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The 3-2-1: On FSU's thorough search, learning from mistakes and more

Five weeks to the day after Florida State's administration fired Willie Taggart, the Seminoles on Sunday introduced Mike Norvell as their next head coach.

In this edition of the Warchant 3-2-1, we offer three observations, two questions and a prediction about the Seminoles' coaching search, their new head coach and the future of the FSU program.

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FSU President John Thrasher congratulates new football coach Mike Norvell during an appearance a Florida State basketball game Sunday afternoon.
FSU President John Thrasher congratulates new football coach Mike Norvell during an appearance a Florida State basketball game Sunday afternoon. (Associated Press)

Three things we've learned

1 -- Acting early was essential in landing Norvell

When Florida State athletics director David Coburn was asked back in early November why the administration decided to fire Willie Taggart after the Seminoles' ugly loss to Miami, he was direct and to the point.

Even if Taggart had won two of his final three games and become bowl eligible, Coburn said, that wasn't "good enough" to meet expectations for Year 2 of his tenure. On top of that, Coburn said making the move early would give the Seminoles an advantage over other college programs entering the marketplace for a new head coach in the final weeks of the season.

On Sunday, we got a clearer picture of how that early start helped the Seminoles land Mike Norvell.

The very same week that FSU fired Taggart, Memphis was enjoying an off-week, which meant Norvell didn't have an opponent to prepare for that Saturday. That allowed the Florida State administration to conduct a preliminary interview with him that weekend, and while the Seminoles' contingent got to learn more about him, Norvell also got to learn more about the university.

"That was a great, great meeting, a great moment," Norvell explained on Sunday.

Coburn and FSU President John Thrasher were equally impressed. The Seminoles' top leaders were immediately enamored with Norvell's coaching and recruiting philosophies, his approach to hiring assistants, his academic plans for the program and his personal backstory.

Over the next few weeks, Florida State would meet with several other coaching candidates, but Coburn said they kept coming back to that "Norvell guy."

As impressed as they were, though, the Seminoles were determined to not make the mistake they made two years earlier. During that search, following the sudden departure of Jimbo Fisher, FSU rushed through the process and hired Taggart in just four days.

"Too quick," Thrasher said on Sunday, when asked if the Seminoles learned from that episode. "Probably too quick. That was the biggest [lesson], I think. Not enough due diligence maybe in some other areas -- those fundamental things."

FSU's president also acknowledged that Norvell's name came up during that previous search in 2017, but he wasn't given much thought because FSU locked onto Taggart so quickly.

"[He] was on my radar actually two years ago," Thrasher said. "And we didn't follow up probably enough on that, to be honest with you. Not saying anything derogatory about our former coach. But I've known about him since then."

This time was different.

Not only did FSU's administration criss-cross the country talking to different candidates, but the conversations were much deeper and substantive.

"When we started, we were the only game in town out there looking," Thrasher said. "And so we did a good job. I think we were methodical about who we talked to, when we talked to them. We had lengthy conversations. None of these were like 5 or 10 minutes and in and out. The minimum was two hours, with everybody we talked to."

FSU actually conducted two of those two-hour interviews with Norvell. It was after the second one that the Seminoles stopped searching.

"He was really impressive," Coburn said.

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