With news of much-maligned Florida State Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell being retained for another season, those who watch and follow along with the program closely have to be wondering how this was even allowed to happen. Florida State enters the Sunshine Showdown with Florida at 5-6 and needing a victory to go bowling. This comes in the wake of Friday night's disaster vs. NC State.
The last two seasons under Norvell have been borderline unforgivable. After getting to 13-0 with an ACC Championship victory over Louisville, Florida State has gone a combined 7-17 since the Orange Bowl blowout loss to Georgia. Florida State getting out ahead of this to make sure Norvell is safe is quite embarrassing. Could you imagine him returning to Tallahassee after potentially a 5-7 season?
That could be the Seminoles' reality. Florida has nothing left to lose, as the Gators have wisely moved on from their ineffective head coach during the season. While Norvell may want to point the finger at everybody else, he only has one play left in the Brian Kelly playbook of absolutely zero accountability. He can throw this one coordinator under the bus. No, it is not the one you were probably expecting...
At the end of the season, Norvell needs to move on from special teams coordinator John Papuchis.
Mike Norvell being retained should mean John Papuchis is out of a job
For the sake of continuity like the university administration and athletic department seems to be preaching, now is not the time to punt on offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn or defensive coordinator Tony White. They only just got to Tallahassee! Malzahn was leading UCF a year ago, while White had been Matt Rhule's defensive coordinator at Nebraska. Of course, both could leave anyway.
One of the reasons Norvell may need to throw Papuchis under the bus here is this. We are talking about a defensive ends coach who also mans special teams coaching responsibilities and has done so since 2019. He was able to keep his job when Alex Atkins and Adam Fuller could not after last year's disaster. Keep in mind that Florida State was miserable on special teams in the NC State loss.
Overall, you cannot preach continuity towards future success when maintaining the status quo will only get you so far. We are talking about a Florida State team that will have gone 8-17 or 7-18 since winning an ACC Championship, depending on the outcome of the Florida game. If Florida State gets to 8-17 with a win, that could be expanded or contracted to 9-17 or 8-18 after the lesser bowl game.
If this is the type of continuity Florida State wants, then we should be feeling so awful for the fans.