Norvell discusses ongoing coaching search and when FSU hires will be announced

It has been over a week since Florida State coach Mike Norvell fired three assistant coaches, including his offensive and defensive coordinators.

On Monday, after the bye this weekend, the Seminoles’ head coach met with the media as his team begins preparation for its matchup with Charleston Southern on Saturday afternoon.

But that wasn’t the primary topic of discussion.

Nearly all of the questions and answers focused on the state of the Florida State program, and more specifically, how the coaching searches are going as he tries to put together a staff for next season.

Obviously, Norvell wouldn’t go into detail about who is on his short list of potential candidates at either coordinator position, but he did say he has been — and will continue to be — carving out time each day to devote to these hires. Even as he continues to prepare his team for what he hopes will be the second win of the season on Saturday.

“This last week, there was a lot working through it, even throughout the course of this past weekend,” Norvell said. “There was a of time I poured into that, whether it was conversations, whether it was evaluation. There’s been a really good amount of interest in the positions, and just kind of sequencing through what could be the right fit in each of the roles.

“There will be time that I have kind of sectioned off throughout the week that I’m going to be able to have the best balance that I can have.”

When Norvell makes a decision on a candidate and when that decision is announced publicly will likely be different times. Especially if one or more of his new assistants is coaching in a conference championship game.

“Ideally, when the regular season ends, I’d like to be able to have a really strong direction of where it’s going,” Norvell said. “And there might be guys that could potentially continue to be playing where either announcements or agreements that are made. We’ll see if that’s potential options.

“There could be guys that assume roles really quick after the season ends. So, there’s a lot of ebb and flow as decisions are made on who’s going to take those positions and obviously all the conversations that surround that.”

Norvell was also asked Monday about recruiting, and whether that would be a factor in the hires he makes to his new Florida State staff.

He was adamant that it absolutely would.

“When you look across college football, the statement of what a great recruiter is, it’s really two-fold,” Norvell said. “Can you sign them? Great. What do you do with them? You’ve got to have the relationship, you’ve also got to have the development factor that ties into that. And making sure the evaluation piece of it is critical, too.

“And that’s one of the things that we’ve got to make sure the guys we’re bringing in are the right fit, whether it’s coaches, players, everybody involved that really can embrace and help us advance in all those areas. But absolutely the recruiting piece of that and the relationship people that truly enjoy that aspect of this profession and building relationships with the players is going to be critical.”

One thing that doesn’t appear to be on the table for major changes this offseason is the strength and conditioning staff led by Josh Storms, who has been with Norvell since his days at Memphis and Arizona State. Norvell gave that group a strong vote of confidence when asked about them on Monday.

“I believe in a very high level of our strength and conditioning program,” Norvell said. “Coach Storms has proven and done a job throughout the course of the years. … There’s a lot of things that have shown up that don’t really deal as much with the strength and conditioning aspect of it when it comes to elements of our execution or things that we’re doing.

“But we all have to push and get better, and there’s not one department that — whether it’s strength and conditioning, athletic training, coaching, all of it — we’re all pushing to be the best that we can be to go and improve. We all have ownership in it, but I definitely believe wholeheartedly in that group, and it’s just proven through the course of time.”

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.

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