How Mike Norvell keeps Florida State moving forward after a

David Hale, ESPN

• Personnel WriterDec 30, 2023, 07:00 AM ET Close ACC reporter.Joined ESPN in 2012.
• Graduate of the University of Delaware.DANIA BEACH, Fla.– There’s

a minute, a flash, really, just as the weight of the College Playoff Committee’s verdict takes hold for the remainder of the Florida State group, that it seems as if the impenetrable wall of optimism and interest that is Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell might finally collapse.In the video from the group’s watch celebration Dec. 3, which was broadcast on national TV following the committee’s most controversial choice in its 10-year history, Norvell is seated center frame, surrounded by his players, consisting of hurt QB Jordan Travis simply a few feet away. The statement is made. Groans echo through the space. Travis covers his confront with a towel. Gamers turn to each other in shock. Norvell is still.He taps the suggestions of his fingers together. He tilts his head downward. It’s instantly obvious he was completely unprepared for this possibility, and it’s not tough to envision a war of will roiling in his mind between the totally reasonable furor that need to’ve been his natural response and the measured decision that has actually become his stock-in-trade through 4 years leading this program.This is the minute it ought to come– the eruption, the anger, the outrage,

the flurry of epithets directed at a distant group of individuals who upended his worldview, the worldview he had actually offered to this group for many years, the one that had actually carried Florida State to 19 straight wins and an undefeated season.But Norvell catches himself.Editor’s Picks 2 Related He says absolutely nothing. He turns and takes a look at his players

. He is still and quiet for almost 10

seconds, though it feels so much longer.And then he stands up, and he resolves his players.”This has been the most challenging number of weeks of training I have actually ever had,”Norvell would say 17 days later,

the feeling still raw in his voice.The difficulty got

larger after that minute. Almost two dozen crucial contributors from this season have opted out, entered the transfer website or been sidelined with an injury.

Florida State will not bet a championship game, however it will play the two-time protecting champs in Georgia in the Capital One Orange Bowl(4 p.m. ET on ESPN )with a third-string QB and a host of new faces at the offensive skill positions. Moreover, Florida State will take the next step– the last action of the 2023 season– knowing the ethos that was the foundation of this year’s 12-0 season was taken apart in a single moment.And yet, for those who remain at Florida State, the motivation to move on can be found in those 10 seconds of silence when Norvell decided to fulfill the most difficult minute of his coaching profession not with anger but with resolve.In the after-effects

of the most affordable point of his training career, Norvell is doubling down on what he’s always preached.”I haven’t seen Mike blink at all,” defensive planner Adam Fuller said. Mike Norvell kept his cool– on the outdoors– when FSU didn’t make the College Football Playoff.

AP Photo/Lynne Sladky HE’S STILL ANGRY. He’ll constantly be upset, he said.But before FSU’s title

hopes were rushed, Norvell began every day with an energetic “Good early morning!”and, typically, ended it the very same method– a tongue-in-cheek” Excellent morning! “at 11 p.m., an in-joke to

show just how constant he is.So even if he’s still flaring over the committee’s decision, each new day at FSU begins the very same way.” You get the’Excellent early morning!’ since he’s the very same Coach Norvell every day, “linebacker Kalen DeLoach said.”That’s him, 365 days a year.”There are other quirks of the Norvell experience that have been duplicated to the point of fixation over the previous few years at Florida State.There’s the “CLIMB”mantra– an acronym for dedication, little things, intensity, mental toughness, brotherhood– which is etched over a photo of a mountain’s peak that awaits his workplace. It’s about development and progress, with the implication that today’s improvement is more crucial than the place where yesterday ended.There’s the tagline he’s used all season–” for years, actually, “offending lineman Maurice Smith stated– that”all we got is all we require.”In the early days at Florida State, it was a persistence that Florida State sufficed to win, in spite of frustrating proof to the contrary on the field, but it’s progressed as the Seminoles have actually crept ever higher on their journey, and it now works as a badge of defiance, less about persuading the guys inside the locker space that they suffice and more about firmly insisting to the world outside that it’s overlooked something essential.And there’s the old trope about controlling what you can manage. There’s most likely not a coach in the country who hasn’t stated it, but Norvell lives it. He didn’t rage against COVID limitations that kept him from meeting with his group for the vast bulk of his first 7 months on the task, and he didn’t toss up his hands in disgust when FSU blew a protection on a Hail Mary throw to lose to FCS Jacksonville State, and he even chuckled off a viral “Fire Mike Norvell”social networks campaign after he lost leading recruit Travis Hunter to Deion Sanders and Jackson State.That’s what made his silence in the after-effects of the committee’s announcement so significant. It’s as close as he’s ever come to letting his emotions triumph, he said, however if he ‘d done that, it would be evidence that some things outside his reach could still dictate his actions, and he declines to enable that to happen.”There’s chance, and that supplies choice, “Norvell said. “The thing we continue to hammer with our guys through this journey is this could be a defining minute for you. Focus on your improvement and being better than what you’ve been. It’s tough. A lot of them were harmed. But I believe we’re going to continue to build through our experiences.”It all would look like a practical set of tricks to bolster a wounded group after the nadir of its season,

other than that Norvell has actually been preaching the exact same things every day all season long.”Leadership is not about making a speech,”Norvell stated.”It’s about what you do on the field and in conference room and how you approach every day. You can talk, however if your actions don’t back that up, then nobody’s going to listen.” Florida State got a star when Braden Fiske moved from Western Michigan. AP Photo/Erik Verduzco WHEN BRADEN FISKE first reached Florida State last spring, an extremely concerned but unverified transfer from Western Michigan, he was nursing an injury and couldn’t practice totally. However each day before practice, his head coach would run the length of the field at FSU’s indoor center. Periodically other players would participate in, racing Norvell–twenty years their senior– into the end zone. Fiske figured he ‘d give it a try.” Fiske can run, man,”receiver Keon Coleman said.”He’s got these little legs he gets going and– it’s funny. “If Fiske’s sprints were good for a laugh, they likewise turned heads. It was throughout those runs folks around FSU recognized they might have a star in Fiske. But it was likewise when Fiske realized how much various his coach at Florida State truly was.”He never ever misses a race, “Fiske stated.”I miss a couple every now and then, depending upon how the hamstrings feel, but he never misses out on a race, which’s just the person he is and the coach he is.” Fiske’s racing days are over, he stated. He’s got a boot on his foot now as he gets ready for Saturday’s Orange Bowl. But he’s still playing, still driven to win, and that’s due, in big part, to his coach.”You can’t lack motivation when [Norvell]

is strolling through the building,” Fiske said.”People on the outdoors only see snippets but if you remain in the program and around it every day, it’s different. It’s different being with a guy like Coach Norvell. When I first got here I believed for sure he was going to split. It never happens. He’s the very same guy every day no matter what’s going on in his life or his program. That’s why we’re headed where we’re going.

“It’s tough to understand exactly what this game implies for Florida State now. Is it the final chapter of 2023’s magical season? Is it the first opportunity to turn the page on the committee’s choice and move forward toward something new? Is it some strange purgatory that is neither an end nor a beginning, but rather a placeholder, a rote exercise that exists on its own timeline?The oddsmakers certainly do not think Florida State has much of an opportunity to win. Norvell and Advertisement Michael Alford have minimized any

interest in commemorating a de facto champion even if the Seminoles do claim victory in the Orange Bowl. And either way, when the calendar turns to 2024 and Norvell studies what remains of his lineup, he will discover little similarity to the team that marched off the field in Charlotte with an ACC title and assurances that they ‘d done enough to make something more.”The worst part about it is that [watch celebration] was the last time that this group– players, coaches, personnel– that we’ll all be together in one setting,”Fiske said.And that’s the real significance of Norvell’s restraint in that moment. What the world will remember is the immense dissatisfaction on the faces of every player in the room, the sadness at Travis’ tweet in which he wished he ‘d been injured earlier, the outrage that followed from FSU authorities apoplectic at being passed over.But what Norvell hopes the men because room will remember is that, in among their last minutes together as a team, their head coach was the same guy he ‘d remained in all the other minutes they were together.”We’re still at the start of where we’re going,” Norvell said

.”There are great days ahead for this program. It still doesn’t offer it back for the guys who have actually played their last game here at Florida State, but eventually we’re excited for our opportunity.” There’s going to be times in life where things don’t go the right way. What you’ve made, you don’t always get the benefit for that. However you control your action–

what you finish with it, the attitude you bring– and that’s what’s going to define your identity.”