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Part Fourteen: The Climb Back

After Willie Taggart was fired, Florida State hired Mike Norvell.

And honestly, by that point, I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Florida State had gone through Bobby Bowden.

Then Jimbo Fisher.

Then Willie Taggart.

The program that had once seemed almost immune to prolonged failure had spent the better part of a decade trying to find its way back.

Now there was another new coach.

Another rebuild.

Another reason to hope.

Mike Norvell arrived from Memphis, where he had built a successful program and won the American Athletic Conference in 2019.

But Florida State was different.

The expectations were different.

The history was different.

And the problems were much bigger than simply finding the right plays to call.

Then 2020 happened.

And almost immediately, the entire world changed.

COVID-19 changed everything.

Spring football was interrupted.

Schedules changed.

Games were moved.

Stadiums were empty or nearly empty.

College football, like everything else, was trying to figure out how to function in a world that had suddenly become unfamiliar.

Florida State opened the season against Georgia Tech.

And lost.

Then came Miami.

Florida State lost 52–10.

It was ugly.

There were more losses.

There were more questions.

The Seminoles finished 3–6.

That wasn’t the kind of first season anyone had envisioned for a new head coach.

But there was one afternoon that gave me something I hadn’t felt in a while.

Hope.

Florida State hosted No. 5 North Carolina.

The Seminoles were unranked.

Nobody expected much.

Then Florida State jumped all over them.

The Seminoles led 31–7 at halftime.

North Carolina came roaring back, but Florida State held on to win 31–28.

It was Mike Norvell’s first ACC victory.

It was also Florida State’s first win over a top-five team since 2014.

For one afternoon, the old feeling came back.

Maybe this could work.

Maybe there was something here.

Maybe the climb had finally begun.

2021

The next year wasn’t much easier.

Florida State finished 5–7.

And there was one loss that still stands out.

Jacksonville State.

Florida State led 17–14 late in the fourth quarter.

Then Jacksonville State scored on the final play of the game.

A 59-yard touchdown pass.

Game over.

I remember thinking that this wasn’t supposed to be Florida State anymore.

We had gone from playing for national championships to losing at home to Jacksonville State on the final play.

That was how far the program had fallen.

But something else was happening beneath the surface.

The team was getting tougher.

The roster was changing.

The culture was changing.

And Mike Norvell wasn’t running from the work.

He kept building.

He kept recruiting.

He kept developing players.

And eventually, the results started to follow.

2022

Then came 2022.

The difference wasn’t immediate.

But it was there.

Florida State opened the season against Duquesne and won 47–7.

Then came LSU.

That game was in New Orleans, and for a while it looked like Florida State might let another one slip away.

Instead, the Seminoles came back and won 24–23.

I remember watching that game at a condo at the beach with my family and friends Jay, Steph, and Levi and thinking:

This feels different.

Then they went to Louisville and won.

They beat Boston College.

They lost three straight to Wake Forest, NC State and Clemson.

For a moment, it looked like the old Florida State might be returning—the good version of the old Florida State, but also the frustrating version.

But this time, they didn’t fold.

They won six straight to finish the season.

And some of those wins weren’t close.

They beat Miami 45–3.

Forty-five to three.

Then they beat Florida 45–38 in Tallahassee.

And suddenly, Florida State was 9–3.

Then they beat Oklahoma 35–32 in the bowl game.

Ten wins.

The first time Florida State had reached ten wins since 2016.

It wasn’t a national championship.

It wasn’t an undefeated season.

It wasn’t Bobby Bowden’s Florida State.

It wasn’t Jimbo’s Florida State.

But maybe that was the point.

It didn’t have to be.

This was becoming something new.

Mike Norvell had taken over a program that had gone 6–7 in 2019, then 3–6 and 5–7 in his first two seasons.

Now he had a 10-win team.

And for the first time in years, Florida State wasn’t simply trying to remember what it used to be.

It was starting to look like it might become something again.

I had been watching Florida State for more than thirty years by then.

I’d watched the beginning.

I’d watched the dynasty.

I’d watched the championships.

I’d watched the decline.

I’d watched coaches come and go.

I’d watched Florida State become something I barely recognized.

And now I was watching something else.

A rebuild.

Not a finished product.

Not a return to the top.

Not yet.

But a climb.

And after everything I had seen, I knew better than to assume where that climb would lead.

I just knew it felt good to look at the program and believe again.

I was still watching.