Josh Pate questions why Florida State hasn't pulled trigger on Mike Norvell firing

Things look bleak for the future of Mike Norvell at Florida State. The Seminoles are just 4-5 (1-5 ACC) and coming off of a loss to Clemson this past week that many thought would be the end of Norvell’s tenure in Tallahassee.

However, Sunday came and went without the school making a move. College football analyst Josh Pate dissected the situation on Josh Pate’s College Football Show.

“I heavily leaned toward the idea that this thing was gonna happen this morning,” he said. “So I keep coming back to the same thing and I think a lot of Florida State fans are the same way: what are we waiting on? If it’s going to happen, if it’s a forgone conclusion, if the buyout money doesn’t really change all that much if we wait til the end of the season versus if we do it now, and if other programs are doing it and getting a head start on us, what are we waiting on? My answer is I don’t know.

“I want to establish one more time that I don’t yell for dudes to get fired. I’m not yelling for Mike to get fired. My opinion doesn’t matter here. The opinion of the people who do matter — big money people, the administrative types, the athletic director at Florida State — all seem to be that he is gonna get fired. So if he’s gonna be fired eventually, why aren’t you doing it immediately?”

Norvell is in his sixth season at Florida State with a 37-31 overall record in that span. However, outside of the 2022 and 2023 seasons where he went a combined 23-4, his team has had losing records every other season.

Pate continued to question why Florida State hasn’t made the move yet when it seems like its mind is made up. He also argued that the Seminoles are only falling behind in the coaching search by doing so.

“It’s not to save money and from the sound of things it’s not for you to come up with the money,” he said. “It sounded like if they needed the money today, they’d have the money today. If that’s not true and they’re trying to come up with the money, and by the way, they need about $60 million to fire him, does that mean there are some people who are holdouts on Mike Norvell who you think are gonna be convinced that he needs to be let go by the end of the year but they’re not convinced yet? I’m not sure if you’re not already convinced what a few more losses are gonna do to convince you.

“I don’t tell people how to spend their tens of million of dollars. I just find it very peculiar that anyone with a reasonable enough intelligence to acquire a net worth of that size is ignorant enough to think the outcome of four quarters against NC State could fundamentally change your opinion on whether or not to pay a guy $60 million to not coach for you anymore. If you think it’s crazy to pay a guy not to coach for you and you’re not gonna do it no matter what, OK. That doesn’t seem to be the score around there right now. The way it sounds is we’ve either got the money already and we’re just waiting for the right time, which makes no sense, or we’ve still got to get a few people on board. If they’re not already on board, how are you gonna get them on board?”

Pate through out another theory that athletic director Michael Alford wanted to make good on a promise to wait until the end of the season before making a decision to Norvell. However, given that the coach also would have to find a new job if he is let go, he doesn’t see how waiting is helping either side.

“So there’s another school of thought around there that is the athletic director came out and kind of indicated that they were going to see it through until the end of the year a few weeks ago, so he wants to be a man of his word,” he said. “I’m all for being a man of your word. That’s why am not saying things that you have no business ever fulfilling on. You had no business giving him the vote of confidence. The season was already down the drain and you were highly likely to find yourself in this position where you need to make a move on a guy. So there’s another school of thought around there that is they do have the money, they are on borrowed time because every day they wait to do the inevitable is a day that other programs that have pulled the trigger get that much further ahead of them down the road of their coaching searches. Also, it wastes time that Mike Norvell could be spending on his own search. Because there’s a duty to mitigate in his contract. Which, for those of you who don’t speak lawyer means when Mike gets fired he has a duty to go look for another job. Mike Norvell will get another job.

“…He’s not going anywhere as long as he’s your head coach is the point. Some of these programs out there that are gonna end up hiring the G5 coaches which would vacate a G5 spot, they’re not waiting until December. A lot of these deals are being locked up behind the scenes right now. They may not be announced until December, but some of these G5 openings, they’re gonna know they have openings well before December. Which means if your guy’s gonna be a candidate for those jobs and the salary they’re gonna pay your guy offsets the amount of buyout money you have to pay him, then you want him free as early as possible to go seek out future employment. Am I missing anything here?”