With the exception of Jordan Travis, and Florida State coach Mike Norvell has not enjoyed talented and consistent quarterback play that translated into wins on the field since his days as the head coach at Memphis, when Riley Ferguson and Brady White combined for over 15,000 passing yards.
The position of quarterback is the most important on the field. Consistent and talented quarterback play more often than not leads to wins on the gridiron.
In the last six seasons, Mike Norvell has coached Florida State to four losing campaigns. And, with a few borderline forgettable exceptions you can count on one hand, Norvell has failed to properly evaluate and develop quarterback talent.
During his four years at Memphis, Norvell had Riley Ferguson (2016-2017) and Brady White (2018-2019) at the controls of his offensive scheme. Both signal-callers combined for 15,265 yards, 129 touchdowns and 39 interceptions over that stretch. White is now an assistant coach on Norvell's staff at Florida State.
That type of production resulted in the Tigers posting a 38-16 record (.704 winning percentage) on Norvell’s watch, followed with an offer to replace Willie Taggart as head coach at Florida State. Norvell jumped at the chance to coach at the Power 4 level.
Since his arrival in Tallahassee, Norvell’s quarterback evaluation and development skills have all but vanished during his tenure with the Seminoles. Whether it was recruiting the high school ranks or finding a quarterback of need in the transfer portal, Norvell has had more swings and misses than he has home runs.
Norvell coached the Seminoles to a 23-4 record across the 2022 and 2023 seasons, quarterbacked by Jordan Travis. Travis passed for 8,644 yards, 65 touchdowns, 19 interceptions, and added 31 rushing touchdowns.
Since that time, the quarterback room has been a revolving door of talent misses that have resulted in a lot of check marks in the loss column. Going into his seventh season with the Seminoles, Norvell has led Florida State to a 39-34 record (.534 winning percentage).
In the prep ranks, Norvell has recruited four four-star quarterbacks to the Florida State program: Chubba Purdy (2020), AJ Duffy (2022), Brock Glenn (2023) and Luke Kromenhoek (2024). All were ranked among the top 25 quarterback prospects in the country. However, Norvell could not develop them as starters at the power 4 level and all later transferred out to other programs.
Norvell recruited another quarterback prospect, Wyatt Rector, who was a productive and talented signal-caller in high school, but was later switched to tight end by Norvell. Yet, another misevaluation.
In the transfer portal, Norvell took flyers on all of these quarterbacks:
- McKenzie Milton (from UCF): Attempted a comeback in 2021 after a horrific knee injury that resulted in a series of difficult and painful surgeries. Milton went 0-4 as a starter and threw three touchdowns and six interceptions.
- DJ Uiagalelei (from Clemson): DJ posted mediocre seasons at Clemson, replacing NFL No.1 overall pick Trevor Lawrence, and at Oregon State before landing in Tallahassee. He played five games for the Seminoles in 2024 and threw four touchdowns and six interceptions. Glenn, a freshman, replaced him for the other seven games and threw four touchdowns, five interceptions and completed just 44.7 percent of his passes as Florida State limped to a 2-10 record.
- Thomas Castellanos (from Boston College): Last season, expectations were high as the mobile Castellanos teamed up with offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn to trigger his run-heavy spread option offense. Castellanos accounted for over 3,300 yards of total offense and 24 total touchdowns. Alas, that production did not translate to wins on the field, and Florida State finished the season with a 5-7 record.
This season, Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels will carry the torch for what could only be described as “Transfer Quarterback U.” Upon arrival at Florida State, Daniels had thrown almost as many interceptions (22) as he had touchdowns (27) in his collegiate career. Daniels is the third consecutive transfer quarterback to start for Seminoles.
As the starter on Saturday night against New Mexico State, he led the Seminoles to a 34-17 victory. Daniels stat line read like this: 17-of-27 passing (63 percent) for 202 yards and a touchdown, and he added a rushing score.
As the Seminoles prepare to take on the SMU Mustangs on Labor Day, speculation abounds whether Norvell will make it to the end of the season, or be given his pink slip and shown to the nearest exit in the middle of the season.
With the pressure mounting, and the wolves closing in to surround Norvell, the only thing he can do is win as many games as possible, lest he becomes a sheep in coach’s clothing.
