ESPN Lists FSU Football's Mike Norvell As Top-5 Head Coach Heading into 2024

More accolades roll in for Florida State's head coach.

Mar 9, 2024; Tallahassee, Florida, USA; Florida State Seminoles head football coach Mike Norvell / Melina Myers-USA TODAY Sports

The Florida State Seminoles have been on a long road to regain success after the waning years of Jimbo Fisher through the lost era of Willie Taggart and into a rebuilt program that has won 23 games the past two seasons, produced a Heisman finalist in Jordan Travis, and won an ACC Title for the first time since 2014.

One of the major reasons for the program's success is the man in charge, head coach Mike Norvell, who took over the program in 2020. While COVID and a culture needing repair got the Paul "Bear" Bryant Coach of the Year Award winner off to a rocky start, it doesn't appear that the program will be slowing down anytime soon.

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ESPN recently released a list of top-10 head coaches leading up to the 2024 season, and Norvell landed at the No. 5 spot for his success in Tallahassee.

How best to quantify Norvell's greatness as a coach? Perhaps it's his use of the transfer portal. While so many other coaches around the country have moaned and complained about the portal in recent years, Norvell has found the perfect formula for using it, landing standouts such as Trey Benson, Jermaine Johnson, Keon Coleman and Jared Verse, among a host of others. Or perhaps it's the way he motivates his players, building a strong internal culture despite the extensive use of the portal.

But if you need one number to truly appreciate Norvell's impact, here it is: 23. Twenty-three wins in the past two years at Florida State, a program that had won just 26 games total in the previous five seasons. The turnaround -- in terms of wins, talent and culture -- is genuinely remarkable.

- David Hale

The culture he's built around the program is tangible and can be measured by the amount of players who have had success at the next level, are still around the team, being spotted at practices and helping recruit and rebuild the Seminoles to their glory days.

The 'Noles sent 12 players to the 2024 NFL Combine and their development shined with players like Braden Fiske and Jared Verse, dominating with six of them finishing in the top-five of their postion groups.

Norvell recently signed a new contract worth over $10 million annually that extends him into 2029 making him one of the highest-paid coaches in the country. It is safe to say that Florida State has gone all in on the former wide receiver turned award-winning coach out of Irving, TX.

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