Through his initial rebuild of the Florida State football program, Mike Norvell did a number of things very well.

He rebuilt a culture in desperate need of repair. He helped develop a quarterback previously believed to be a non-factor into an ACC Player of the Year and NFL draft pick. He and his staff expertly navigated the transfer portal, rebuilding their roster impressively well to bring home an ACC Championship in his fourth season atop the program.

However, one looming area where Norvell and his first FSU staff never truly found their footing was in high-school recruiting.

As Norvell prepares to rebuild a new staff this offseason with three coaches already fired and potentially more on the way when the season comes to a close at the end of the month, that is something he's weighing heavily as he reassembles a new staff that will have to rebuild the program which has utterly crumbled this season with a 1-9 record.

"I think that's one of the things that we've got to make sure that the guys that we're bringing are the right fit as coaches, players, everybody involved that really can embrace and help us advance in all those areas," Norvell said. "But absolutely, the recruiting piece of that and the relationship, people that truly enjoy that aspect of this profession and building relationships with the players is going to be critical."

Transition classes after a head-coach firing are never particularly strong given the short timeline to build relationships with commits you inherited and targets you're trying to bring on board in the few weeks before the early signing period begins. Norvell's 2020 transitional class ranked 20th nationally according to Rivals.

After that, there were a few hurdles Norvell and his staff had to clear in recruiting. Most notably, the Coronavirus pandemic shut down in-person recruiting for over a year starting in March 2020, a mere three months after he took the job. This also slowed that recruiting build and FSU's 2021 signing class ranked 27th nationally.

The 2022 class improved a bit to 20th, but then the 2023 class, which signed right after FSU finished the 2022 regular season with a 9-3 record, ranked 26th nationally.

Whatever the reason -- and it wasn't just one thing -- recruiting never really got rolling in the high-school ranks for the Seminoles the last few years. They did well to land highly-coveted commitments in the middle of the cycle, beating out the likes of Alabama, Georgia, Auburn and LSU for a number of blue-chip prospects. However, they also were dealt the blow of losing a top commit each of the last few years during the early signing period.

Even coming off a 13-0 regular season last December, FSU lost five-star safety commit KJ Bolden and five-star defensive end commit Armondo Blount to flips during the early signing period. FSU's 2024 class ranked 12th nationally, improved from previous years but still not what you'd expect from a program of FSU's prestige coming off an undefeated season.

Over the summer, FSU's 2025 recruiting class was shaping up well in quality but lacking in quantity. With the Seminoles in quite a few recruitments for top prospects that were expected to carry into the fall, their belief appeared to be filling the class out late.

Once the losses started piling up this season, though, it became clear that was not going to be the case. Instead, there's been an exodus of many of FSU's top commits and the 2025 class now ranks 48th nationally with 12 total commits, a few more of which also appear to be flirting with flips elsewhere.

With FSU potentially signing a high-school class of single-digit prospects, it seems the portal will again be a critical piece of the Seminoles' rebuild this offseason, especially with rosters expanding to 105 scholarships.

That being said, one would hope this season has been a blaring alarm clock for Norvell as to the dangers of portal overreliance. Player development is always going to be something the FSU head coach values, but his reassembled FSU staff needs to have better recruiting chops if he's going to build a more sustainable FSU football program this time.

"We want the best staff of coaches that are teachers, developers, guys that have shown and proven that on the field, and then also guys that are great relationship builders," Norvell said. "I think when you look across college football, the statement of what a great recruiter is, it's really twofold. Somebody that -- can you sign them? Great. What do you do with them? You've got to have the relationship, but you've also got to have the development factor that ties into that, and then making sure that the evaluation piece of it is critical, too."

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