After a second straight season without a bowl game, the heat is on Florida State football coach Mike Norvell. After losing at Stanford in October, there was some thought that he might be fired during the Seminoles’ upcoming bye week. Instead, the school stood by their coach, and he is back for 2026.
He is back with more pressure. Part of the reason why he wasn’t fired was because of his buyout, which is just north of $50 million, according to CBS Sports. The Transfer Portal closes at 11:59 ET on Friday night. There has been a lot of movement throughout college football, but there hasn’t been much in Tallahassee. That is not great news for Norvell, according to a college football writer.
Mike Norvell and Florida State Struggling With the Transfer Portal
Brad Shepard of Bleacher Report listed some winners and losers from the portal this cycle, and not surprisingly, he had Florida State and Norvell as losers. FSU has had 38 players enter the portal, which includes their top three defensive linemen.
“Alabama and Notre Dame are struggling a bit in the portal by their standards, but there are few blue bloods that have free-fallen the way Mike Norvell has at Florida State, and things aren’t getting any better this portal season,” wrote Shepard.
“If the Seminoles were in better financial shape, they’d probably have a new coach in 2026, but as it stands, Norvell enters a pivotal year with a lot of important pieces gone from a bad football team. Now, they’re hemorrhaging players in the portal,” Shepard added.
Money aside, things are not getting better for Seminoles so far since their season ended in November against Florida. The portal exodus is in full effect, and there haven’t been many good results for the Seminoles in terms of players coming in.
Mike Norvell Facing Make-or-Break Offseason at Florida State
According to Shepard, this is a make-or-break offseason for Norvell. He’s not wrong. Since the Seminoles were left out of the four-team College Football Playoff in 2023 when they went undefeated and lost quarterback Jordan Travis to a season-ending injury late in the season, they haven’t recovered.
Cooper Petagna of CBS Sports explained what has gone wrong the last couple of seasons when it comes to building a roster through the Transfer Portal and FSU.
“They did a really good job in the portal when they ran the table two years ago,” Petagna said. “However, that’s a long time ago in college football years. Everybody has caught up. They’ve caught up from an NIL and investment standpoint. Florida State has been a lame duck the last two seasons. They’ve only won three conference games.”
Norvell is 38-34 at Florida State. Last year in the Transfer Portal, Norvell landed former Boston College QB Thomas Castellanos. That didn’t work out too well. This cycle, FSU has brought in Auburn transfer Ashton Daniels to be the signal caller next season. They also brought in Auburn offensive lineman Xavier Chaplin from the portal.
There is still more work to be done for Norvell this portal cycle. There is no doubt that the heat will be on Norvell in 2026. He needs better results on the field, or he could be in trouble.
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