Florida State president listened to everyone before firing Mike Norvell. Even social media - USA Today
Mike Norvell was fired as Florida State's football coach on Sunday, Nov. 1, one day after a 36-24 home loss to Clemson dropped the Seminoles to 3-5 this season under their seventh-year head coach.
One of the men tasked with ousting him said the decision to move on from Norvell didn't come just from university power-brokers.
Speaking with reporters hours after Norvell was sacked, Florida State president Richard McCullough delved into the factors that contributed to the move and discussed the voices that were taken into consideration when evaluating how to proceed with the future of a proud program looking to navigate the modern college football landscape.
To McCullough, that group of voices includes social media.
"Of course, we listen to everything that people are saying; all of you, we listen to the fans, even the people on social media," McCullough said. "I even read that. I don't know why I do that. I read all the emails. I respond to them if we can. I talk to my trustees. I talk to my biggest boosters and donors. I talk to football staff. I talk to other presidents at other universities that have done this kind of stuff before."
Much of what he encountered on social media was undoubtedly supportive of getting rid of Norvell, who led Florida State to an undefeated regular season in 2023 before going 10-22 since the start of the 2024 season. He didn't even have to limit his research to the internet: Before last Saturday's loss to Clemson, a plane flew over Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee, Florida calling for Norvell's firing.
Norvell entered this season on one of the hottest seats in college football. That heat momentarily cooled off after a 3-2 start capped off by a 38-7 thrashing of Virginia. Since then, the Seminoles have lost three consecutive games. Norvell is owed a buyout of roughly $50 million, though there's offset language in his contract that chips away at what the school has to pay him should the 45-year-old coach get a new job elsewhere.
The move comes at a critical time for Florida State. The Seminoles are one of the most decorated programs in the sport over the past 40 years, but outside of a two-year window in the middle of Norvell's tenure, from 2022-23, they've largely struggled over the past decade, going 59-59 since the start of the 2017 season.
Those struggles have come as their conference, the ACC, is on increasingly tenuous footing, with some of the conference's biggest brands, including Florida State, publicly expressing interest in leaving the league.
It's one of many reasons why McCullough understands the weight of what awaits him and other school leaders as they look to replace Norvell.
"This is a very complicated decision," McCullough said. "Obviously we've been evaluating this for a very long time, and you know this is a big business decision. It's the future, the fate of Florida State football. It's the legacy that we have at Florida State and trying to get it right. And that demands excellence on the field and a trajectory going in the right direction. I just did not see that trajectory, and yesterday was a bit of a defining moment for me."
"You have to take into account, including financial, everything from financial to the fan base and everything in between," McCullough later added. "We're all aligned on our decision here. At the end of the day, I'm the president of the university, and I make the decision. And that was the decision that I made."
