Bowls and playoffs: 1-4
2016Boca Raton BowlL 31-51
2017Liberty BowlL 20-21
2018Birmingham BowlL 34-37
Florida State
2022Cheez-It BowlW 35-32
2023Orange BowlL 3-63
Chance to win each game, from the CFB Zeitgeist forecast ratings with home field. #N = AP rank in the latest poll.
Composite stature after each game — the number above each point.
Above the median on both sides of the ball — 57th percentile offense, 67th percentile defense.
Florida State, every completed season graded against the whole field, then averaged.
Each season is his team’s percentile among every team with that stat (the share it beat), averaged over his completed seasons here; a mid-season takeover year and the season in progress aren’t graded. Letters: A+ 90th percentile and up, A 80, B+ 70, B 60, B− 50, C+ 45, C 40, C− 30, D 15, F below.
Hot seat: no longer the head coach · left November 1.
He left the job on November 1; Rick Stockstill is the interim head coach. How every job is measured.
He no longer holds this job, so there is no number for him here.
Even if some how FSU goes 8-4, 7-5. I still don't want Norvell back.
Ya,know I'm glad FSU won Ya,know but Norvell still has to go Ya,know. I have 0 faith in this man Ya,know FSU should fire him after his next loss Ya,know.
Florida State · Based on 3 comments from 3 posters across 3 threads · Oct 4, 2026–Oct 10, 2026 · via Florida State Football - Warchant TV
32nd of 104 FBS head coaches · from several outlets and r/CFB
What is Mike Norvell's buyout with Florida State?
Yahoo Sports Nov 1 · one outlet
The headlines for each topic are on the News tab.
from dozens of outlets and r/CFB
Mike Norvell on the proverbial hot seat as Florida State tries to avoid another losing season
Bozeman Daily Chronicle +3 Aug 19 · a few outlets
The headlines for each topic are on the News tab.
Stories we tracked, by school.
Florida StateDozens of stories2020 to nowMost about: press conference and quotes, job security talk, game preview.
ESPN +5Mike Norvell blasts ‘absolute joke’ penalty in FSU’s loss to MiamiOct 19
On3 +2Live Updates, Video: Mike Norvell discussing FSU Football’s second scrimmageAug 9
Heavy +2What is Mike Norvell’s Buyout? What it Would Cost Florida State to Fire CoachSep 7
FOX Sports +1How Much Is Florida State Coach Mike Norvell's Buyout? Contract Details In 2026Sep 7
MemphisA few stories2016 to 2019Most about: coaching staff, press conference and quotes.
Could another school hire him? What has he said?
Stories are headlines grouped by what they are about, counted through Nov 4.
Pick a job to see its years on their own.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
1-1 against his rivals at Memphis. Nobody he faced three or more times there has a winning record against him.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
5-7 against his rivals at Florida State. Winless in 4 tries against Dave Doeren.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
How he does in the games that matter most — rivalry record, performance broken out by real opponent tier, one-score games, and his toughest historical matchup.
6-8 against his rivals. Winless in 4 tries against Dave Doeren.
Tags describe each game; they aren’t scores. The weighting that picks these games is still being tested.
ATS is his record against the spread: did his team beat the closing betting line, winning by more than it or losing by less? Lines start in 2013; a dash means fewer than 6 of those games had one. One-score games carry no spread record: a big favorite that wins a close game has almost always failed to cover, so that number would say nothing about the coach.
Ran more than the situation called for under Malzahn.
4,710 run and pass snaps at Florida State, 2020–2025, his own games, one row per offensive coordinator. Each cell is how much more often he passed than the rest of FBS did in the same situation (field zone, down, distance, score, quarter, same season), in percentage points.
Where each stint’s offense sat between run-first and pass-first, and how far it moved from one season to the next, against the FBS-wide average of 41% pass. The band is that stint’s real season-to-season range, not a fixed-width box.
Season-to-season pass-rate range for all 449 FBS coaching stints with at least three covered seasons, 2004–2025.
Six numbers on how he actually stocks a roster, from signing day to draft day.
His 6 ranked Florida State classes of his own have averaged #18 nationally — best #12, worst #22.
MemphisFlorida StateAcross every program: 8 ranked classes of his own, averaging #32 nationally.
His class — he had the full signing cycleTransition — he was hired mid-cycle
Rank is each signing class’s national recruiting rank (#1 is best). Only a class he had a full signing cycle to build counts as his; inherited and mid-transition classes still show here, faded, but stay out of the average.
Memphis→Florida State2020Players who transferred from his old program to his new one through the portal in the same year he made the move. Name-matching across data sources misses some, so every count is a floor, not an exact number.
of his 2026 roster arrived on his watch — 109 of 109 players. Nobody is left from before he was hired.
Of his own players on this roster, 20% came through the transfer portal; the rest are non-portal arrivals (high-school signees, JUCO transfers, walk-ons).
This tenure spans the 2021 transfer-portal tracking floor: seasons before 2021 structurally cannot be classified portal-vs-not (they land in 'unknown' below), so the portal-share figure understates how many pre-2021 arrivals might have been transfers under the pre-portal-tracking transfer rules.
27% of his 257 new players since 2022 came through the portal (FBS programs, same seasons: 23%). His share was 24% in 2022 and 27% in 2026.
Graded on the players who arrived and the players who left together, his portal seasons came out better than most FBS programs’ in 1 and worse than most in 1 of the 5 seasons graded. our read
Each player counts once, in the season he arrived. 2021, the first season of portal tracking here, is left off because its arrival records look incomplete (about 31 new players per FBS team, against 52 in 2022). Portal grade: the site’s position-value-weighted scoring (the same engine as the Portal Heat feed and the “Who won the portal” grade): the value of the players who came in minus the value of the ones who left, ranked against every FBS program’s grade that same season. A season with fewer than 4 transfers in and out is not graded.
“His own” means the player arrived while he was head coach; “inherited” means a predecessor brought him in.
Offensive linemen on his Florida State rosters have averaged 5 lb heavier than the FBS average (2020–2026). In the three seasons before he arrived, Florida State’s line averaged 11 lb heavier than the FBS average.
Average listed weight of every offensive lineman on each season’s roster, holdovers included, against every FBS roster that season (2010 on; a program needs 3+ seasons under him to appear). Weights are the ones programs publish, and programs list differently. This describes size only — not scheme, and not quality.
is his biggest recruiting state: 78 of 153 signees (51%) across his 2020–2026 tenure, drawn from 20 states in all. Next: GA (27).
73% of his signees come from FL and its 2 border states (GA 27, AL 6).
Off this map: 11 signees to the west (TX 6, CA 3, others) and 7 to the north (MD 2, CT, others).
The map counts signed recruits across his tenure; the distance figures cover his current roster, transfers and walk-ons included. Two different groups, kept separate on purpose.
players drafted into the NFL off his teams here. He brought in 13 of them himself; 6 arrived under Willie Taggart (3), Jimbo Fisher (3). 2 went in the first round.
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | R4.03 | Darrell Jackson Jr. | Defensive Tackle |  New York Jets | |
| 2025 | R3.09 | Azareye'h Thomas | Cornerback | New York Jets | |
| 2025 | R4.35 | Joshua Farmer | Defensive Tackle |  New England Patriots | |
| 2024 | R1.19 | Jared Verse | Defensive Edge |  Los Angeles Rams | |
| 2024 | R2.01 | Keon Coleman | Wide Receiver |  Buffalo Bills | |
| 2024 | R2.07 | Braden Fiske | Defensive Tackle | Los Angeles Rams | |
| 2024 | R2.32 | Renardo Green | Cornerback |  San Francisco 49ers | recruited under Willie Taggart |
| 2024 | R3.02 | Trey Benson | Running Back |  Arizona Cardinals |
| Year | Pick | Player | Pos | NFL team | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | R3.33 | Jarrian Jones | Cornerback |  Jacksonville Jaguars | |
| 2024 | R5.36 | Jordan Travis | Quarterback | New York Jets | recruited under Willie Taggart |
| 2024 | R6.09 | Johnny Wilson | Wide Receiver |  Philadelphia Eagles | |
| 2024 | R7.11 | Jaheim Bell | Tight End | New England Patriots | |
| 2024 | R7.31 | Tatum Bethune | Linebacker | San Francisco 49ers | |
| 2023 | R5.11 | Jammie Robinson | Safety |  Carolina Panthers | |
| 2022 | R1.26 | Jermaine Johnson II | Defensive End |  New York Jets | |
| 2021 | R2.15 | Asante Samuel Jr. | Cornerback |  Los Angeles Chargers | recruited under Willie Taggart |
| 2021 | R4.29 | Janarius Robinson | Defensive End |  Minnesota Vikings | recruited under Jimbo Fisher |
| 2021 | R4.39 | Joshua Kaindoh | Defensive End |  Kansas City Chiefs | recruited under Jimbo Fisher |
| 2021 | R6.02 | Hamsah Nasirildeen | Safety | New York Jets | recruited under Jimbo Fisher |
A pick counts toward his tenure when the player’s final college season was one he coached, a checkable rule rather than a claim about who developed the player. A blank note means the player is on a verified roster and arrived on his watch. “Estimated” means no roster record, so the final season is assumed to be the year before the draft.
Headlines, grouped by what they are about. Each is the outlet’s own.
Job security talk
On3Mike Norvell buyout: Details of Florida State head coach's contractOct 31
Tallahassee DemocratMike Norvell hot seat: Here's what FSU football owes if it fires coachOct 31Yahoo SportsWhat is Mike Norvell's buyout with Florida State?Nov 1
The New York TimesDabo rips misspelled plane banner calling for Mike Norvell firing: ‘That was embarrassing’Nov 1Profile and feature
Game preview
Press conference and quotes
ESPN +5Mike Norvell blasts ‘absolute joke’ penalty in FSU’s loss to MiamiOct 19On3 +2Live Updates, Video: Mike Norvell discussing FSU Football’s second scrimmageAug 9
Sports Illustrated +1Mike Norvell Provides FSU Football Health Update At Midway Point Of PreseasonAug 10Tallahassee Democrat +1Mike Norvell explains what FSU football needs to settle before Week 1Aug 17Job security talk
Heavy +2What is Mike Norvell’s Buyout? What it Would Cost Florida State to Fire CoachSep 7FOX Sports +1How Much Is Florida State Coach Mike Norvell's Buyout? Contract Details In 2026Sep 7
Bleacher ReportNew FSU Rumors on Jimbo Fisher Amid Mike Norvell Hot Seat, Contract Buyout BuzzSep 18
Tomahawk Nation +1Mike Norvell’s FSU salary, buyout info: What would it cost for Seminoles to fire their head coach?Oct 15Game preview
Tomahawk Nation +1“This is going to be a championship-caliber game:” Mike Norvell previews FSU’s matchup vs. No. 19 SMUSep 4Sports Illustrated +1Mike Norvell Faces a Tenure-Defining Moment as FSU Football Hosts No. 19 SMUSep 5Tomahawk Nation +1Mike Norvell on the collapse versus Louisville, looking ahead to Miami: “None of us were good enough”Oct 12Yahoo SportsFlorida State Coach Mike Norvell Gets a Blunt Warning Ahead of 2026 SeasonAug 11Hot seat
Tomahawk NationColumn: As pressure builds, Mike Norvell keeps retreating further into his shell of reduced accessAug 27
Orlando SentinelBianchi: Yes, Mike Norvell should be on the hot seat, but FSU fans shouldn’t be pouring gasoline on itSep 9
The Big Lead +1College football overreactions after Week 5: Mike Norvell’s hot seat is coolingOct 5Loss
Sports Illustrated +2Mike Norvell On FSU Football's Collapse Against Alabama: 'I'm Pissed Off Right Now'Sep 20Sports Illustrated +1FSU Football Fans Are Fed Up With Mike Norvell After Another Disappointing LossSep 8
New York Post +1Mike Norvell’s Florida State future in serious jeopardy after ugly 24-point loss to LouisvilleOct 10Tomahawk Nation +1Mike Norvell on FSU’s double-overtime loss to No. 3 Miami: “Just sick”Oct 19Quarterback and depth chart
Sports Illustrated +1Mike Norvell Evaluates FSU Football QB Ashton Daniels After Second ScrimmageAug 10On3 +1Florida State football will not release a depth chart in 2026, Mike Norvell press conference updatesAug 24Sports Illustrated +1Mike Norvell On Alabama QB Keelon Russell: 'He's A Scary Football Player'Sep 15Sports Illustrated +1Mike Norvell Provides FSU Football Injury Updates, Including One on a StarterSep 23
247SportsMike Norvell touches on quarterbacks, injuries and more after Florida State's first scrimmageAug 4I’m excited to bring Tony White into the Nole Family in such an important role on our staff
Sometimes there’s just misses, and he can teach his officials on things they see or what they think they see
You have the holding call, which was an absolute joke
The holding call, it was an absolute joke
The Hail Mary thing at the end, the only disappointing thing (is) I know it went to review
We’re not in the business of being close
Tonight, coming off of it, just another close game, a lot of one plays
Just continue to appreciate all the thoughts and prayers that have been poured out to him, because I think prayer works
The arc of his career is on Now.
Builder meaningfully raised a program that wasn't one · Inheritor inherited a power and neither built it higher nor let it collapse
5th-best Florida State tenure of 10 by the numbers.
Followed Willie Taggart (2018–2019).
| Season | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | ||||||||
| Record | 3-6 | 5-7 | 10-3 | 13-1 | 2-10 | 5-7 | 3-5 | |
| Postseason | — | — | W bowl | L bowl | — | — | — | |
| Coordinators | ||||||||
| OC | Kenny Dillingham | Kenny Dillingham | Alex Atkins | Alex Atkins | Alex Atkins | Gus Malzahn | Tim Harris Jr. | |
| DC | Adam Fuller | Adam Fuller | Adam Fuller / Randy Shannon | Adam Fuller / Randy Shannon | Adam Fuller / Randy Shannon | Tony White | Tony White | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | ||||||||
| Offense | 56 | 53 | 94 | 45 | 8 | 86 | 69 | |
| Defense | 23 | 83 | 66 | 86 | 28 | 46 | 22 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | ||||||||
| 1st-down pass% | 42.2 | 44.4 | 39.8 | 44.5 | 44.1 | 36.1 | 38.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 33.3 | 42.7 | 32.7 | 43.7 | 40.3 | 29.7 | 29.9 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 46.4 | 34.4 | 38.5 | 42.1 | 50.0 | 47.5 | 52.4 | |
Performs about as expected for his recruiting talent, on both sides of the ball.
Brings in bigger-than-position-typical players than most.
Recruits older, more experienced transfers than most.
5 player-seasons honored (All-America / national award): Jermaine Johnson II (2021), Jared Verse (2022), Jared Verse (2023), Ryan Fitzgerald (2024), Alex Mastromanno (2024)
AI Narratives — “Florida State's Roller Coaster Season” and 5 more on the team page.
6th-best Memphis tenure of 15 by the numbers.
Followed Justin Fuente (2012–2015) · succeeded by Ryan Silverfield (2020–2025).
| Season | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | Trend |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Record & result | |||||
| Record | 8-5 | 10-3 | 8-6 | 12-1 | |
| Postseason | L bowl | L bowl | L bowl | — | |
| Coordinators | |||||
| OC | Chip Long | Darrell Dickey | Kenny Dillingham | Kevin Johns | |
| DC | Chris Ball | Chris Ball | Chris Ball | Adam Fuller | |
| Outcome — opponent-adjusted efficiency percentile | |||||
| Offense | 77 | 97 | 90 | 94 | |
| Defense | 28 | 31 | 39 | 46 | |
| Tendencies — play-by-play, neutral script | |||||
| 1st-down pass% | 49.6 | 47.7 | 30.8 | 41.9 | |
| Red-zone pass% | 44.4 | 55.3 | 32.6 | 36.6 | |
| 4th-down go%opp. territory | 27.3 | 35.1 | 30.6 | 39.0 | |
Outperforms his recruiting talent on offense and underperforms his recruiting talent on defense.
8 NFL Draft picks: Jake Elliott (2017), Anthony Miller (2018), Genard Avery (2018), Darrell Henderson (2019), Tony Pollard (2019), Antonio Gibson (2020), Chris Claybrooks (2020), Dustin Woodard (2020)
The data leans positive, where the data can separate from zero: every conclusive reading points the same way.
+13.2 pts at Memphis · #150 of 1290 · top quarterModel fit as of 2026-09-04.
