Gray Hoodie: Mike Norvell isn’t superstitious but Florida State fans are

Most fans have some sort game day tradition, regardless of the sport. Whether that’s a specific food you have to eat that day, listening to a certain song — or even wearing that one lucky shirt.

Florida State head coach Mike Norvell knows all about it after last season. It became a sort of debate among the Seminoles’ fanbase that FSU would only perform well on the gridiron if Norvell was wearing a specific gray hoodie.

Discussing the matter with On3’s Andy Staples, Norvell revealed that he never really thought of the hoodie as lucky. Instead, he just looks at them as regular old clothes.

“It’s game-by-game. It’s just something I like to wear and I like wearing hoodies,” Norvell told Staples. “But there were a few games last year where I didn’t wear them and I’ll tell you — the fans let our equipment managers know that there was a desired look that they had [for me], but I’m not overly superstitious — but I think our fanbase really is.

“We had a lot of success in the grey hoodie, so we rolled with it. But if it was just as easy as wearing a hoodie, I probably wouldn’t work as much. But I like the look, and we’ll see what Nike has for us this year.”

But is there something to the gray hoodie conspiracy? After all, it sold for $6,000 at auction in late March after a whopping 38 bidders duked it out for Norvell’s attire.

Breaking down Norvell’s attire each week — he wore the gray hoodie in nine of Florida State’s 13 games in 2022. The ‘Noles went 8-1 with him in the hoodie and 2-2 without it. Most notably, Norvell did not wear for two of three weeks, which saw him wear a white polo against Wake Forest and a striped polo against Clemson.

After losing to Wake Forest, Norvell busted the hoodie back out for the NC State game, but that resulted in the one and only loss Florida State suffered with their head coach in that specific hoodie. He didn’t wear it the next week and the ‘Noles lost to Clemson.

Norvell would go on to wear the hoodie in five of the last six games, although they all resulted in victories for FSU. The only time Norvell would change his attire was for a November win against Louisiana which saw the entire staff wear army green to honor U.S. veterans.

More eyes than there should be will be on Norvell to see what he’ll be wearing on the sidelines for Florida State’s season opener against LSU next month. The Tigers were one of the teams that succumbed to the gray hoodie last season, and Brian Kelly and company would love nothing more than to get that win back.

If Florida State starts this season off on the wrong foot, Norvell might have to buy his hoodie back from the auction winner.