Norvell changing the rules of engagement in recruiting
By: Ira Schoffel - Warchant.comSomeone is going to have to explain to me how Mike Norvell is not the talk of college football right now.
At least the talk of college football recruiting.
It wasn't all that long ago that Ron Zook grabbed national headlines for telling his athletics director at the University of Florida that he'd like to have a waterproof cell phone so he could make recruiting calls from the shower.
"He's a recruiting monster!" college football reporters fawned, so impressed that Zook didn't want to miss out on even 10 minutes of recruiting time in the early 2000s. (Also ignoring the creep factor of a grown man calling teenagers from the shower.)
That anecdote was apparently so powerful that it was still being cited by media in Illinois several years after Zook had been fired by the Gators.
About a decade later, Michigan's Jim Harbaugh got his turn as the media's darling when he impressed the nation's top placekicker by showing up at his home for a sleepover when a mid-January recruiting period opened up at 12:01 a.m.
It was one of a number of gimmicks Harbaugh used to generate interest in his first few years as the Wolverines' head coach (along with taking off his shirt and playing pickup football with prospects at a satellite camp in Alabama, and climbing a tree to impress another recruit's little sister.)
This is amazing and newsworthy stuff, folks.
Shortly after that, Georgia's Kirby Smart generated buzz by using a helicopter to visit several recruits' high schools. And Nick Saban created headlines for line dancing at a recruit's house.
Yet for some reason, Norvell's actions over the past two months have gone largely unnoticed on a national scale.
Not by recruits, of course. He’s apparently doing very well in their eyes.
Florida State football coach Mike Norvell has stretched the boundaries with new recruiting approaches. (Logan Stanford/Warchant.com)
FSU’s 2022 recruiting class is currently ranked No. 9 in the country after the Seminoles landed a commitment from South Florida linebacker Omar Graham Jr. earlier this week. And the 2023 class already features three commitments following this week's pledge from Vero Beach wide receiver Vandrevius Jacobs.
But when it comes to media attention outside of Tallahassee, it's largely been crickets.
On the one hand, I get it. The Florida State football program is not exactly front and center in the national consciousness right now. The 'Noles went 3-6 last year, and they're on their third head coach in four years. So there are probably three or four dozen other schools that merit more attention than FSU.
On the other hand, Norvell is doing a heck of a lot more than dancing with recruits or calling them from the shower.
Think about what he and his staff have pulled off during the past two months.
First, with in-person recruiting still banned by the NCAA in May, he wasn't content to do what every other college coaching staff was doing -- sitting in their offices and communicating with prospects all day via Zoom and FaceTime. He turned the entire FSU football program into a traveling road show, touring the state and conducting free youth football clinics.
"We had time," Norvell explained earlier this week after the final youth clinic in Tallahassee. "That's one of the things that you rarely ever have in this profession. But we had time, and I wanted to make sure we utilized that time to make an impact."
First, they loaded up for South Florida, where they held clinics in Miami-Dade and Broward counties (the Palm Beach event was called off due to lightning). Then they went to Jacksonville and Melbourne, Orlando and Fort Myers. There were 13 youth clinics in all, and virtually every area of the state was touched.
While those events were not geared to current recruits -- only students in second through eighth grade were allowed to attend -- there's no denying the Seminoles made a long-term impact. Norvell estimated that FSU's coaches worked with about 4,000 children during the free clinics, and he posed for pictures with just about every one.
Granted, the vast majority of those kids will never play college football and will never be recruited by Florida State, but some will. And you can rest assured those young athletes will remember the summer of 2021, when Florida State's coaches came to their hometown and offered them free coaching and one of the best football experiences of their lives.
Some rewards will come sooner than that.
When the NCAA opened in-person recruiting in June and the Seminoles started welcoming recruits to their on-campus summer camps, Norvell said several high school coaches told him they brought their players to Tallahassee specifically because of the community outreach the Seminoles did one month earlier.
"They see that we care," Norvell said.
On top of that, the state tour also created a great deal of social media buzz, as family members posted pictures and videos of their youngsters either posing with Norvell or being coached up by the Seminoles' full-time assistant coaches. And it also was a hit with former FSU players, who were excited to see their college program make an impact in their communities.
Then on the heels of that successful endeavor, Norvell again proved to be ahead of the curve when in-person recruiting opened back up on June 1.
Instead of waiting until the break of dawn that Tuesday to welcome prospects to campus, Norvell and his staff worked for weeks to organize an invitation-only Midnight Madness event late Monday. A slew of four- and five-star recruits -- and some of their families -- not only agreed to come to Tallahassee in the middle of the night, but they kept the event secret until the very last minute.
And it was another big splash on social media.
Then came FSU's Mega Camp that weekend, which was another significant success.
Instead of simply running their own traditional camps, evaluating prospects and providing instruction to prospects who hoped to one day play at FSU, Norvell opened the event up to every college coaching staff across the country -- big and small. There were recruiters from Power 5 programs, the tiniest NAIA schools, and everything in between.
And those coaches weren't simply invited to watch the workouts. They also were provided with 40 times, heights, weights and other testing information that the FSU staff collected -- just for coming to the event and taking the time to check out the prospects on hand.
Like the free youth clinics, this was another long play for Norvell and FSU. Several high school and 7-on-7 coaches I spoke with at the event were elated and impressed that the Seminoles were providing opportunities for more youths in the region. While I was actually talking to Norvell at one point, he received a text message from a prominent former UF player, just thanking him for what he was doing.
Just a few minutes earlier, I was interviewing University of Miami supporter Luther Campbell, the former rap star who now coaches at Miami Edison High and brought 30-plus players to the event.
"The best part about this here?" Campbell told me. "It's the fact that Coach [Norvell] invited so many other coaches to come out. Because everybody is not going to be able to go to a Florida State or something like that. You've got D-I, D-II, mid-majors, NAIA schools. So it's a beautiful thing for me as a coach, for my kids to be able to be evaluated like that. Especially since coaches weren't able to come out in the spring. That's why this is so important."
And that was just the start of the busiest recruiting month college football season has ever seen.
Not only did FSU host a dozen camp sessions during the month, with hundreds of attendees at each, but the Seminoles' coaches have entertained a seemingly endless line of official and unofficial visitors. After a 15-month hiatus due to the pandemic, recruits have been flowing through the Moore Athletics Center morning, noon and night, hopping on golf carts for tours and just getting to know Norvell's staff.
"It's been a fun month," he said earlier this week. "It's been a ... I'd say exhausting month would probably be about right. But it's one we were looking forward to, and really pleased with how it's gone. ... It's been a great month. And we're not done yet. We've still got the rest of the week to finish up."
Indeed, the Seminoles are hosting upward of 10 official visitors this weekend before the NCAA shuts recruiting down with another scheduled dead period. The busiest month likely will be capped off by the busiest week.
And who knows what other surprises Norvell might still have in store? (One night before the Mega Camp, his staff put together an impromptu "Elite Camp," with only the best of the best recruits going up against each other in a series of drills.)
"I love it," Norvell said of the recruiting process. "I love meeting people. I love relationships. That's what it's all about. ... It's something I've got a passion for."
What's been most impressive isn't just the fact that Norvell keeps pushing the boundaries of what's "typical" or the way things have always been done, but the fact that all of these strategies have been executed at such a high level.
Organizing events for hundreds of kids is hard enough on your own campus. Now, imagine loading up dozens of staff members and doing it in city parks that you've never even been to.
Or hosting recruits and their families in the middle of the night on a weekday -- and actually getting a great turnout.
Or bringing a couple thousand prospects and 50-plus college coaches from around the country together for a Mega Camp.
It's been astounding to watch in real time.
A few days before it all began, I interviewed FSU's director of on-campus recruiting, Charity Grady, and asked her about their planning for the month of June.
"We spend a lot of time preparing for everything," she said.
I then asked her how involved Norvell is with each step of that process.
"He's a big part," Grady said with a laugh -- a laugh that essentially said, You have no idea!
"He is extremely hands-on, which is amazing. Because he has so many ideas and things that he envisions for Florida State."
Over the last couple of months, now that things seem to finally be settling down from the coronavirus pandemic, we've gotten a glimpse of that. We've seen that Florida State has a head football coach who not only has the creativity to think outside the box, but the organizational skills to make those ideas come to life.
On June 24, 2021, just six months removed from a 3-6 season, Norvell has the Seminoles positioned with an early top-10 class for 2022 and a super-early top-5 class for 2023.
Just imagine if he starts winning some games.
