Florida State HC Mike Norvell takes sizable dip in new ACC coaching rankings

CBSSports.com released their annual rankings for all 68 head coaches at Power 4 programs and, as expected, Mike Norvell took a bit of a dip.

The coach fell 17 places from No. 8 to 25 and is the fifth-highest ranked coach in the ACC behind Clemson's Dabo Swinney, Louisville's Jeff Brohm, Miami's Mario Cristobal and SMU's Rhett Lashlee.

Now I know many of you are going to be mad that Norvell is behind Cristobal, especially considering the amount of coaching brain farts ol' Mario has from game-to-game, but overall it's hard to be upset with where Norvell is considering last season. 

Chip Patterson went on to say: "While the momentum of a 23-4 run across 2022-23 had him climbing in the coaching rankings, the reality of a 33-27 overall record (including 20-20 in ACC play) has reset the market on his stock."

'Reset his stock' is a pretty accurate term for where Norvell is right now. I don't think he's on the hot seat quite yet - the buyout of his contract is far too big to not afford him at least a couple more seasons. But the 2024 seasons forced some of the concerns about Norvell to come to the surface. He hadn't recruited a top-10 class yet, he was overly reliant on the transfer portal and the staff wasn't up to par. 

The good news is that Norvell made the necessary changes. He's brought in a new group of coaches that have made some adjustments to the recruiting philosophy. This has allowed him to take on more of a 'big picture' role in the overall wellness of the program.

Sometimes it's hard to believe, but Norvell is just 43 years old. He's still learning and sometimes that means he's going to make some mistakes. But Norvell's greatest strength is that he isn't stubborn. He wasn't so married to the way he did things two years ago that he wasn't willing to bring in new voices and go in a different direction. If the results of these changes show up on the field, especially Norvell to be back in the top 10 next year.