn’t feel good to hire Diaz away from Duke, even if he is a Florida State alum, because if he wasn’t good enough for your biggest conference rival, Miami, why is he good enough for you? Well, part of the reason is that Diaz has clearly improved as a head coach, and with the proper infrastructure around him, the roster-building issues that plagued him in Coral Gables could be nullified.
Plus, he may not cost top dollar to land, which is a particular advantage in the NIL era, when that extra $2-3 million could be spent on the field, where, aside from the extreme cases with the very best and very worst head coaches in the country, it tends to make a bigger impact.
What about the man who beat Florida State in Week 1 and who turned SMU into a perennial ACC contender? SMU has upped its spending to vault itself to the top of the ACC, but the ceiling is undeniably higher in Tallahassee, and that could be enough to lure an up-and-coming, offensive-minded head coach away from a good situation in Dallas.
It’s at least worth a phone call.
Kenny Dillingham turned down Michigan to stay at Arizona State this offseason. It’s hard to imagine him suddenly making an about-face and bolting from Tempe for Tallahassee. However, his decision was seemingly family-related, wanting to stay in his home state rather than packing up for Ann Arbor. Maybe a familiar spot like Florida State, where he served as offensive coordinator in 2020-21, would be a more palatable option.
Even in its current state, Florida State would give Dillingham a better chance to get back to the College Football Playoff than Arizona State, which has seemingly plateaued due to its lack of resources.
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