It might be hard to believe right now, but the vast majority of FSU fans want Mike Norvell to succeed. Their belief in him might be waning, and he deserves the skepticism he's faced over the past year and a half, but the optimism is still there.
Norvell has to win this season. The offense has some real weapons even though there's a huge question at quarterback. He's getting back into the weeds as a play caller and maybe that will prove to be a good thing. But more than anything, Norvell needs players that can perform. He needs the guys that will show up when things get tough, in the late games and make a play. All five of FSU's wins last season were by 14 or more points, four of the seven losses were one-possession games.
Mike Norvell's lack of big-time recruiting still haunts him
Josh Pate dropped a video in his "truth tellers" series about Mike Norvell, and he quickly gets to the biggest problem that has kept FSU from any level of consistent winning — mediocre recruiting.
"Recruiting has not been good...well, it's not been great. At its best, it's been good. It's just been every year let's spin the portal roulette wheel and let's see what comes out of it," Pate said. "We were on Rivals looking at their recruiting classes since he's been there — 21st, 21st, 23rd, 22nd, 12th, 20th and 15th. So five of those seven classes are 20th or worse."
Oof!
You just can't be subpar at recruiting in the state of Florida and be successful at this job. The transfer portal is fine. FSU has gotten good players from there during his tenure, but the foundational talent hasn't been up to snuff.
Mandrell Desir is a player. His twin brother Darryl might be one as well. Ousmane Kromah is in line for a breakout season. But FSU is also counting on a transfer edge rusher that has 3.5 sacks to his name in 37 games. Maybe Rylan Kennedy works out, maybe he doesn't, but the fact that he's the best option for an edge rusher is an indictment on how bad Norvell has been getting good players in the program. And it's forced him to take a major risks in the portal. Risks that have not worked out over the past two years.
FSU was built on powerhouse recruiting and for years Norvell has failed to capitalize on the brand. Now he's down to his last shot and when you look at the numbers, the reasons become obvious.