Michael Kelly Norvell (born October 11, 1981) is an American

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

coach. He is the head football coach for

Florida State Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

, a position he has held since 2020. He was previously head coach at Memphis, and has coached for Arizona State,

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

Tulsa Tulsa ( ) is the second-most-populous city in the state of Oklahoma, after Oklahoma City, and the 48th-most-populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 census. It is the principal municipality of the Tul ...

, and

Central Arkansas Central Arkansas, also known as the Little Rock metro, designated by the United States Office of Management and Budget as the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area, is the most populous metro area in the U.S. state ...

. He played

wide receiver A wide receiver (WR), also referred to as a wideout, and historically known as a split end (SE) or flanker (FL), is an eligible receiver in gridiron football. A key skill position of the offense (American football), offense, WR gets its name ...

at the University of Central Arkansas from 2001 to 2005 and is the school's all-time receptions leader.

Playing career

Norvell played wide receiver at Grace Preparatory Academy in

Arlington, Texas Arlington is a city in Tarrant County, Texas, Tarrant County, Texas, United States. It is part of the Mid-Cities region of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, Dallas–Fort Worth–Arlington metropolitan statistical area, and is a principal c ...

, coached by former Houston Oilers tight end Mike Barber. After graduating, because of his small physical stature, he decided to wait a year before walking on to a college football team. He enrolled in online college courses and became an assistant coach at Grace Prep in the early fall of 1999 at the age of 17 (turning 18 in October 1999). Norvell then walked on at Louisiana Tech in 2000 and then transferred to the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) from 2001 to 2005 and played

. He set the school's all-time reception record with 213 pass receptions for 2,611 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns, 1 rushing touchdown, and 2 passing touchdowns during his career. During his senior season in 2005, Norvell was part of a UCA Bears team that won the

Gulf South Conference The Gulf South Conference (GSC) is a college athletic conference affiliated with the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) at the Division II level, which operates in the Southeastern United States. History Originally known as the ...

championship, and made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs, finishing the season 11–3.

Coaching career

Early career

In 2007, Norvell was hired for his first coaching role, with Tulsa, working under Gus Malzahn. His first offensive coordinator position was at Pitt with Todd Graham. The next season, he worked as the offensive coordinator for Arizona State, following Graham.

Memphis

On December 4, 2015, Norvell was introduced as the 24th head football coach of the Memphis Tigers. The youngest FBS head coach in the nation at the time of his hiring (aged 34), Norvell had overseen one of the nation's most explosive offenses at Arizona State under Todd Graham. Like Justin Fuente, Norvell was a young, up-and-coming offensive coordinator who employed an up-tempo, pass-oriented spread offense and brought the high-octane system with him to Memphis. One of Norvell's first moves as head coach was to retain Darrell Dickey from Fuente's staff, naming him associate head coach/co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach. The University of Memphis signed Norvell to a five-year contract that paid him a base salary of $1.8 million for his first year that would increase slightly each passing year. The Tigers finished with an 8–5 record in 2016. With Riley Ferguson taking over as the team's starting quarterback, Memphis began the Norvell era with a 35–17 victory over FCS opponent Southeast Missouri State on September 3. The next week, Norvell's team defeated

Kansas Kansas ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Nebraska to the north; Missouri to the east; Oklahoma to the south; and Colorado to the west. Kansas is named a ...

by a margin of 43–7. In the season's third game, the Tigers defeated Bowling Green 77–3 behind Ferguson's six passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in the game's first half. On October 1, Ole Miss handed Memphis its first loss of the season in a 48–28 rout. Five days later, the Tigers defeated

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a place of worship, a building used for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. By convention, the specially built places of worship of some religions are commonly called "temples" in Engli ...

by a score of 34–27. That was followed by a 24–14 victory over Tulane on October 14. Memphis lost its next two; dropping a 42–28 contest to #24

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

and a 59–30 blowout to

. On November 5, the Tigers defeated SMU by a score of 51–7. The next week, Norvell's Tigers lost a shootout to

South Florida South Florida, sometimes colloquially shortened to SoFlo, is the Regions of the United States#Florida, southernmost region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is one of Florida's three most commonly referred to directional regions; the two others are ...

by a margin of 49–42. They closed the regular season with a 34–27 win over

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

on November 18 and a 48–44 victory over #18

Houston Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

in a shootout. The Tigers accepted a berth in the 2016 Boca Raton Bowl, a game they lost to Western Kentucky by a score of 51–31. In 13 starts in 2016, Riley Ferguson threw for 3,698 yards and broke Paxton Lynch's single-season record with 32 touchdown passes set the previous season. After the 2016 season, co-offensive coordinator Chip Long left the Tigers to take the same position on Brian Kelly's staff at Notre Dame. To replace Long, Darrell Dickey was named the team's sole offensive coordinator. On May 12, 2017, it was announced that the University of Memphis signed Norvell to a one-year contract extension though the 2021 season and gave his assistant coaches raises. Kicker Jake Elliott was selected in the fifth round with the 153rd overall pick in the 2017 NFL draft by the

Cincinnati Bengals The Cincinnati Bengals are a professional American football team based in Cincinnati. The Bengals compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member of the American Football Conference (AFC) AFC North, North division. The team plays its h ...

Memphis went 10–3 in 2017. They started the season on August 31 with a 37–29 victory over Louisiana-Monroe. The Tigers were supposed to play UCF on September 9, but due to

Hurricane Irma Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that was the first Category 5 hurricane to strike the Leeward Islands on record, followed by Hurricane Maria, Maria two weeks later. At the time, it was considered ...

, the game, which originally had been moved up one day to September 8, was rescheduled for September 30. In order to reschedule the

American Athletic Conference The American Athletic Conference (AAC), also known as The American, is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the United States, featuring 13 full member universities and 6 affiliate member universities that compete in t ...

game, Memphis canceled their game with Georgia State, leaving the team with only 11 regular season games as opposed to the usual 12. On September 16, the Tigers upset #25

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

48–45, marking only their second victory over a ranked opponent in 21 years. After a 44–31 victory over

Football Championship Subdivision The NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS), formerly known as Division I-AA, is the second-highest level of college football in the United States, after the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision, Football Bowl Subdivision (F ...

opponent Southern Illinois, Norvell's Tigers suffered their first loss of the season in the form of a 40–13 defeat in the rescheduled UCF game. On October 6, Memphis defeated UConn by a margin of 70–31. That was followed by a 30–27 victory over #25

, marking the first time the Tigers had ever defeated two ranked opponents in a single season in school history. Ranked #25 in the country in the AP Poll, the Tigers won their third consecutive contest, defeating

42–38. A fourth straight win followed on October 27 with a 56–26 blowout victory over Tulane. Norvell's Tigers made it five in a row with a 41–14 victory over

. On November 18, the Tigers defeated SMU in a high-scoring 66–45 contest to clinch the

's West Division and a berth in the

2017 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game The 2017 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game was held on Saturday, December 2, 2017. This was the third year that the AAC Championship game is played. The game was a rematch of the September 30 matchup, which UCF won 40-13. ...

. Memphis finished off the regular season with a 70–13 defeat of East Carolina, recording their seventh consecutive victory. In the

, the Tigers lost a hard-fought 62–55 double overtime contest to UCF. Memphis accepted a berth in the 2017 Liberty Bowl on their home field, losing the game to Iowa State by a score of 21–20. On December 5, 2017, Memphis signed Norvell to another contract extension, a five-year addition to his deal worth $13 million. The extension increased Norvell's annual pay to $2.6 million and made him the highest paid Group of 5 head coach in the country. Following the 2017 season, offensive coordinator Darrell Dickey left Norvell's staff to take the offensive coordinator position on newly hired head coach Jimbo Fisher's staff at

Texas A&M Texas A&M University (Texas A&M, A&M, TA&M, or TAMU) is a public university, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in College Station, Texas, United States. It was founded in 1876 and became the flagship institution of ...

. Kenny Dillingham was promoted from graduate assistant to replace Dickey. After starting the 2018 season 4–4 overall and 1–3 in conference play, Memphis would win their last 4 games, including a 52–31 victory over Houston in the final week of the regular season to finish in a 3-way tie for first in the West with Houston and Tulane. After tiebreakers, Memphis was awarded with the West conference berth to the 2018 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game, facing off against UCF again in Orlando. Despite having a 38–21 lead at the half, the Tigers would only manage to score 3 points in the second half and ended up losing 56–41. Memphis accepted a berth in the 2018 Birmingham Bowl, losing to Wake Forest 37–34 to finish the season 8–6. The 2019 season was one of the best seasons in the program's history, as the Tigers went 11–1 in the regular season and clinched a spot in the 2019 American Athletic Conference Football Championship Game on December 7, the team's third championship appearance in a row. This time they faced

, whom the Tigers defeated 34-24 the previous week to clinch home-field advantage for the championship game. After a back and forth battle between the two teams, Memphis quarterback Brady White would connect with Antonio Gibson for a go-ahead touchdown with 1:14 left in the 4th quarter to give Memphis a 29–24 victory over the Bearcats to win the conference championship. Since they were the highest ranked Group of Five team in the final college football playoff poll, they were awarded a New Year's Six bowl berth to the Cotton Bowl against Penn State. The next day, Norvell left Memphis to become the new head coach at

Florida State

On December 8, 2019,

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

formally announced Norvell as its head football coach. His contract was initially for $26.5 million over 6 years. On October 17, 2020, Norvell led the Seminoles to a win over

North Carolina North Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, South Carolina to the south, Georgia (U.S. stat ...

, becoming the first ACC coach to defeat a Top 20 opponent in their first year; the team finished with a record of 3–6 in Norvell's first season. However, Norvell tested positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

ahead of the rivalry game with The University of Miami, and was not the acting head coach. In Norvell's second season with the Seminoles, the program finished 5-7, despite an 0–4 start, and showed remarkable improvement in the rebuild of the organization. In his third season, Florida State started off strong with a 4–0 record and entered the rankings at #23. This included a 24–23 victory over the eventual SEC West champion

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

in the first edition of the Louisiana Kickoff in

New Orleans New Orleans (commonly known as NOLA or The Big Easy among other nicknames) is a Consolidated city-county, consolidated city-parish located along the Mississippi River in the U.S. state of Louisiana. With a population of 383,997 at the 2020 ...

. They then lost three consecutive games to ACC Atlantic foes Wake Forest, NC State, and Clemson before handily defeating Georgia Tech, rival

Miami Miami is a East Coast of the United States, coastal city in the U.S. state of Florida and the county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade County in South Florida. It is the core of the Miami metropolitan area, which, with a populat ...

, and Syracuse. They became bowl eligible for the first time since 2019 following their 45–3 defeat of Miami, and reached #19 in the College Football Playoff rankings following their 38–3 defeat of Syracuse. Following a 49–17 home victory against Sun Belt Conference foe,

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

, FSU jumped four ranked spots in the AP Poll to #16, a season high since week 4 of the 2017 season. The Seminoles notched their first victory over

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

in four years, and fans rushed the field in celebration; it marked the highest scoring game in the

rivalry A rivalry is the state of two people or groups engaging in a lasting competitive relationship. Rivalry is the "against each other" spirit between two competing sides. The relationship itself may also be called "a rivalry", and each participant ...

and completed a sweep of the Seminoles' rivals, the

Hurricanes A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system with a low-pressure area, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depending on its locat ...

and Gators, for the first time under Norvell. The result in

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

was 2nd place in the ACC Atlantic. Florida State was invited to the Cheez-It Bowl, where they defeated

Oklahoma Oklahoma ( ; Choctaw language, Choctaw: , ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Texas to the south and west, Kansas to the north, Missouri to the northea ...

by a score of 35–32 for Norvell's first career bowl win. The Seminoles finished 10–3, the first season of double-digit wins since

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

, and were ranked #11 in the final AP Poll and #10 in the final Coaches' Poll, finishing as the highest-ranked ACC team in the country. In the off-season of his fourth year, Florida State extended Norvell to a new contract averaging $8.05 million per year. At the start of the 2023 season, Norvell and the Seminoles were ranked #8 in the AP Poll. Florida State defeated then #14

Louisville Cardinals The Louisville Cardinals (also known as the Cards) are the NCAA athletic teams representing the University of Louisville. The Cardinals teams play in the Atlantic Coast Conference, beginning in the 2014 season. While playing in the Big East Co ...

in the ACC Championship Game, and claimed their first conference championship since the

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

season, the school's nineteenth conference title. Norvell and Florida State ended the season with a 13–0 record and the Seminoles were ranked fifth in the College Football Playoff committee’s final rankings, becoming the first undefeated Power Five conference champion to be left out of the Playoff. The Seminoles were instead invited to the

Orange Bowl The Orange Bowl is an annual American college football bowl game played in the Miami metropolitan area. Played annually since 1935 Orange Bowl, January 1, 1935, it is tied with the Sugar Bowl and the Sun Bowl as the second-oldest bowl games in ...

to face the

Georgia Bulldogs The Georgia Bulldogs are the College athletics in the United States, intercollegiate athletic teams that represent the University of Georgia. The Bulldogs compete in NCAA Division I and are members of the Southeastern Conference (SEC). The offic ...

. Georgia subsequently defeated Florida State by a score of 63–3. For the team's accomplishments, Norvell was named ACC Coach of the Year, won the Bobby Dodd Trophy, and was awarded as the Paul “Bear” Bryant National Coach of the Year. The 2024 season ended with a 2–10 record, the team's worst since 1974.

Personal life

Norvell is married to Maria Norvell (Chiolino), with whom he has a daughter.

Head coaching record

* Departed Memphis for Florida State before bowl game.

References

External links

Florida State Seminoles bio

Memphis Tigers bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norvell, Mike 1981 births Living people American football wide receivers Arizona State Sun Devils football coaches Central Arkansas Bears football coaches Central Arkansas Bears football players Coaches of American football from Texas Florida State Seminoles football coaches Louisiana Tech Bulldogs football players Memphis Tigers football coaches People from Irving, Texas Pittsburgh Panthers football coaches Players of American football from Dallas County, Texas Tulsa Golden Hurricane football coaches