Florida State AD remains confident in Mike Norvell after 0-2 start
By Andrew Olson
Published:
Florida State athletic director Mike Alford is not worried about the program’s outlook under Mike Norvell after a rough start to the season.
Alford, like most college football observers, wasn’t expecting the Seminoles to begin the 2024 season 0-2 with losses to Georgia Tech and Boston College.
“It’s hard,” Alford told CBS Sports. “I didn’t think we’d be here but we are.”
FSU’s 0-2 start after beginning the season in the top 10 of the preseason AP poll has made some fans openly ponder if Norvell essentially “caught lightning in a bottle” with his 2022 and ’23 teams that made effective use of the transfer portal.
Norvell is in his fifth season at Florida State. FSU went 23-4 in Years 3 and 4 (2022-23). Outside of those 2 seasons, however, Norvell has an 8-15 record coaching the Noles.
In his comments to Dennis Dodd, Alford expressed that he remains confident in Norvell, saying there’s no “external pushback” on the coach.
“He’ll get it fixed. We have a great partnership,” Alford told CBS Sports. “Things aren’t going the way we thought they would.
“We’ll get it turned around. It’s football. It happens. When you see the hard work the culture behind the scenes, the kids doing the right things.”
Though the Seminoles have played ugly in their first two games, Alford says practice is a different story.
“A lot of season left. We believe in the guys,” Alford said. “It’d be one thing going to practice [and the] body language wasn’t there. Work ethic [wasn’t there]. That would be different. Something’s not clicking but the effort is there, at least at practice.
“Everything you’re seeing is positive. But that’s gotta translate to the game.”
Having played in both Week 0 (Georgia Tech in Dublin) and Week 1 (Boston College at home), Florida State is getting an early bye in Week 2. the next game on the Seminoles’ schedule happens to be Memphis, Norvell’s former team. In 4 seasons, Norvell posted a 38-15 record at Memphis, leading the Tigers to an AAC title and trip to a New Year’s Six bowl in his final season before taking the FSU job.
Andrew writes about sports to fund his love of live music and collection of concert posters. He strongly endorses the Hall of Fame campaigns of Fred Taylor and Andruw Jones.
