Problem for FSU is the whole promise to make changes to the recruiting philosophy and recruiting department as a whole. Early signing day is next Wednesday and there is only 1 portal window now. No way can you make those types of changes and have them make an impact on this cycle at this point. So part of retaining him was to make him promise to make changes that if they are lucky will help with the 2027 recruiting cycle meaning next season will be more of the same as what they have now.
This is an incredibly relevant post that cannot be overlooked. This is NOT an easy fix, this is NOT a quick fix, there is no way that F$U can dig out of the mistakes simply by WANTING TO DO SO.
Allow me to explain.
F$U has three primary areas of weakness that require immediate improvement - players, coaching, and the overall process of talent acquisition, compensation, and retention.
1. Players - clearly this is a current weakness for F$U. Under Prison Mike Norvell, F$U has NOT enjoyed top-line high school recruiting classes, and on the transfer portal side, there has been a similar decline in quality from where F$U was ranked when they were one of the first programs to heavily pursue transfer players. Between the rise of "early signing" (high school recruits signing in December, rather than "National Signing Day") and the reduction to only one January transfer portal window, F$U will be hard-pressed to improve the quality of their roster for the 2026 season. The Portal has not yet opened, so F$U's (current) 14th ranked recruiting class is made up solely of high school recruits. F$U has 29 commits and per the composite ranking, they have zero 5-stars, 13 4-stars, and 16 3-stars. Within the "blue-chip" portion of the class, only 5 of the 13 players are ranked in the Top 250 nationally. Also, of the 13 4-stars, 5 of them are pass-catchers, with 4 WRs and 1 TE, which might not be so much of an issue if they had an established returning QB to distribute the ball. Only 3 of the 13 4-stars are linemen, with only 2 DLs and 1 OL committed to the two largest positional units on any team. For a team that has gone 2-10 and 5-6 (thus far) over the past 2 years, F$U needs immediate impact from transfer portal players and blue-chip high school recruits, and so far THIS high school recruiting class falls well short of the mark. There is not much room to add late-risers, as F$U will need quite a few slots for transfer portal players, not to mention the fact that teams with poor records and coaches on the hot seat are usually targets of other schools that can flip some of those blue-chippers late in the game.
2. Coaching - last year, F$U fired most of its coaching staff in order to hire Gus Malzahn as OC and Tony White as DC. On offense, F$U has seemingly racked up a lot of yardage, though way too much of it came against cupcakes like East Texas A&M and Kent State, or during garbage time fourth quarter efforts. The reality is that F$U has won only 2 conference games and 5 overall and has not won a road game in over 2 years. In their last 3 losses, F$U has scored 13, 10, and 11 points. with 14 of those 34 points coming in the 4th quarter as F$U failed to come from behind. While the defense has performed somewhat better, it doesn't take a lot of research of the F$U boards to learn that F$U fans are upset about the wide variety of ways in which the team has failed to win games, from poor playcalling to penalties to clock mismanagement to questionable use of personnel. So while there has been a chicken-vs-egg debate about whether the fans should blame the F$U players or the coaches for all of the losses, it cannot be denied that the coaches are the ones that brought all the players in. Even worse for F$U fans is that every week Prison Mike Norvell spouts new forms of self-delusion about how prepared the team is, and how much they are committed to improvement, even as the mistakes and losses pile up.
3. Talent acquisition, compensation, and retention - this is, apparently, the area where F$U intends to "revamp" and "spend all of its money" in the off-season. Certainly, the money will not be used to pay for better coaches. It is widely believed that Prison Mike Norvell's retention is based solely on a lack of money to pay his buyout, and Vince Lombardi is not walking through that door. To listen to Norvell's excuses, you would be led to believe that he has figured out everything that has gone wrong in the past 2 years and he has a quick and easy solution. Such a belief would be wrong. Not only does F$U have a low level of talent on the current roster, it is also mismatched for what they might be able to accomplish schematically. With the exception of the LUCKY BREAK of inheriting Jordan Travis, Prison Mike's track record with recruiting and developing quarterbacks at F$U has been abysmal. Even if his staff can't find a HS QB on Planet Earth, the Miami Hurricanes have proven that you can sign a Cam Ward or Carson Beck for one year at a time. Of course, during that same time, Prison Mike has signed DJ Uiagaleilei and Tommy Castellanos for substantial sums of money. The OL talent has been negligible and the skill positions are only salvaged by the occasional transfer portal success. Someday in the future, DT Darrell Jackson will exhaust his eligibility and the rest of the team will realize that Prison Mike has absolutely failed to produce a homegrown (i.e., NOT a transfer) that was drafted in the first round. In fact, outside of the "13-1 undefeated team", Prison Mike has not had a single offensive player drafted in any other year (including transfers). So this idea that "F$U will spend a lot of money revamping the front office" is a hollow joke. There is only ONE transfer portal window this year, and unless you think that F$U has lined up 20 guys who are going to take their money to join a terrible team with coaching hot-seat issues, there is no way to effectuate immediate improvement. There IS NO "second portal window" to pick up lesser known guys to help the team, guys who may have been beaten out as starters. Prospects are bleak and winter is coming.
Norvell's records at F$U:
2020: 3-6
2021: 5-7
2022: 10-3
2023: 13-1
2024: 2-10
2025: 5-6
Sorry, but under Prison Mike, the Seminole Standard is .500 or worse. Yes, once upon a time he won 19 games in a row. Outside of that brief time when Jordan Travis won him all those games, he is 19-33. That is a winning percentage of 0.365. So unless Jordan Travis and his band of transfer portal players quit the NFL and are granted an extra 7th or 8th year of eligibility, F$U players can expect to win less than 40% of the games in which they play. Facts. Reality. F$U is a dumpster fire with no future under Prison Mike.
