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Know thy enemy: How good is Norvell?

Good offensive coach that will attract good portal talent because of scheme. Has deep rooted issues with recruiting especially with FSU dysfunctional NIL program. Will continue to be a game day threat, but will probably get fired if FSU hits a downturn with QBs. Will put up solid teams but will struggle to get long term success because of graduation attrition.
 
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One of the things I've been paying attention to since Norvell's arrival at FSU is that has hasn't recruited well at the QB position.

I think he was very fortunate in the development of Jordan Travis into a decent passer. Make no mistake, their whole key is running the football and Travis is a big part of it. If their running game wasn't successful, I believe they would be a 6-6 team. I don't know what they'll do when he's gone.

The key for Norvell moving forward will be whether he can bring in good QBs. With an improved program, maybe he attracts some better HS prospects or established QBs from the Portal. I don't know if he can do what Lincoln Riley did and keep rolling in top QBs out of the Portal.

Clearly, Norvell is building his program from the Transfer Portal. He only has 16 committed players in a limitless year up to your 85 scholarship limit.

Is it sustainable? Yes. This is the new age of college football that has more unrestricted free agency than the NFL.

I think Norvell will have some hit and miss years. He'll be heavily reliable on the portal for his success.

The thing is if Mario gets things rolling it won't matter, especially from a recruiting perspective. Aside from Hakeem Williams, Mario has gotten every recruit he wanted that has even thought about FSU. For the most part, that won't change.

Two conference rivals ranked nationally will be good for college football and the ACC. Our rivalry games will have ranked teams facing off with plenty of national attention.

I'm not concerned about FSU at all. Our goals are much higher than just beating them. We're trying to build a program to beat Clemson. Be an ACC Champion. To reach are goals of playing in CFPs contending for championships, FSU is just a peace of lint or bottle cap. Something to be removed. If we can beat Clemson, then FSU should be a conclusive win.
 
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If he does well in the portal, with health, with schedule, and gets lucky in a game or two, he can pull of seasons like this.

When two or more of those conditions fail, he's a .500 coach.

That's unlikely to excite their base, but it's not that easy to sack him either.
 
Rellyrell said:
Well here’s the crux of ur statement, my brother;

U said he’s riding a QB who we dogged. Travis was a joke, each yr he’s improved under Norvell. We clowned their diminutive RB, Ward, & all he’s done is avg. 6.4 ypc.

But I agree, the portal is unsustainable, & I’m hearing some r looking to try to reform it in its current stage; this was an unintended consequence, & who knows if the portal remains in its current format.
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Fair point.
 
JHallCanes said:
I was gonna weigh on on Norvell but then I remembered we are right in the middle of really important Miami stuff right now

Pretty sure every single fan here weighed in on Norvell during the FSU suck fest that was the season
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I blame myself for entering this thread. So in the middle of ESD season we have folks that get up in the morning thinking about Mike Norvell….and on top of that, expect a reasonable discussion about it on CIS..

Fascinating.
 
He had their offense humming this year, I wouldn't underestimate him. He's not the recruiter that Mario is, but if Mario doesn't make some coaching changes he could have our number for a while.
 
RedPill Stepdad said:
Norvell is smart enough to know he doesn’t want smoke on the recruiting trail. G5 Billy is having to learn the hard way.
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Any coach that relies Ron Dugans, Randy Shannon, a geriatric Odell Haggins, and Marcus Woodson to be 4 out of his top 5 recruiters is not building for long term success.

Once Alex Atkins leaves he will be in a world of trouble.
 
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NIL + Portal = semi unrestricted free agency.

We are seizing unprecedented talent enter the portal. I don’t know how long this system will last, but right now it’s not going to be how much you depend on the portal, but how well you play the portal.

I believe Norvell’s ceiling as a fair strategist and poor recruiter will be determined by how well he adapts to the new college free agency era.
 
45-3 sucks. Norvell knows his ****. We sucked this year, but they beat us by 6TDs. That can NEVER happen again.
 
Norvell is a better offensive coach than anything we have had at Miami in the last 25 years.
 
7-9 win coach, with the potential (like this year) to get to 10. A few issues with his model:

- Like Mel Tucker, he’s very dependent on the portal. We saw what happened this year when the portal missed for them. When his portal adds hit they’ll be an 8-10 win team. When they miss, 5-7 win team.

- They only beat three teams with winning records this year, two of whom as mentioned earlier were 7-5. Basically, they beat teams they should and lose to anyone at or above their level. That’s a concern for them going forward.

- He’s a good coach who’s elevated them, but he can’t recruit. They’re 9-3 knocking on 10 wins and they have the #17 class in the country. We’ve got a top 5 class at 5-7 and Florida is #10 at 6-6. If they can’t beat us head to head when we’re down, imagine what it’ll be like when we’re up.

- He’s going to be at FSU for awhile, imho. He won’t be a threat for a natty or ACC Championship unless he stumbles into an elite QB (their QB recruiting has been god awful under him). For the most part, he’ll have them at 8-9 wins a year. But after a few years their fans will get sick of that.
 
mirvin88 said:
He's a good coach but bad recruiter.


.....and I don't think you can sustain success without recruiting chops, despite the portal.
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This. Plus I don't think FSU has enough money to compete with the big dogs for top talent coming out of the portal. He's maxed out at 9 wins.
 
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people really going to act like Manny didn't beat the crap out of Norvell and win 9 games when all his portal pieces from 2020 season worked out? Norvell's portal pieces worked out this season but until he proves he can actually recruit it won't last and it's no different than Manny 2020 season or Tucker 2021 season.
 
filmcane said:
It's clear that Norvell was getting axed after this season unless he performed and he did pull it off.

When he first came to Trailerhassee, I thought he might be dangerous, then he crapped the bed his first two years and looked like a bust, but then he pulled off a solid season for the Noles. So, what do we think of him? Was this season the best he'll ever have or is he truly building something there?
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Better than the Head Coach for Miami!
 
Norvell is a guy with a well defined ceiling. Dude is a weak recruiter and if you want to be nationally relevant, you have to be able to recruit. The fact of the matter is that Miami and UF are beating the living crap out of him in recruiting this year, despite FSU being by far the better program, if this year's results are to be taken at face value. His method of program building is very, very iffy because it relies on hitting the portal at a high rate. Teams that win long term in this new environment build through strong recruiting and then using the portal to fill in holes.

If Mario can figure out the issues in regards to culture, talent and staff, he should be able to consistently demolish Norvell, who needs everything to go right in order to win. That's not a good long term strategy.
 
He has FSU rolling. Their offense is going to be lights out next year. Jordan Travis should be a pre season heisman front runner. They have a chance to make serious noise next year.

I don’t know what they do after Travis leaves but I think Norvells offense is excellent.

Mario stinks to high heaven as a gameday coach. We should be worried about norvell on game day. On the recruiting trail Mario will eat his lunch for years to come
 
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