Mike Norvell has made myriad adjustments since the end of his team's disastrous campaign. But will they be enough?
www.espn.com
FLORIDA STATE LAST won a national championship in 2013, beating Auburn 34-31 on a touchdown pass from Jameis Winston to Kelvin Benjamin with 13 seconds left in the game. The coach on the opposite sideline, just seconds away from hoisting the trophy himself?
Gus Malzahn.
He points out that fun fact sitting behind his desk, still sparse after just a few months on the job. Coaches live nomadic lives, but what are the odds Malzahn would one day be sitting inside the offensive coordinator's office at Florida State after spending the previous 13 years as a head coach?
In truth, he would not be, if not for Norvell.
Last November, Norvell announced he was firing offensive coordinator Alex Atkins, defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and receivers coach Ron Dugans. The following week, Norvell called Malzahn -- one of his coaching mentors -- to ask for his thoughts about another candidate to fill the offensive coordinator job. The two formed an immediate connection in 2007 at Tulsa, when Norvell was a graduate assistant and Malzahn the offensive coordinator, and had grown close over the years. As the two spoke, Norvell asked a most unexpected question:
"Unless you want to do it?"
Malzahn was in his fourth season at UCF, and the job had started to take a toll. UCF sat at 4-6 and needed to win out just to make a bowl game. The fan base had started to grow restless, and speculation swirled in Orlando about his job security after two straight losing seasons. He had grown restless, too. So he gave an unexpected response to the unexpected question.
"How would that work?" Malzahn asked Norvell.
Malzahn, a former high school coach, found the idea of going back to his roots calling plays and working more closely with players more appealing the more he thought about it. Working for Norvell was a huge plus, and
so was going to a school where it was possible to win a national championship.
Plus, he and his wife, Kristi, would be closer to their grandchildren in Alabama -- a huge selling point considering what his family had recently been through. Kristi nearly died three years ago following an infection that left her hospitalized for weeks.
After weeks of conversation, Malzahn decided to go for it. He stepped down as UCF coach in December to help Norvell get Florida State headed in the right direction.
"I wouldn't have done this for just anybody," Malzahn says of Norvell, whom he describes as a "getter-doner."
"He's a worker, he's driven, he's got a gift for this. He's really smart, he's really good with people. There's 'getter-doners' in this business, and there's just coaches. There's very few 'getter-doners.' In my experience in 20 years of college coaching, he's a 'getter-doner.'"