TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 With 34 seconds left in Saturday night\u2019s homecoming shellacking of Wake Forest, Florida State president Richard McCullough and board of trustees chairperson Peter Collins bro-hugged in their garnet jackets just past the north end zone.<\/p>\n
FSU\u2019s 42-7 blowout win means the two most powerful people at FSU won\u2019t have to answer the $55 million question \u2014 whether to fire Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell \u2014 for at least another week.<\/p>\n
Norvell\u2019s future has been hanging over the Seminoles and what\u2019s already one of the wildest coaching carousels in college football history since FSU\u2019s stunning loss at Stanford two weeks ago. Athletic director Michael Alford\u2019s promise of a \u201ccomprehensive assessment of the football program\u201d at season\u2019s end<\/a> merely paused the chatter.<\/p>\n Twelve days after that statement, Norvell\u2019s Noles crushed the Demon Deacons to snap a nine-game ACC losing streak (dating back to last year) and climb to 4-4 overall.<\/p>\n \u201cI hate that, all the stuff,\u201d FSU quarterback Tommy Castellanos said. \u201cFire coach? Nah, nah. Coach Norvell\u2019s been absolutely awesome. \u2026 I\u2019m glad we got that done for him.\u201d<\/p>\n What Castellanos and his teammates accomplished for their embattled sixth-year coach was one of the better all-around performances of Norvell\u2019s tenure. FSU shredded a stellar defense and held one of the ACC\u2019s most electric players, Demond Claiborne, to 43 total yards.<\/p>\n The performance addressed arguably the biggest long-term concern around Norvell: middling high school recruiting. One of his blue-chip 2023 signees, Samuel Singleton Jr., had a breakout game with 91 rushing yards and a touchdown. Another prep recruit, Ja\u2019Bril Rawls, ended Florida State\u2019s 12-game drought without a fumble recovery against a Football Bowl Subdivision opponent. Three-star freshman Mandrell Desir had a sack to end the first half.<\/p>\n The intangible improvements shouldn\u2019t be overlooked, either, from a bench that never withered to the way FSU answered when it could have cracked early in the second half. After the Seminoles committed a fourth-and-7 pass interference to give the Demon Deacons the ball near the red zone, FSU rallied. The Noles capitalized on a bad snap by recovering the fumble and scored seven plays later. The outcome was never in doubt after that.<\/p>\n \u201cThey answered the call,\u201d Norvell said.<\/p>\n So, for that matter, did the fan base. Six years ago, Norvell\u2019s predecessor Willie Taggart faced a similarly dire situation at homecoming. His lopsided win over Syracuse was played in front of almost 30,000 empty seats. The apathy played into his firing eight days later.<\/p>\n Saturday\u2019s announced attendance was solid (63,677), despite social media chatter about a potential boycott and a muted pregame tailgating scene. Norvell wasn\u2019t jeered, unlike the now-former coach at rival Florida. Billy Napier was booed at home last month on his way into the tunnel after a win over Mississippi State<\/a> in what became his final game. Norvell still pumped up a lively crowd as he threw a game ball into the stands.<\/p>\n But much work remains because of how rocky his tenure has been. Taggart was fired six years ago Monday with a 9-12 record over 21 games. Norvell\u2019s record over his past 21 games: 6-15.<\/p>\n Bobby Bowden lost 13 of his last 28 games before getting pushed into retirement at the end of the 2009 regular season. Norvell has lost 15 of his past 28, and he\u2019s not Bobby Bowden.<\/p>\n Since 1985, the Seminoles have lost only five times when favored by more than 17 points, according to OddsShark\u2019s betting database and newspaper archives. Two were against future NFL stars (Southern Miss\u2019 Brett Favre and NC State\u2019s Philip Rivers). FSU quarterback Chris Weinke threw six interceptions in another. The final two: a 2021 home upset by Jacksonville State and last month\u2019s loss at Stanford. That means Norvell is responsible for arguably FSU\u2019s two worst losses of the past 40 years \u2014 and neither happened during last year\u2019s 2-10 debacle.<\/p>\n The most recent disappointment was grim enough that a booster called it a \u201cbreaking point\u201d in an email to McCullough.<\/p>\n \u201cTo continue forward with the status quo means we\u2019ve lowered our standard and are content with mediocrity,\u201d the booster (whose name was redacted) wrote in an email obtained via public records request.<\/p>\n An 8-4 record \u2014 which Norvell will obtain if he wins out \u2014 is mediocre for a program that has won three national championships. But crushing a competent Wake Forest team is several steps above that. It\u2019s what good teams and programs are supposed to do.<\/p>\n Whether FSU is a good enough team and program to justify giving Norvell a seventh season remains an open question at the heart of the Seminoles\u2019 $55 million quandary. Norvell had a three-game losing streak in 2022 that fueled uncertainty about his future; he rallied to win his next five, then beat Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl for a 10-win season that helped springboard FSU into its ACC title run the next fall.<\/p>\n The rest of the schedule is manageable, starting next week on the road against the worst Clemson team<\/a> he has faced. Every other remaining game (Virginia Tech, at NC State, at Florida) is both winnable and losable for a team that has shown little consistency.<\/p>\n