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By Rowan Fisher-Shotton
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Florida State fired Mike Norvell on Sunday, Nov. 1 after a 36-24 home loss to Clemson dropped the Seminoles to 3-5. It wasn't entirely a surprise, given the program has fallen apart completely since its undefeated season in 2023. That year, the Seminoles went 13-0 in the regular season and won the ACC but were left out of the College Football Playoff and got blown out by Georgia in the Orange Bowl. But the program has since gone just 10-22 under Norvell, who's now owed a monster buyout of around $50.3 million.
FSU president Richard McCullough emphasized that the continued losses became too hard to ignore. Athletic director Michael Alford was fired in September. After Norvell's firing, director of scouting Rick Stockstill took over as the interim coach while the search begins.
On Saturday, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported that sources expect Florida State to hire "a sitting head coach" and somebody who "understands today's college athletics environment."
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"The boosters there have had so much power that it hasn't been a particularly attractive job for an athletic director because that position simply put hasn't had the juice because of the way the power was structured. Look for Florida State to try and correct itself a little bit, and from there, there will be a head coaching search," Thamel said.
"It's really hard to project, though, who the coach is going to be until that AD is in place. There had been some chatter from Florida State before the firing of Mike Norvell that perhaps Peter Collins and President [Richard] McCullough there were going to sort of muscle through this search with the help of a search firm. That has changed, and that bodes well for Florida State as people within the industry see them as going for a more traditional power structure."
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Thamel's report suggests FSU is trying to fix how it operates entirely, not just who coaches. A sitting head coach would bring experience with the portal, NIL, and roster-building, which ultimately hurt Norvell late in his tenure. Names being mentioned include Arizona State's Kenny Dillingham, Duke's Manny Diaz, Wake Forest's Jake Dickert, Missouri's Eli Drinkwitz, New Mexico's Jason Eck, and Memphis' Charles Huff.
Given that Florida State is operating with a roster budget of between $23 million and $30 million, according to recent reports, someone like Dickert, who has Wake Forest at 7-1 this season and flirting with the CFP, fits the profile of a coach who can win with limited resources.
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Florida State is still an attractive job given its brand, three national titles, and Florida recruiting base. As for timing, the school has said the athletic director and coaching searches will run together, with a proposed 30-day AD timeline that started Oct. 30. That points to an AD by late November and a coach likely in early December, before the early signing period and the January portal.
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