Doak’s Revolving Door: Norvell’s Keen Eye For The Quintessential OC

Doak’s Revolving Door: Norvell’s Keen Eye For The Quintessential OC

by Olivia Brooks

The chaos of a college football game is a mix of audience abundance and those on the team; both on the sideline and on the field. Since 2019 with Mike Norvell’s debut season, the revolving door to Florida State’s football faculty has been extensive. 

There’s a question of when that door may slow, as everyone knows a sport’s door will never lock, nonetheless close, but that slow-moving shift might finally come. 

After bringing on Norvell in 2019 to begin in the notorious 2020 COVID-19 season, he used his position instantaneously to circulate coaches and coordinators on the sideline. While Willie Taggart’s time as head coach felt extensively short-lived, the switch ups since 2019 have around everything but on this top roll. 

Offensively, since Norvell’s time with Florida State, we have seen Kenny Dillingham from 2019-2021, Alex Atkins from 2022-2024, and most recently Gus Malzahn in the 2025 season. These shifts become more intricate decisions given the ebb and flow of the team’s stats since 2020. In contrast to the defensive coordinator position, in which Adam Fuller was released from the position in 2024 after joining the team in parallel to Norvell, Tony White now holds the position and focuses on the process of the game, a trait also apparent to the sinuous Norvell eye.

The exponential growth from Mike Norvell’s first season to fourth is astounding, from an ACC 2-6 record to an undefeated one, acknowledging the steady climb that build took for the team to get where they got—

Until a dramatic fall in the 2024 season.

The work is a constant progress, one in a nonlinear state of growth which Florida State clearly shines, but not from a pessimistic point of view. Already this season we seem to be unveiling a rather modern “Choke at Doak” as the two undefeated opening games of the season bring teams to Doak. 

While Dillingham’s career is vast, his youth and naivety definitely play a role in this. Knowing Norvell and working under him at Arizona State, this experience carried through to a handful of other universities until Dillingham landed at Florida State alongside Mike Norvell once more as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. With ACC record odds in the COVID-19 2020 season to the 2021 season were not in FSU’s favor compared to previous years, that had nothing to do with Dillingham’s leave. A career jump underway, he journeyed to Oregon State, pushing that revolving door at full throttle as we enter the 2022 season. 

Alex Atkins snuck up as offensive coordinator following Dillingham’s leave after sitting in the offensive line coach position prior to so. His time on foot with Florida State produced impeccable seasons, such as the 10-3 final record in the 2022 season, and his send offs of players into the NFL draft all, in which 50% of the draft picks from the university came from the offensive line. Atkins deemed worthy of the coordinator spot, but situations such as NIL related allegations of extreme misconduct mixed with the ebb and flow of the 2023 to 2024 season drop lead to a farewell just recently.

The pattern of Mike Norvell’s sway of new and old partners in the league remains a speed graph to follow. While Dillingham and Atkins show no previous correspondence with the coach, Gus Malzahn is quite the opposite…

Winter 2024, the entrance of Gus Malzahn flourishes. Creating commotion across the state, Malzahn was brought in as previous University of Central Florida’s head coach, with an instinctive offensive play calling technique that carried dutifully into Doak. His decision to step into a position away from head coach was purposeful, and Malzahn’s background with Norvell feels nothing less than nostalgic. As almost two decades ago the two began their spark of a partnership at Tulsa with Norvell assisting under Malzahn, the tables turned in a momentous way this season at FSU.

Norvell’s keen eye for coordinators remains the main consistent factor throughout his career at Florida State. As the football program shifts and dramatically changes in staff for the 2025 season, there is light in the slice of the decade. Reflecting on major career wins for FSU from the early 1990s to 2023, the line up both on the field and on the sideline show great dualities to this team’s past. One everyone should get excited for.