Mike Norvell details emphasis on recruiting top-end speed

For the Florida State Seminoles under head coach Mike Norvell one of the key aspects to building the program has been recruiting top-end speed to Tallahassee.

Norvell used Micahi Danzy, a running back out of the 2024 recruiting class, as an example of the kind of player who has an excellent combination of size and speed. That’s the kind of player that Norvell is looking to build the roster around.

“Yeah, Micahi is kind of a special player because not only does he have great speed, he has great size, length, obviously, at the running back position,” Mike Norvell said. “He brings great versatility too. I really think he can do it all. I’m so excited about where he’s going and when you bring that versatility with such great athletic ability and the top-end speed, and he can be a true game changer.”

Micahi Danzy was a four-star prospect out of high school He was the No. 216 overall recruit and the seventh-ranked athlete in the 2024 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. A track star, he comes to Florida State looking to blow people away with his speed.

However, Danzy isn’t an outlier at Florida State. In fact, his blend of speed and size is exactly what Mike Norvell is looking for on the recruiting trail.

“So, as you looked at our football team in general, the size, the speed, the athleticism,” Norvell said. “I think we’re continuing to improve upon that and just being able to do it with just great young men that love to work.”

How Mike Norvell has improved recruiting success at Florida State

Over the years, Mike Norvell has steadily improved recruiting at Florida State.  Ira Schoffel of On3’s Warchant explained on Andy Staples On3 how he did it.

“I think from a recruiting standpoint, that is a knock on Mike Norvell and his staff. When is the high school recruiting going to reach there? I think you go back to his first two years at Florida State, he didn’t get the bump most coaches get because of COVID… If you go back to the coaches that were hired in 2020, not a lot of them are still not employed… It was a really tough situation,” Schoffel said.

“Really, for a year and a half, they didn’t get to go on the road to recruit. He didn’t have a bunch of assistant coaches who coached in Florida. So, a lot of these reasons stunted offensive recruiting.”

At that point, Andy Staples jumped in to share some of his thoughts on how Mike Norvell improved recruiting.

“The high school recruiting has gotten better and better every year as they’ve won more,” Staples said. “It feels like the development is there. The guys that they’ve gotten in high school, they’re now ready to play. This is not the situation he walked into anymore. He’s recruiting off success for the last couple of years.”