Mike Bianchi: Like Bobby Bowden, Mike Norvell has saved FSU’s program

Before we look ahead, let’s travel back in time to coach Mike Norvell’s very first game at Florida State when the Seminoles played in a nearly empty home stadium during the pandemic and lost to two-touchdown underdog Georgia Tech 16-13 in an abysmally dreary, depressing game.

The Seminoles were 3-6 during Norvell’s COVID-curtailed first season, and the athletic department was in disarray. Norvell’s predecessor, Willie Taggart, was a disaster and the university fired him not even two seasons into his tenure and paid him $20 million to buy out his contract. Season-ticket holders were bailing on the program by the thousands and the athletic department was millions of dollars in debt.

Now let’s fast-forward to Saturday when the undefeated No. 4-ranked Seminoles annihilated Syracuse 41-3 in front of a second-consecutive sellout crowd of 79,560 fans who watched their high-flying team score 30 or more points for the 12th straight game.

When Norvell was named Florida State’s coach, I wrote that he was the Seminoles’ most important hire since Bobby Bowden himself. And now look what he’s done. Like Bobby himself, Norvell has saved FSU’s program from national irrelevance and financial calamity.

It should tell you something about the mindset of FSU’s athletic leaders that they now have the confidence to tell fans that there is going to be a massive increase in season-ticket prices/booster contributions in the next couple of years in order to finance the upcoming luxurious upgrades to Doak Campbell Stadium.

You can hit up fans for more money when you’re not only winning but you’re winning with one of the most exciting, talented teams in the country.

You’re winning with a quarterback like Jordan Travis, who shook off a minor injury to his non-throwing hand on Saturday and ran for two scores, threw for another and completed 23 of 37 passes for 284 yards. In the first half, when Syracuse stopped FSU twice on fourth down, a visibly frustrated Travis challenged himself and his teammates to do better, play better, be better.

“Jordan’s the ultimate competitor,” Norvell said. “He expects perfection out of himself. He wants to do everything at an elite level. He has taken ownership of this offense.”

So, too, has wide receiver Keon Coleman, the transfer from Michigan State who is turning into a first-round NFL draft pick right before our very eyes. His one-handed grab for a 27-yard gain that set up FSU’s first touchdown was unreal, and he would end up with nine catches for 140 yards, including a 58-yard TD pass. And oh, by the way, he also had a 72-yard punt return.

When asked what he was thinking when Coleman extended upward and nabbed the ball with one hand on FSU’s first drive, Norvell said incredulously, “I said to myself, ‘Wow!’ … That’s as good a catch as you’re going to see. That’s what makes great players great. They expect to make plays like that.”

Said Syracuse coach Dino Babers when asked about the athletically freakish 6-foot-4, 215-pound Coleman: “God was showing off when he made him.”

Offensively and defensively (the Seminoles outgained Syracuse 535-261), this was unquestionably FSU’s most dominant performance since beating LSU in the season-opener in Orlando. Since then, the Seminoles have continued to win but not without some near-disasters.

They blew a 31-10 second-half lead at Boston College and barely held on to win 31-29. A monumental 31-24 overtime victory at Clemson might have turned out differently if Clemson’s kicker Jonathan Weitz hadn’t missed a potential game-winning 29-yarder near the end of regulation.

But, hey, a win is a win is a win. Obviously, strange things happen in college football, as we’ve seen multiple times this season. We saw it when UCF led Baylor 35-7 midway through the third quarter and ended up losing the game. We saw it Friday night when Colorado led 1-win Stanford 29-0 at halftime and ended up losing the game 46-43. (Hey, maybe Coach Prime should change his name to Eion — no “D”). And, yes, we saw it last week when Miami coach Mario Cristobal committed one of the biggest coaching blunders in recent memory by failing to have his offense take a knee and run out the clock against Georgia Tech, leading the Hurricanes to their first defeat of the season.

Instead of finding ways to lose, Norvell’s Seminoles are finding ways to win. And, in the process, he has resuscitated the athletic program and reinvigorated fans and boosters. He’s not only made the Seminoles relevant again; he’s made them likable again.

Even though the Jimbo Fisher/Jameis Winston Seminoles won the national title back in 2013; Fisher’s arrogance made him unpopular within his own athletic department and Winston, of course, was embroiled in a scandalous sexual assault criminal investigation.

In contrast, this FSU team is one you can wrap your arms around. Norvell, like Bowden, is seemingly beloved by everybody — even the media members who cover him. He’s one of the few college football head coaches who invites the press in to watch practice and who makes himself available to the media multiple times a week.

It seemed only appropriate on Saturday that FSU honored Bowden’s 1993 national championship team — a team that featured Seminole legends such as Charlie Ward, Derrick Brooks and Warrick Dunn.

Call me crazy, but it’s starting to feel more and more like FSU’s first national championship team was in the stadium on Saturday cheering on what may well be FSU’s next national championship team.