Florida State Fires Head Coach Mike Norvell

Florida State fired Head Coach Mike Norvell on Sunday, about 12 hours after a 36-24 home loss to Clemson dropped the Seminoles to 3-5 overall and 1-4 in ACC play. Florida State entered the game as a 5-point favorite, and large sections of Doak Campbell Stadium were empty by the middle of the fourth quarter.

“We have made the decision to change the leadership of our football program,” Florida State president Richard McCullough said in a statement Sunday.

Assistant coach Rick Stockstill will serve as interim head coach for the final four games while the school searches for a replacement. Stockstill played quarterback at Florida State and coached Middle Tennessee for 18 seasons before joining Norvell’s staff in 2024. Norvell leaves with a 41-39 record in seven seasons, and Florida State is 10-22 since the start of the 2024 season.

Mike Norvell’s buyout ranks third in college football history

Florida State owes Mike Norvell roughly $50 million, 85% of his remaining salary through 2031. The buyout is the third-largest in college football history, behind the $76.8 million Texas A&M owed Jimbo Fisher and the $53.2 million LSU owed Brian Kelly. Firing Norvell and his staff and then making the next hire could push the total cost to roughly $100 million.

The final number could come down. Norvell’s contract includes offset language that reduces the buyout if he takes another job, the same kind of clause that cut Penn State’s bill for James Franklin from about $49 million to $9 million once Franklin was hired at Virginia Tech.

Norvell sat at No. 1 on a preseason list of coaches on the hot seat, and his contract made any move expensive. By late October, the hot seat had turned into a buyout question across college football, and Florida State decided that losing was costing more than the check.

How the Seminoles fell so far

Florida State hired Norvell in December 2019 after four seasons at Memphis and signed him to a six-year, $26.5 million contract. His early teams struggled, including a 2021 loss to then-FCS Jacksonville State, before the Seminoles went 10-3 in 2022 for the program’s first 10-win season since 2016.

Three seasons ago, Norvell had Florida State at the top of the sport. The Seminoles won 19 straight games from the middle of the 2022 season through the 2023 ACC championship, went 13-0 and won the program’s first conference title since 2014. The College Football Playoff committee left them out of the field, and Florida State lost to Georgia in the Orange Bowl.

Norvell was considered a top candidate for the Alabama job when Nick Saban retired in January 2024, and he stayed in Tallahassee on an extension that ran through 2031 and paid him $10.3 million in 2026. Back then, it looked like a school locking up its future. Since then, Florida State has gone 2-10 in 2024 and 5-7 in 2025, and the Seminoles have lost 17 of their last 21 ACC games.

The quarterback spot never settled after the title run. Norvell went to the transfer portal for DJ Uiagalelei, Tommy Castellanos, and Ashton Daniels, and none of them gave the offense steady play, while the 2024 season also included a loss to Memphis, the program Norvell left for Tallahassee.

Florida State decided late last season to keep Mike Norvell for 2026, even as a year that opened with a win over Alabama turned into a 5-7 finish. The school fired athletic director Michael Alford in mid-September, and McCullough released a lengthy letter to fans last week that did not mention Norvell by name.

“We are not asking you to ignore the results,” McCullough wrote. “We are committed to changing them.”

Florida State joins a crowded coaching market

Florida State is the fourth Power Four program with a head coaching opening this season, joining Maryland, NC State and Baylor. The combined buyouts for Mike Locksley, Dave Doeren and Dave Aranda come to less than Florida State owes Norvell alone.

The Seminoles have not beaten Miami, Florida or Clemson since the 2023 season, and they are 1-5 against Power Four opponents this fall. They still need three wins in their last four games, starting Saturday at Boston College, to reach a bowl.

Florida State has now fired back-to-back head coaches in the middle of a season, seven years after former Florida State coach Willie Taggart lost the job in November 2019 before finishing his second year.