Interim Coach Stockstill to Try and Lead Seminoles to Bowl

It was a coaching change that was two and half years in the making. Mike Norvell has been fired by Florida State (3-5). Norvell was 41-39 in seven seasons in Tallahassee.

Assistant coach and Director of Scouting Rick Stockstill will serve as interim head coach for the remainder of this season, according to Florida State President Richard McCullough and reported by Nick Bromberg of Yahoo Sports.

“We have made the decision to change the leadership of our football program," McCullough said in a statement. "We thank Mike Norvell for his commitment and service to Florida State and wish him and his family the very best. We understand the deep passion of Seminole fans and share their high expectations for this program. We are confident in Rick Stockstill's ability to provide steady leadership during this transition.”

The 36-24 loss to Clemson on Saturday was the catalyst for a change in the football program that has been a long time coming.

Poor roster building has doomed the Seminoles over the past two and a half seasons.

Stockstill will now bring his 41 years of coaching experience to the practice field as the head man for the Seminoles in their final four games against Boston College, Pittsburgh, NC State and Florida.

Stockstill coached at Middle Tennessee State for 18 seasons, and won 113 games for the Blue Raiders. He was also named conference coach of the year three times and took his teams to ten bowl games.

In 2009, Stockstill coached the Blue Raiders to a 10-3 record and a victory in the New Orleans Bowl.

The highlight of the 2022 season at MTSU was a 45-31 victory over No. 25 Miami.

As a member of the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame, Stockstill played quarterback at Florida State for Bobby Bowden from 1977-1981.

Stockstill led the Seminoles to a No. 5 national ranking and a 10-2 record in 1980. During that season, Florida State posted wins over ranked teams Nebraska and Pittsburgh.

For the 1981 season, his senior year, Stockstill was named a team captain.

During a grueling road schedule that season, Stockstill led the Seminoles to victory over No. 7 Ohio State, Notre Dame and LSU.

Stockstill must now figure out how to get creative with an offense that has been vanilla and mediocre at best all season.

For all intents and purposes, quarterback Ashton Daniels has been the source of most of the offensive output this season, either by design or from an improvisational standpoint.

Daniels has also been a source of turnovers, with 11 interceptions on the season.

Will Stockstill make a change at quarterback over the final four games? Malachi Marshall and Dean Denobile could spark an offense that has flamed out at critical times this season.

Florida State can still salvage a winning season, or at least get to six wins and a bowl berth.

Boston College is 4-4 on the season, and is coming off a 47-2 beat down at the hands of the Duke Blue Devils. Florida State has won 12 of the last 14 meetings with the Eagles.