Schoffel: Blueprint for Norvell will be succeeding in areas Taggart failed

Five weeks to the day after Willie Taggart was fired for not being up to Florida State's standards, the Seminoles were scheduled to formally introduce Norvell, Memphis' fourth-year head coach, as his replacement. The search didn't go as quickly as athletics director David Coburn predicted. It didn't culminate with a James Franklin or a Bob Stoops-type hire, or even a Matt Campbell or a Mark Stoops.

And because of that, some vocal fans felt like this search came up short of its goals. They thought Florida State's administration was determined to bring in a high-profile coach following the Taggart debacle -- a sure-fire, low-risk, high-reward, proven-at-the-highest-levels winner who could immediately elevate the Seminoles' program back to national prominence.

While that might seem unrealistic when you reflect on how these coaching searches typically go -- it is extremely rare for successful head coaches to jump from one Power 5 school to another -- Florida State fans had good reason to embrace those lofty aspirations.

From originally saying a hire would be made by the end of November to confirming early on that former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops was a candidate to sending out the "Renaissance" fundraising letter to boosters, Coburn and FSU President John Thrasher sent signals to the fan base -- intentionally or not -- that the Seminoles were swinging for the fences. That the administration was going to make up for the bad hire it made two years earlier.

So when Franklin and Campbell each signed extensions with their current schools this past week and both of the Stoops bros ended up being a no-go, it's understandable why some fans started wondering what went wrong. This wasn't a silky smooth operation, by any stretch of the imagination.

But just because we didn't like the path, that doesn't necessarily mean everyone should be disappointed by the destination. What's really important here is not what happened in the past or what transpires in the next couple of days, but what happens going forward. And if Florida State's new head coach is looking for a blueprint for how to get the Seminoles' program back on track, he might want to take a closer look at some of the ways Willie Taggart got it wrong.

Not to oversimplify things, but if Norvell can succeed in the following areas where his predecessor failed, he'll give himself a much better chance of enjoying a very successful run.

* Demand discipline from the players -- It has been a long time since Florida State has looked like a disciplined football team. Jimbo Fisher preached it early and then lost his way. Willie Taggart never seemed to make it a huge priority, and it showed. There's no other way to say it than this has been a sloppy football program for going on five years now -- both on and off the field. And the results are not going to improve until the discipline returns.

Now, I don't know if Norvell is the kind of coach who can come in and be the "bad guy" and instill fear in his players, but if he isn't, he had better bring in some assistant coaches who can. All of his play-calling expertise and slick offensive designs are not going to get Florida State back on track without some semblance of good, old-fashioned discipline.