Mike Norvell entertains sell-out crowd of Florida State boosters with talk of expectations, excitement

The event sold out the day before. That’s how excited local Florida State fans were for the annual Seminole Booster Tour stop in Tallahassee on Monday evening.

Hundreds stood in line to take a picture with or get an autograph from head coach Mike Norvell.

Then, Norvell sat down with FSU play-by-play announcer Jeff Culhane for a 30-minute question-and-answer session that also included a few questions from Florida State fans in attendance.

As always, Norvell was very, very excited and very excitable when talking about his football team. But it was the last question of the night, from a fan sitting near the front row, that got the biggest reaction from garnet-clad fans in attendance.

The Seminoles’ head coach was asked about expectations. And as he told the fan, he appreciated the query. Because it gave him a chance to talk about something he is very passionate about.

“There are not expectations just for this year,” Norvell said. “Even though nobody on the outside had ANY expectations for last year, we still did. … There will be nobody that ever has higher expectations than we do.”

And then he delivered the line that drew the biggest applause of the night.

“We’re Florida State,” Norvell said. “I’m glad people nationally are talking about our program. Because this is a program that deserves to be talked about for how we do it on the field and how we do it off the field.”

He then talked about the challenges his teams faced his first two years, and what the Seminoles went through as a program. He thinks that is what could end up being the defining moment of this program rebuild.

“Nobody wanted to go through, especially me, some of the things we had to go through,” Norvell said. “But just like I told the players, you have to go through some things to prove you can get through them. And when you are able to get through it, that’s when confidence — like real confidence — that’s where it is developed.”

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The main message on Monday night, like it will be on every one of his spring booster tour stops, was that his players have put in the work. They work really, really hard.

He made that point numerous times during his half-hour on stage.

“This program isn’t for everyone,” Norvell said with a knowing smirk.

But it’s certainly a good one for his star quarterback.

“He is literally approaching every rep as if it’s the championship rep, as if the game is on the line,” Norvell said of Jordan Travis. “And when you can have that type of mindset from your best players, it does nothing but elevate everyone that’s around them. …

“All of the minor details of his game are continuing to get better, which is going to be scary for a lot of people out there.”

Culhane asked about the competition so far in spring practice, and Norvell brought up the Florida State dynasty days, and how every time he talks to a player from that era they speak about how their toughest opponents were always their teammates on the other side of the ball.

And while he didn’t predict another dynastic run for the Seminoles while speaking from the Champions Club at Doak Campbell Stadium on Monday night, he did say the competition level is at an all-time high under his watch.

“We’re bigger, better, stronger,” he said.

So much so, Norvell joked, that he wasn’t faring very well in his pre-practice races with the defensive linemen this spring — like he did last year against Robert Cooper.

“I picked the biggest guy on the team,” he said with a laugh before adding that he has to get treatment now after his races.

Norvell was asked about all of the veterans who decided to return for the 2023 season, and he said their decisions spoke to the culture that has been created and how much his players like being a part of the program, part of the Florida State family.

All of this underscored the overall point, that heading into Year 4, his roster has been upgraded to the point that there are real expectations of this football team. That experts will rank them high in the preseason, and they are expected to contend for a conference championship and maybe more.

But the standard has remained the standard from Day 1.

“Be the absolute best you can be!” he shouted into the microphone. “Our objective every day we go out there is to go get better. To the standard of our best. I tell our team, ‘Today, you’ve got to be better than your best. Lord willing, we get to wake up tomorrow, we’re going to be better than we were today.’

“That challenge is the only challenge that’s necessary.”

After his speech was over, after he introduced his former youth football coach, David Reese, and after he led the fans in attendance in singing, “Happy Birthday” to athletics director Michael Alford, Norvell thanked everyone for their time. He then said into the microphone, “Go Noles!”

And he got a standing ovation as he walked off the stage.

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.