High School

What Florida State coach Mike Norvell, Georgia high school football fans saw in Milton's 42-24 win at Gainesville

For the second straight week Norvell lands in helicopter, and though his star 4-star receiver CJ Wiley was relatively quiet, there was plenty more eye candy on display

Mitch Stephens

Florida State football coach Mike Norvell had plenty to watch in Milton's 42-24 victory at Gainesville Friday.
Florida State football coach Mike Norvell had plenty to watch in Milton's 42-24 victory at Gainesville Friday. / Courtesy photo: NFHS

CJ Wiley, Milton's star wide receiver and a Florida State commit, didn't have his most productive game.

But his future coach Mike Norvell, who showed up near a high school game via a hellicopter for a second straight week, still had plenty to look at during Milton's highly entertaining 42-24 victory at Gainesville.

* Among the committed standouts, Miami-bound quarterback Luke Nickel was terrific completing 18 of 31 for 286 yards and three touchdowns (statistics courtesy of WDUN) for Milton.

* His teammate and Georgia-bound tight end Ethan Barbour was down right dominating with touchdown grabs of 55 and 39 yards. He finished with more than 150 yards receiving.

* Among the uncommitted Norvell might take a look at was Milton 5-foot-11, 195-pound senior tailback TJ Lester, the son of late former NFL running back Tim Lester, rushed for 139 yards, all but 13 coming after halftime when he scored two touchdowns.

One was a 25-yarder that has to be seen to be believed.

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* The other potential fantastic find was Gainesville sophomore quarterback Kharim Higley, a speedy 5-foot-11, 180-pounder who threw for 232 yards and one touchdown and added a terrific 39-yard touchdown run, outracing a speedy secondary.

Considering Milton is the No. 6 team in the country, No. 1 in Georgia, according to SBLive Sports, and that the Eagles are the defending state 7-A champion, the victory wasn't a big surprise. But it was the first regional loss for Gainesville under coach Josh Niblett since he took over in 2022.

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Mitch Stephens
MITCH STEPHENS

Mitch Stephens is a senior editor at SBLive Sports for California, a state he's covered high school sports since 1984. He won multiple CNPA and CPSWA writing awards with the Contra Costa Times, San Francisco Chronicle and MaxPreps.com before joining the SBLive staff in 2022. He's covered the beat nationally since 2007, profiling such athletes as Derrick Henry, Paige Bueckers, Patrick Mahomes, Sabrina Ionescu, Jayson Tatum, Chiney Ogwumike, Jeremy Lin and Najee Harris as preps. You can reach him at mitch@scorebooklive.com.

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