Mike Norvell discusses how to balance bowl prep with recruiting

Florida State takes on Oklahoma in the Cheez-It Bowl on Dec. 29, which is just a week after the early signing period for 2023 recruits. On Monday, Seminoles head coach Mike Norvell opened up about the balance between bowl game prep and recruiting for the next few weeks.

“It’s something I’ve put a lot of thought into, trying to create a schedule that will allow us to prepare and make sure our focus is on the personnel that is currently there and build that through recruiting,” Norvell said. “We’re going to maximize all the time we have as a coaching staff for our players. We have one more opportunity as a football program and it has to be our best.”

The 15 practices allowed by the NCAA serve as an opportunity to prepare for the Sooners, but also as a chance to develop younger players who may not have gotten as many reps during the season.

“Just continue to get better,” Norvell said of his team’s goals. “It’s a simple objective but it’s been our year objective. Each day we go out we want to improve on the experiences that we’ve had… I like the setup of bowl practice because we have those developmental days where we don’t focus on the opponent, we focus on our biggest opponent, ourselves.

“We had a couple of really good days last week and we’ll jump into here this next weekend. We’ll continue to push in all areas when we get back on the field.”

The Seminoles have already made a lot of headway with recruiting. They have 16 commits ready to sign, including a five-star and eight four-star prospects. The 2023 class is currently ranked No. 15 in the nation after the 2022 class finished 24th.

Norvell on Cheez-it Bowl: ‘A great opportunity’

With 10 national championships and 10 Heisman Trophy winners between them, the Sooners and Seminoles are likely to attract many viewers to the postseason bowl game.

Norvell believes it will be an opportunity for his team to show the rest of the country how far they’ve come since he took over in 2020. The Seminoles have already claimed their first winning record of the Norvell era. Now, they can reach the 10-win mark for the first time since 2016 with a victory against Oklahoma.

“It’s a great matchup,” Norvell said. “It’s a great opportunity with two of the storied programs in all of college football history to be able to link up in a great game, great place and great atmosphere. I’m glad that we’re being able to play in our home state. This Oklahoma team that we’re playing has a lot of great players. They’ve recruited well over the years and it’s gonna be a challenge for our guys.

“They’ve had some close contests throughout the season, but it’s gonna be — it’s what you want toward the end of the year. You work hard to earn a bowl game. Then to be able to have a matchup against a very talented team is something I know that our players are gonna be excited about.”

On3’s Chandler Vessels contributed to this report.