Alabama Beat Writer Insinuates Mike Norvell Was Crimson Tide's Top Choice For Coaching Vacancy

Norvell received a massive contract extension on Friday after his name was brought up in the Alabama coaching search.

Alabama beat writer Mike Rodak for Bama247 has insinuated that Florida State head coach Mike Norvell was the frontrunner for the Crimson Tide’s head coaching vacancy after the retirement of Nick Saban.

The Crimson Tide gave the nod to now-former Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer on Friday to the replace seven-time national champion.

In an appearance on SiriusXM’s “College Football Sunday” program, Rodak gave some insight regarding how Alabama Athletic Director Greg Byrne answered questions concerning the Crimson Tide’s head coach hiring process.

“The question that he got was, was Kalen DeBoer your first choice? I don’t think any AD is going to answer one way or the other on that one, especially if it’s the guy that wasn’t your first choice,” said Rodak.

"And Byrne kind of dodged the question in terms of not even really trying to make the claim that he was, and I think we realized just kind of through those 49 hours that there were certainly other names out there. I think the realest one was probably Mike Norvell [with] everything that I’ve heard," Rodak continued.

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The Bama beat writer also pointed to Mike Norvell’s lucrative and lengthy contract extension as evidence that Alabama made a concerted effort to snag the Florida State head coach.

“Obviously the contract I think on his end was very correlated with the Alabama coaching search. I don’t know if the Dan Lanning and Steve Sarkisian [contract renegotiations] were as much as a direct result of that,” Rodak stated.

Florida State University committed Norvell to an $80+ million deal to keep him in Tallahassee for at least eight more years. NoleGameday has made a public records request to attain the exact terms of the deal.

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