Even with the highs of the 13-0 season in 2023 before the College Football Playoff snub and the Orange Bowl blowout, Mike Norvell’s tenure at Florida State has been less than satisfactory for Seminoles fans. One of the clearest reasons why he’s failed to meet the high standards in Tallahassee is a lack of success on the recruiting trail, and no position exemplifies that more than quarterback.
It’s not just failure to land highly ranked prospects; it’s been a consistent failure to identify which highly ranked prospects are deserving of their four- or five-star status. Luke Kromenhoek, the highest-ranked QB recruit of the Norvell era, perfectly exemplifies the struggle. After one season in Tallahassee, in which he completed 52.4% of his passes as a true freshman in 2024, Kromenhoek transferred to Mississippi State, where he was a backup and eventually a third-stringer in 2025.
Luke Kromenhoek loses out to Michael Van Buren at USF
This year, in an effort to revitalize his flailing career, Kromenhoek transferred down a level to South Florida, but again he couldn’t do enough to find his way on the field as first-year head coach Brian Hartline named Michael Van Buren his starter on Monday.
Van Buren edged Luke Kromenhoek in the camp quarterback race. Van Buren will debut for USF against FIU on Sept. 5.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) August 24, 2026
Kromenhoek was the No. 5 QB in the 2024 class by 247Sports Composite, one spot above Notre Dame's CJ Carr, one of the Heisman favorites this season. He was obviously overrated (literally) by the recruiting industry, and it's bad enough that Norvell and his staff couldn't sniff that out, but beyond that, there's no telling how much damage was done to his trajectory by spending a year under their tutelage.
If he were the only QB miss for this staff, it may be a good thing for FSU that he's not starting a four hour drive away in Tampa and potentially making the Noles look silly. But he's not; it's a pattern of underachieving QBs that, either through poor evaluation or poor coaching, falls squarely on the head coach.
Mike Norvell’s QB struggles alone are a fireable offense
Since Norvell arrived in Tallahassee in 2020, he has signed four blue-chip quarterbacks: Chubba Purdy, AJ Duffy, Brock Glenn, and Luke Kromenhoek. That group has combined for 10 starts with a 2-8 record, with one of the two wins coming courtesy of Kromenhoek in 2024 against Charleston Southern. The other was Brock Glenn’s ACC Championship Game victory over Louisville in 2023.
Throw in three-star Tate Rodemaker from the 2020 class, and you get an extra start and a win in the final week of the regular season in 2023 over Florida, though he went 12-25 for 134 yards.
None of those quarterbacks are on the current roster, and when Week 0 kicks off, FSU will have a transfer QB starting in the opening week for the sixth straight year. Even in 2020, however, Jordan Travis, a Louisville transfer, quickly overtook James Blackman as QB1. So, it’s been a primary transfer starter every year since 2019.
Travis, who was already on the roster when Norvell arrived, ended his career with a disastrous injury in 2023, but went out as a Florida State legend. Since Travis left, it’s not like Norvell has nailed it with his portal evaluations either.
D.J. Uiagalelei was obviously injured in 2024, even if the program refused to admit it, but even healthy, he never lived up to his five-star potential when he originally committed to Clemson and was an awkward fit in Norvell’s quick-game, spread system. Tommy Castellanos was an improvement in 2025 and the perfect fit for the Gus Malzahn offense, but had glaring physical limitations that handcuffed a relatively effective offense amid a 5-7 season.
This year, it’s Ashton Daniels coming from Auburn, where he backed up Jackson Arnold last season. There are things to like about the 6-foot-2, 225-pound senior’s dual-threat game, but there’s little evidence that any QB can succeed under this coaching staff.
Even after displaying promising signs as QB2 in his true freshman season, 2025 three-star Kevin Sperry is seemingly sinking below JuCo transfer Malachi Marshall on the depth chart.
Norvell has gotten a lot of things wrong during his time in Tallahassee, and he doesn’t look any closer to getting it right at the most important position. That is reason enough for the program to move on, as if it really needed one more.
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