{"id":902597,"date":"2026-11-01T22:46:11","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T22:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/902597\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T22:46:11","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T22:46:11","slug":"florida-state-fires-mike-norvell-after-6-plus-seasons-and-takes-on-his-nearly-50m-buyout","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/902597\/","title":{"rendered":"Florida State fires Mike Norvell after 6-plus seasons and takes on his nearly $50M buyout"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/92178857-385b-4a55-988e-60bee12a6c3c_1489699362.jpg\" width=\"48\" height=\"48\" alt=\"Associated Press\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"0\">Video above: Week 11 Friday night high school football scores and highlights<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"1\">Florida State fired coach Mike Norvell on Sunday, roughly 12 hours after a home loss to Clemson and despite a buyout of roughly $50 million that is among the largest in college football history.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"2\">Norvell and the Seminoles are 10-22 since the start of the 2024 season, and Norvell\u2019s hand-picked quarterbacks \u2014 DJ Uiagalelei, Tommy Castellanos and Ashton Daniels \u2014 all struggled with accuracy.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"3\">The latest: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/sports\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sports coverage from WPBF 25 News<\/a><\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"4\">\u201cWe have made the decision to change the leadership of our football program,\u201d school president Richard McCullough said. \u201cWe thank Mike Norvell for his commitment and service to Florida State and wish him and his family the very best. We understand the deep passion of Seminole fans and share their high expectations for this program.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"6\">Assistant coach Rick Stockstill was named interim head coach while a search for Norvell\u2019s successor plays out.<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ba1600ed-a845-42a7-9ddb-a5332c78b85c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" draggable=\"true\" class=\"css-fphibt\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Getty ImagesDon Juan Moore<\/p>\n<p>TALLAHASSEE, FL &#8211; OCTOBER 31: Head Coach Mike Norvell of the Florida State Seminoles on the sidelines during the second half of the game against the Clemson Tigers at Doak S. Campbell Stadium on Bobby Bowden Field on October 31, 2026 in Tallahassee, Florida. (Photo by Don Juan Moore\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p><img src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/11\/ba1600ed-a845-42a7-9ddb-a5332c78b85c.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"100%\" height=\"auto\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"css-hr9vxw\"\/><\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"8\">Florida State is 1-5 against Power Four programs this fall, including Saturday\u2019s <a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/tait-reynolds-clemson-florida-state-football-score-4e21a4a54eb09725f05d2cf2f703cde8\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">36-24 loss to Clemson<\/a> in which the Seminoles were a 5-point favorite. The Seminoles have not defeated one of their main three rivals \u2014 Miami, Florida or Clemson \u2014 since the 2023 season.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"9\">Norvell went 41-39 in his six-plus seasons in Tallahassee, including stunning losses to then-lower-division Jacksonville State in 2021 and Memphis in 2024. Norvell was 24-30 in Atlantic Coast Conference games since 2020. His team\u2019s incredible run three years ago to a 13-0 record \u2014 only to be <a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/college-football-playoff-cfp-8b9db687b7cf159779930298d2f1a388\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">left out of the College Football Playoff<\/a> \u2014 seems long ago now.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"10\">Get the latest sports updates with the WPBF 25 News app. You can download it <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wpbf.com\/article\/get-wpbf-25-news-on-the-go\/999316\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"12\">His buyout is roughly $47 million, which is 85% of his remaining salary through the end of his contract that runs through the 2031 season. His contract does include offset language that would mitigate some of the buyout if he lands another job. Norvell was scheduled to make $10.3 million in 2026. Buying out his assistants would push the buyout far past $50 million.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"13\">The combined buyouts for Maryland\u2019s Mike Locksley, N.C. State\u2019s Dave Doeren and Baylor\u2019s Dave Aranda are less than Norvell\u2019s total. Florida State\u2019s opening is now the fourth among Power Four schools.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"15\">Florida State (3-5, 1-4 ACC) plays at Boston College (4-4, 2-3) on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"16\">Even with a competitive player-acquisition budget compared to ACC schools, Florida State won just five Power Four games in the last 2 1\/2 seasons. The Seminoles suffered back-to-back losing seasons and are scrambling to become bowl eligible this fall with an interim head coach. The school <a data-gtm-enhancement-style=\"LinkEnhancementA\" href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/florida-state-ad-fired-michael-alford-abc96f2a16e424e5c17ffc6509dd64d6\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fired athletic director Michael Alford<\/a> in mid-September.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"17\">McCullough issued a statement last Tuesday acknowledging fans\u2019 frustration.<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"18\">\u201cWe are not asking you to ignore the results,\u201d McCullough wrote. \u201cWe are committed to changing them. And we are not asking you to believe that everything is fine. We know it isn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-node-id=\"19\">Florida State has mostly struggled since 2015, going 44-49 under Jimbo Fisher, Willie Taggart and Norvell. The \u2018Noles did win 19 consecutive games between the middle of the 2022 season and the ACC title game in December 2023, a stretch that landed Norvell a new contract.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2014 Video above: Week 11 Friday night high school football scores and highlights Florida State fired&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":902598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,59358,5695,377922,4133,19490,377917,451,377919,377923,217731,377924,3,377918,377920,5190,377921,11410,452,453,42371],"class_list":["post-902597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-buyout","tag-clemson","tag-coach-mike-norvell","tag-contract","tag-fall","tag-florida-state-fires-mike-norvell-after-6-plus-seasons-and-takes-on-his-nearly-50m-buyout","tag-headlines","tag-highlight-florida-state","tag-home-loss","tag-interim-head-coach","tag-mccullough","tag-news","tag-norvell","tag-power-four-program","tag-season","tag-seminole-fan","tag-seminoles","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-wpbf"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=902597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/902597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/902598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=902597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=902597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=902597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}