Plane flies ‘Fire Novell’ banner, misspelling FSU coach’s name
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A plane was flying high above Doak Campbell Stadium on Saturday afternoon, carrying a message of scorn for Florida State head coach Mike Norvell, who is on the heat seat in Tallahassee as the 2026 season heads toward November.
But on the final day of October, on Halloween, it was an appropriately scary premonition that the plane’s banner carried with it. With the Seminoles getting ready to host ACC rival Clemson on Halloween night (7 p.m. ET, ACC Network) and with the Noles lugging a 3-4 record and 1-3 in the conference into the Week 9 showdown, that plane above Tallahassee was simply trying to send a message that Norvell should be shown the door.
Message sent? Well, sort of.
The plane’s banner read: “FSU: Fire Novell”
It had the name “Peter Collins” attached to it, presumably the name of the person who was trying to send the message to the FSU higher-ups that “Novell,” or Norvell, isn’t the long-term answer in Tallahassee.
If only there wasn’t really an ‘r’ in Norvell’s last name. Collins, or whoever made that plane banner, needed a better editor before taking flight, as it turned out.
Logan B. Robinson, the founder and owner of NoleGameday, provided this video of the banner that was extremely revealing in its meaning and comically telling at the same time:
Meanwhile, Norvell will try to push Florida State to .500 overall with a big win in primetime over another underachieving former ACC powerhouse in Clemson, which is just 4-3 overall going into Saturday night’s showdown.
By kickoff time on Saturday night, who knows if that plane banner’s spelling of FSU’s head coach’s last name will have been corrected.
Either way, the banner’s message was sent, loud and clear, if not totally correct.
Cory Nightingale, a former sportswriter and sports editor at the Miami Herald and Palm Beach Post, is a South Florida-based freelance writer who covers Alabama for SaturdayDownSouth.com.
