Mike Norvell addresses if he will consider giving up playcalling duties

Amid the continued struggles on the offensive side of the ball for Florida State, head coach Mike Norvell shared that he’s open to evaluating if he should give up playcalling duties for the Seminoles.

Norvell explained that he wants to do what’s best for the team and puts the team in the best position to win. With that in mind, he shared that he always evaluates everyone’s role, including his own, and while he isn’t prepared to make a change just yet, it is up for consideration.

“For us and for me specifically, it’s what’s best for this football team,” Mike Norvell said. “I’ll always evaluate each role and everybody’s role and what we have and what it needs to be. Obviously, we haven’t been very good offensively this year.”

The Seminoles have struggled on offense throughout the 2024 season and are now 133rd out of 134 teams in scoring offense, averaging just 14.9 points per game. They’re also just 131st in total offense, averaging 272.5 yards per game.

Given those numbers, it’s easy to see why some might expect or want a change at playcaller. However, as Mike Norvell also noted, he has historically had much better offenses than this, including as recently as the 2023 season.

“Throughout my career, I’ve had a lot of years of being a playcaller, and historically they’ve been very good,” Norvell said. “But you look at it and try to see what are the issues, why are there the issues? You look at how are things that we can all do to be better. If it means that my time can be served better for this football team and program doing other tasks in that, then I’ll always evaluate those things.”

Mike Norvell has been an offensive coach from the moment he got a job above graduate assistant, working as a wide receivers coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach among other roles before he became the head coach at Memphis.

“I’m not so stuck on just doing a thing a certain way. So, I’ll always evaluate that. Just as it comes into this week, whatever we got to do this week to help this football team in a position to help itself go win this game. That’s what I care about. When we get to the end of the season I’m going to reevaluate all aspects of it and say, ‘What is best for this team moving forward to go win next game?’ That will always be something that I evaluate. I’ve done it as a playcaller. I’ve done it as not in different scopes,” Norvell said.

“That’s not something for me, it’s not an ego thing for me to say ‘I call the plays.’ I want to win. Ultimately, what can I do to help this team be the best that we can be.”

While everything is still up for evaluation moving forward, Mike Norvell is focused on the next game for Florida State. That will be back at home next week against North Carolina.