'We're All Cut Out Of The Same Cloth' ... FSU OL Coach Herb Hand On Philosophy Of Mike Norvell, Gus Malzahn

New Florida State offensive line coach Herb Hand spoke to the media on Tuesday and shared his readiness to lead the Seminoles in the trenches.

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New Florida State offensive line coach Herb Hand spoke to the media as the 2025 spring season is rapidly approaching. Coach Hand followed former UCF head coach Gus Malzahn to Tallahassee, and the two also worked together at Tulsa while Mike Norvell was a grad assistant there as well. They are now all coaching together again, this time with Norvell as the top man.

Below are some of the notable answers he provided in his 21-minute media appearance.

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When asked about his relationship with Norvell, Hand joked about how long it's been since the two were together at Tulsa. He believes that the two are cut from the same cloth and focused on success off the field as much as they are on the field.

“Well, the familiarity with Coach Norvell and Coach Malzahn, goes back, golly, scary thought, but it’s almost 20 years now to when we were at Tulsa together," Hand said. "And Gus and I were co-offensive coordinators then and Mike started out as a graduate assistant and then quickly moved up the ranks to be our wide receiver coach. And so, we've known each other for a long time."

"Obviously, I've worked with Gus at several stops. This is just the second time working with Mike. But, you know, just super excited to get back with those guys. And we're all cut out of the same cloth, if you will, we believe in the same things, philosophically from an offensive perspective, as well as philosophically when it comes to relationships with people, because there's a business aspect to what we do," Hand continued. "This is still about the people you do it with. And you know, you never want to lose sight of that. And I know that that's ultra-important to coach Norvell, and it's ultra-important to me that we have great relationships as well as Mike said, this philosophically, the familiarity is awesome.”

As far as what he's looking for in prospective offensive linemen, it's a little different depending on if the player is a transfer or just coming out of high school. Hand's evaluation starts at flexibility and continues with a myriad of traits including physicality, footwork, and love of the game. The tough part when you involve the transfer portal is that the process is so swift that coaches are unable to build a deep relationship like they would over the years with a prep prospect.

“I can be up here for a while. But no, in high school linemen, there's certain attributes that you want to be able to see on film. First off, right, starts with flexibility, the ability to bend. You know sometimes it gets overlooked with guys, because guys are big and strong and physical and all that stuff. But if you can't bend, you can't play. So we always look at that," Hand said. "We look at guys who are enjoying the physicality of the game. You can tell they like the contact. They don't shy away from the contact. Guys who can move their feet, okay? You know, as a coach, my job is to make sure they're moving their feet in the right direction, but guys that can play quick on their feet. They're not heavy-footed. You like to have guys that are heavy-handed, okay? That when they strike people, they can punch and impact the person you know, in a positive manner for the offense and a negative manner for the individual taking the strike. But they can impact the person so they play heavy-handed.

"Ultimately, what we're looking for is guys who can, can make an impact at the line of scrimmage, okay, that can move people that can dent the defense, but guys who are also athletic enough to play in space, because, you know, there's so much spatial blocking that takes place, whether it's in pass protection or whether it's in, you know, some of our screens, reverses, our zone schemes where we have to climb up and block second and third level defenders, so they have to be able to play in space as well. I know that's quite a there's a lot," Hand continued. "There's a laundry list of things that you look for, but if you narrowed it down to those two things, can they impact the line of scrimmage, move people dead to defense, and can they play in space? Those would be the two overrating factors. And then they got to love football. They have to love football, you know. And that takes, you got to get to know somebody, you know."

"The challenge is, you know, on your second part of your question about the transfer portal is, sometimes it feels like the transfer portal is speed dating. I mean, you don't have the, you don't have the opportunity or luxury, I guess maybe, of getting to know somebody that you do in high school recruiting, where you start, you know, you identify somebody when they're a freshman or a sophomore in high school, and you build a relationship with them over years, right? And then in the portal era, you know, that years have turned into minutes, hours that you get to spend with them, so but also, in the portal era, there's times where you have relationships with guys that choose to go somewhere else, or you wind up somewhere else. You know what I mean?" Hand added. "Like my situation here. I'm at a new school, but I have relationships with guys that are that are long-standing. And if a guy like that goes into the portal, you feel like you have a great relationship with them, that's a plus. But there's also the aspect of trying to evaluate guys and making sure that they’re right fits, not only from a football perspective but just from a program perspective and a unit perspective when it comes to the offensive line that they’re right fits, that is a challenge in the time constraints that you have with the portal right now.”

Hand also spoke about evaluating players he’s coached in the past (but are still playing currently) versus players he hasn’t coached who are in the portal. He believes it's all about doing the research to make an educated decision.

“I think that's a great question, by the way, because you know, when you look at guys that are coming out in the portal, the common theme that you hear is that when the guy goes in the transfer portal, they're looking for basically two things, right, which is opportunity and development. And certainly, the opportunity piece is a lot easier to evaluate because, hey, if you've got a need, right, and you can go out, you can fill your need with a guy that you're watching," Hand said. "Okay, well, this guy's, you know, pretty good player on film, and you know you feel good about – you do the research on him, you find out who he is as a person as best you can. You're trying to dot your Is and cross your Ts on all that stuff. But opportunity is just filling needs. Okay? So, if we have needs, we gotta go fill those needs. And now the development piece, that's where you get into the details of everything.”

Check out everything Hand had to say below.

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