Long before he made his public speaking -- and singing! -- debut in Tallahassee, Kenny Dillingham experienced a brief bout of stage fright about eight years ago on the Arizona State football practice fields.

At the time, Dillingham was 21 years old and had recently been named offensive coordinator at his alma mater, Chaparral High School in nearby Scottsdale.

Mike Norvell was Arizona State's offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach, and had already earned a reputation for being one of the bright young minds in college football.

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Although he was nervous and not exactly sure what to say, Dillingham approached Norvell and briefly introduced himself.

"Hi, I'm Kenny. I coach at Chaparral High School."

To Dillingham's surprise, Norvell encouraged the aspiring young coach to come by and watch film with him one day and maybe even sit in on some of the Sun Devils' quarterback meetings.

"Little did he know that I was going to sit in every single meeting the rest of spring, and be the dude in the corner," Dillingham said with a smile on Monday afternoon, seemingly still in amazement over the whole situation. "From right then I knew, this is a special guy."

Fast-forward about eight years, several jobs, countless yards gained and touchdowns scored, Dillingham went on to explain why he is so excited to be back on Norvell's staff and to be the new offensive coordinator at Florida State.

Dillingham is so elated that he, for perhaps the first time in the history of introductory college football press conferences, actually answered one question by singing the chorus of a song -- a 1970s hit by Peaches & Herb, which was recorded more than a decade before he was born.

"Reunited ... and it feels so good."

It was the 29-year-old Dillingham's initial response when asked what it's like to be back on Norvell's staff following a one-year departure.

After working his way up from an off-field role at Arizona State to a graduate assistant position on Norvell's first staff at Memphis to a position coaching role and later offensive coordinator, Dillingham spent the 2019 season as offensive coordinator at Auburn. He then jumped at the chance to be back by his mentor's side when Norvell was hired last week at FSU.

"We never skipped a beat," Dillingham said of the reunion. "Got right back ... we just fell right into place like we never missed a beat."

It is that synergy that Dillingham hopes will help Florida State's offense get back to the form when it was the envy of all of college football.