Mike Norvell will be the next head coach at Florida State, according to multiple reports including the Tallahassee Democrat, who notes that an official announcement is expected Sunday.
Florida State has been on the hunt for its next head coach since Willie Taggart's firing on Nov. 3, and the DHR International-led search has largely avoided leaks, yet Norvell's resume plus Florida State's lack of a hire over the past week quickly made today's news the worst-kept secret in college football.
Still only 38 years old, Norvell has quickly compiled an impressive resume -- two years as the passing game coordinator at Tulsa, one as co-offensive coordinator at Pittsburgh, then four as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Arizona State. Norvell left Todd Graham's nest to take the Memphis job ahead of the 2016 season, where he went 8-5 in his debut, 10-3 in 2017, 8-6 last season and 11-1 this fall. Norvell's Tigers won the American's West division each of the past three seasons.
Norvell will lead his Memphis squad against Cincinnati today at 3:30pm EST for the second time in as many weeks, this time with the AAC title on the line.
After enjoying an era of unprecedented stability -- two head coaches and no coaching searches for 41 years -- Norvell will be the Seminoles' third head coach in the past four seasons. Relatedly, after going 382-114-4 with three national championships and 20 AP Top 10 finishes from 1976-2016, Florida State is 18-19 since 2017 (including an 11-18 mark against Power 5 competition).
While that might appear but a minor blip from a distance, there's truly no such thing for a Florida State program attempting to compete with Clemson inside its conference and a resurgent Florida inside its state, all while competing for recruits with those two programs and the likes of Alabama, Georgia, LSU and Auburn inside the Sunshine State.
As always, stay tuned to The Scoop for the latest.