Mike Norvell quotes falling on deaf ears with most of the Florida State fanbase

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone who promised to improve things, but it didn’t seem to happen? If there were improvements, they didn’t meet expectations. That’s the case with Florida State football fans and head coach Mike Norvell.

The losing over the past two years has caused the fanbase to turn a deaf ear to whatever the head coach says nowadays. Mike Norvell doesn’t seem to be able to read the room in that regard, and the latest instance didn’t help. Here's Norvell talking to Pete Nakos of On3.com: 

"I've put my head down and gone to work. That's what I've done. I've done that regardless in years past when there have been talks of other opportunities...

We were able to take some big picture perspectives of areas that we need, that every person needs to do better at and continue to improve upon, to get Florida State back to competing at a championship level in this football program. I believe wholeheartedly that we are going to achieve that."

Norvell said much of the same thing after the 2024 season, and FSU saw a three-win improvement in its record. Yes, there were fewer blowout losses, but losses against teams like Stanford are a fireable offense.

FSU still has better talent overall than 80% of the teams in the ACC, yet they’ve only won four ACC games in the last TWO seasons. FSU fans don’t care what Norvell says he’s doing or what they are changing:

Mike Norvell better get right in 2026 or he may not make it to the end of the season

Objectively, that’s exactly what those quotes sound like. These are the things a competent head coach is supposed to do every year, regardless of how well the season before went. Coaches should assess their program during and after every season and make adjustments. However, it seems like Mike Norvell waited for everything to hit rock bottom before deciding to do it. That’s not acceptable with passionate fans, like Florida State fans. It’s why you see all of the responses everytime he says something like this. All FSU fans want is to win football games and compete for the conference and national titles. Norvell has done that once in six years. I’ll give him a pass for the first two due to COVID and what he inherited, but the damning thing is he allowed what he built from 2022-23 to crumble quicker than it took to build it.