The Florida State football program is entering a critical time. With Mike Norvell out, it's time to look towards the future and find the next head coach now that athletic director Jeff Purinton has been officially introduced.
Since former coach Jimbo Fisher left in 2018, times have been hard in Tallahassee. Willie Taggart went 9-12 as head coach before being fired in November of 2019. Norvell went 10-3 in 2022 and then 13-1 in 2023, but he posted an overall record of 41-39 with five seasons worth of losing records in nearly seven years at the helm.
Even going back to the final season of Fisher's tenure in 2017, FSU went 5-6 under him before he resigned. Since 2016, Florida State has only had three winning seasons and just two where they won 10
games or more, which means it's been going on a decade in which they've been consistently uncompetitive. That simply won't cut it at a program with this much history.
This makes the search for the next head coach at FSU critical, to say the least. The program can't afford to miss on this hire because it would set the program back even further, at a time they simply cannot afford to, as they continue to work to join a new conference. If the next coach fails, it could be nearly two straight two decades of ineptitude. That puts the trust and loyalty not only of the boosters at risk but, more importantly, the fan base.
It's been reported that the program will go after big-time replacements like Wake Forest Demon Deacons coach Jake Dickert and Duke Blue Devils coach Manny Diaz. Also, Fisher is pushing hard to return for a second term as head coach of the Seminoles. Regardless of which direction they go, Florida State must make the right decision for the sake of the program going forward.
Competing for national championships is the standard at FSU, bottom line. Anything other than that isn't acceptable, and it shouldn't be when a program has the reputation that Florida State has. Simply put, the approach to finding the next head coach should be taken very seriously.
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This article originally appeared on FSU Wire: FSU's head coach search is critical to program's future | Opinion
