From Mike Norvell's dramatic rise to Mario Cristobal's first-year flop, we rank Florida's 7 FBS coaches | D'Angelo

The seven FBS coaches in Florida have combined for 368 wins in 51 years at 15 schools entering 2023.

None have been at his current spot more than three years and two debut in the state as a head coach this week. Experience runs from Miami's Mario Cristobal, who is entering his 13th year as a head coach, to rookie head coach Alex Golesh of USF.

All have had varying degrees of success - from Gus Malzahn playing in the BCS title game while at Auburn to four others winning at least one conference championship.

This group enters 2024 with expectations ranging from FSU's preseason Top 10 ranking to USF looking to win more than one game.

Here are the seven and how we rank them in state:

1. Mike Norvell, FSU

Few coaches in the country turned around a program quite like Norvell did in 2022. FSU (10-3) won two more games in 2022 as it did in Norvell's first two seasons combined, and clearly regained supremacy in the state.

The Seminoles were in the final rankings for the first time in seven seasons, finishing No. 11. Having gone from the hot seat to long-term security, Norvell now has a target on his back with a Heisman Trophy candidate in QB Jordan Travis, a strong defense led by Jared Verse, and expectations as high as they've been in a decade.

2. Gus Malzahn, UCF

With the Knights joining the Big 12, Malzahn is back in the Power Five where he spent eight seasons as the Auburn coach, averaging 8.5 wins a year and coming within 13 seconds of winning the 2013 national championship. Malzahn has found life after the SEC and is enjoying his second act in Orlando. The Knights won nine games in each of Malzahn's first two years, after a 6-4 finish in the final season under Josh Heupel. But the competition increases dramatically in the Big 12 with games against Kansas State, Baylor, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State and Texas Tech, among others.

3. Tom Herman, FAU

Herman's ranking is based on what we know from his previous two stops, and that's a coach who won more than 70 percent of his games in six seasons as a head coach (two at Houston, four at Texas), is 5-0 in bowls and has placed teams in the final AP Top 25 four times, more than any other coach in the state not named Gus Malzahn.Herman was fired after four winning seasons at Texas and was replaced by Steve Sarkisian, who was 5-7 his first year. He returns after two years away from the college game, other than being a television analyst, and the Owls are looking for a Lane Kiffin-like turnaround after 15 wins in Willie Taggart's three years.

4. Billy Napier, Florida

Hard to chose who was the bigger flop in Year 1 at his school: Miami's Mario Cristobal or Napier. In Napier's favor, the Gators at least equaled their 2021 record (6-7) against a schedule that included six teams ranked at the time of the game. And they were competitive against Florida State (the bar is low in Gainesville these days). Napier, though, could not take advantage of a quarterback who was the fourth overall pick in the NFL Draft (Anthony Richardson) and he still has to prove he can handle the pressure of big-time football after spending four years at Louisiana before taking over at Florida.

5. Mario Cristobal, Miami

After four winning seasons at Oregon, Cristobal returned to his alma mater and took essentially the same group that played hard and won five of its final six games under Manny Diaz and turned it into a 5-7 team. He then played revisionist history, taking no responsibility for his failures, and blaming the culture under Diaz. Cristobal now is saying that first year "had to happen." Yet, never have we seen a Miami team quit at home so often as we did last year, losing four games by an average of 26.5 points. And Diaz had nothing to do with the seven assistant coaches who departed after one year. No one in the state got less bang for its buck last season than UM.

6. Mike MacIntyre, FIU

This is MacIntyre's 11th season as a head coach and a pattern developed in his previous two stops should give the Panthers hope. San Jose State was 1-12 in 2010, his first year as a head coach, and two years later won 10 games. Colorado was 2-10 in 2014, his second year in Boulder, and two years later won 10 games.

FIU was 4-8 last season, MacIntyre's first year, after winning one game in 2021. If history repeats itself, the Panthers could be in for a major breakthrough in 2024.

More: Recruiting: How state of Florida's classes stack up six months before early signing period

7. Alex Golesh, USF

Nobody knows what kind of head coach Golesh will make, but we do know this about the man born in Moscow (Russia, not Idaho) who grew up in Dublin (Ohio, not Ireland) ... he has an impressive resume. Golesh's offense at Tennessee (he was the coordinator the last two years) led the nation in scoring and total offense in 2022, he was a finalist for the Broyles Award given to the nation's top assistant coach and he was named to CBS Sports' "Top 15 Coaches Under 40" list in April. He takes over a program coming off a 1-11 season and one that has won four games the last three years. It can only get better.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: FSU's Mike Norvell tops rankings of Florida's college football coaches