An inside look at the most daunting offseason in college football history
Editor's Note: Nearly four months to the day after college football programs around the country saw their spring practices end prematurely due to the coronavirus pandemic, Florida State's players and coaches returned to the practice fields for organized team workouts this week. There is still no guarantee that the 2020 football season will be played, but after everything the Seminoles have endured this offseason, they are elated to even have this opportunity.
Over the next several days, Warchant.com will give readers an inside view of what was happening inside the Florida State football program from the time spring practice was halted on March 12 through the start of official summer workouts on July 13.
During those four months, Warchant managing editor Ira Schoffel conducted 20 interviews with FSU head coach Mike Norvell, his assistant coaches, top front-office staffers and others inside the program.
These stories are a product of those conversations.
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Mike Norvell had just watched his Florida State football players grind through a two-hour practice in pads for the first time.
Wearing a white shirt and garnet baseball cap, with a black whistle and lanyard draped around his neck, Norvell looked and sounded like any other college football coach talking about any other practice on any other other campus in the country.
He smiled when he addressed the throng of reporters.
He praised his players for their effort and desire but made it clear several times that, "We've got a lot of work to do."
He said he was looking forward to the rest of the spring and continuing the Seminoles' long journey toward the start of the 2020 season.
What Norvell didn't share with the media were some of the deeper concerns racing through his mind.
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It was late morning on March 12, 2020.
About 12 hours earlier, the sporting world was shocked to learn the NBA was suspending its season indefinitely because a player had tested positive for the coronavirus. There was speculation that college basketball tournaments, several of which were already under way, would be put on hold as well.
When Norvell was asked if he was concerned the rest of FSU's spring practice -- his first in Tallahassee -- might be in jeopardy because of the emerging health threat, the 38-year-old head coach did not sound overly concerned. He said his team would “take guidance” from the FSU administration and make decisions from there.
After answering a final question, Norvell thanked the reporters for their time and followed his players and assistant coaches into the Moore Athletics Center.
Among his first stops there was the office of Jake Pfeil, FSU's executive associate director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer for football.
"He wanted to know what I thought," Pfeil said. "Even at that fresh of a moment, you could tell he realized how big this was."
AN UNCOMMON CHALLENGE
The entire college sports world came to a screeching halt on that day in mid-March. The Florida State Seminoles were not unique in that regard.
But of the 130 FBS football programs in the country -- from Air Force and Akron to Wisconsin and Wyoming -- a case could be made that none faced a more unique and daunting challenge this offseason than Florida State. And no head coach would find himself encountering a taller task than Mike Norvell.
When he was hired in early December, Norvell signed up to lead one of the most successful programs in modern college football history, but also one that had struggled greatly in recent years.
The Seminoles had posted an overall losing record since the end of the 2016 season, and the roster was filled with players recruited either by a coach who bailed on them for another job (Jimbo Fisher), or a coach who was fired after losing 12 of 21 games and going 0-5 against the school's biggest rivals (Willie Taggart).
For Norvell to turn things around in short order, he and his staff would have to convince those players to embrace and trust yet another new coaching staff. While learning new offensive and defensive schemes for a fourth straight year -- in some cases from a fourth different position coach or coordinator.
“You’re always concerned when you’re just coming into a [new] program,” first-year running backs coach David Johnson said. “You’re not sure, because you’re trying to build those relationships. You're kind of nervous about it."
To the new coaches' delight, things could not have gone much smoother during their first three months on the job.
Frustrated by the disappointments of the past, FSU's players were more than happy to follow the new regime's lead. They quickly adapted to Norvell's rules, including the removal of hoods and hats, earbuds and earrings when entering the Moore Center. They learned that being "on time" for meetings now meant being early.
And by all accounts, the team's winter conditioning program, labeled the "Tour of Duty," went exceedingly well. Players were dropping bad weight and putting on good.
On the day before spring practice started in early March, Norvell proclaimed that the 91 players on his team had produced 695 pounds of "positive growth" -- meaning desired weight changes in both directions.
"This team is very, very hungry to improve," strength and conditioning coach Josh Storms said at the time. "And that's been the most exciting thing. These guys want the work. These guys want the culture. ... They don't want to be a class of guys that was here on the decline."
If new college football coaches received report cards after their first 12 weeks on the job, Norvell would have recorded straight As.
Six days later, after just three spring practices -- and only one in pads -- FSU's entire football program would be disbanded for months.
'DEPARTMENT BY DEPARTMENT'
Days before the NBA went on hiatus -- and while only a handful of coronavirus cases had been reported in the state of Florida -- Norvell and his staff were very much aware of the potential concerns.
Rumors had been swirling all week that state officials might instruct every university in Florida to send students home, at least temporarily. And the Seminoles were facing a unique situation because their spring break was scheduled to begin that weekend.
There was a very real possibility that FSU could be shut down while the students were out of town.
“You could see it building on an international and national level,” said Bruce Warwick, Norvell's chief of staff.
“You felt it coming," added Pfeil. "You could sense that something really abnormal was about to happen."
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At 4:23 p.m. on March 12, abnormal arrived.
FSU athletics director David Coburn announced via email that all spring sports activities would be "suspended until further notice."
Nothing was officially canceled. In fact, there was talk internally of a possible return in the first week of April. So when FSU's football players departed that Friday morning to either go home for the break or to visit vacation destinations, they expected to return in just a few weeks.
“They didn’t realize it was going to be this extended period of time,” Warwick said. “Mentally, they were thinking they were going to get away for a couple of weeks, see some family and relax for a little bit. They weren’t thinking that they were going to be out of the college environment for a couple of months.”
Once the players were on their way, Norvell and Warwick held meetings with nearly every office in the athletics department. They still hoped the players would be gone for just a few weeks, but Norvell didn't want them to lose any of the positive strides they had made from January through March.
They sat down with academic advisers to discuss how the players would be helped with their classwork virtually. They met with medical staff to figure out how players rehabbing from surgeries would be able to stay on track.
Storms explained how he would create individual workouts for every player, based on their personal needs. The team's nutritionist, Marisa Faibish, started working on dietary plans.
“Department by department,” Warwick said. “We went through every department that touches our kids."
While he was comfortable with the preliminary plans, Norvell already had serious concerns about how this unexpected hiatus would affect his team's preparation for the 2020 season.
Had this happened during his last season as head coach at Memphis or during one of his later years as offensive coordinator at Arizona State, it still would have been worrisome.
But for it to happen just three months into his tenure at Florida State, while he and his staff were still setting a foundation for the future, it was even more unsettling.
“Even in places where you’ve been there and established an expectation, any time guys have an extended break, you always can see the difference,” Norvell said. “Those first couple of weeks of getting back, getting re-acclimated to the structure and the standard of how we do things ... the longer you’ve been at a place, the quicker that transition happens when they come back. Being in year one, we’re still learning. Every day is a learning process.”
OPPORTUNITY LOST
Four days after FSU's players left Tallahassee for spring break, the worst-case scenario became reality.
The Atlantic Coast Conference announced that all spring sports activities would be canceled entirely. That would include all remaining games for sports such as baseball and softball, and the remainder of spring practice in football.
It didn't take long for Norvell and his staff to digest the implications.
Unless the coronavirus somehow passed quickly and the NCAA created a way for college football teams to make up their spring practice dates during the summer, there was a very real chance the Seminoles would go into preseason camp without knowing very much about their players -- at least on the field.
The coaches would figure out a way to continue teaching their offensive and defensive schemes. The players would be able to work out on their own and maybe even maintain their weight and improved strength.
But after conducting just one practice in pads, FSU's coaches still had so much to learn.
“Just seeing guys compete,” tight ends coach Chris Thomsen said. “It is a physical game. There's no getting around it. There’s a transfer of power -- from one man to another -- that you get on the grass. When you’re engaged -- an O-lineman and a D-lineman or a receiver and a corner -- when they engage that other person, they have to learn how to transfer their power and win over the other guy.”
That was going to be one of the coaching staff's main priorities of the spring.
Along with installing their schemes and refining players' techniques and fundamentals, Norvell's staff wanted to find out which players could impose their will on others. Which ones received the impact of a collision, and which ones delivered it.
Another crucial element, perhaps equally important, was determining the physical and mental capabilities of every player when exposed to game-type situations.
"Figuring out what guys are good at,” Thomsen said. “What they do well. What throws do quarterbacks feel comfortable with? What routes do guys run well? Are the linemen good at zone-blocking or pulling or both? Is pass-protection his strength, or is it run-blocking? There’s just so many things.
"And you tailor the things that you do to the strengths of your players. So when you don’t yet fully know their strengths, now that’s something you have to figure out in training camp or in the early part of the season.”
Defensive coordinator Adam Fuller echoed that concern and one more.
Fuller, who came with Norvell from Memphis, was particularly interested in evaluating three or four players who have the potential to play multiple positions this season. The plan was to examine where they fit best in the early practices and then use the rest of the spring to let them grow comfortable in their long-term roles.
“This job is as much about evaluations as anything,” Fuller said. “That goes from a recruiting standpoint to when you have the players in place. Where do you put them? The position you put that player in is critical to his success or failure. And the longer it takes to figure that out, the less success that player is probably going to have. So you want to make sure you’re doing that right."
Another important element of the spring, of course, is team-building.
When football teams display great camaraderie and a willingness to fight for each other in the fall, that typically is a product of working through adversity together during the spring and summer months.
Florida State's coaches started that team-building process with their rigorous "Tour of Duty" drills in February.
Spring practice was going to be even more important.
“A big part of building relationships is conflict,” offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said. “And the field, and reps, and getting after people, and coaching … that creates the conflict that’s needed in order to build the relationship and build the trust. So that definitely makes it challenging.”
No one understood those challenges in mid-March more than Norvell. But he also wasn't about to dwell on them.
As would become abundantly clear during the next three or four months, the first-year head coach's ability to craft detailed plans -- and then adjust quickly to a variety of rapidly changing circumstances -- would be crucial to FSU's chances for success in 2020.
If the season ended up being played at all.
“What we do schematically -- offense, defense and special teams -- is dependent on who we have,” Norvell said. “So we’re going to have to do a great job [in preseason camp] of evaluating where these guys are and how they’re picking up what we’re asking them to do. So we can make sure that we’re showcasing them in the best way possible.
"That’s something we’re going to have to do a great job of when we get back.”
COMING UP NEXT
Teaching in a virtual world: How FSU's coaches used technology, ingenuity to stay on track during extended quarantine.
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Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council