Thrasher: Norvell will have input in FSU football facility improvements

Florida State's long-discussed football operations center, which has been in the planning stages for about three years and has already been delayed once, could again take a different shape once new head football coach Mike Norvell provides his input.

FSU originally planned to break ground on a completely new building, to be constructed adjacent to the existing indoor practice facility, in late November. But that was put on hold when financial commitments from donors dried up during Willie Taggart's disappointing second season.

Now, the Seminoles could go back to the drawing board -- literally.

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During a wide-ranging interview with Warchant.com this week, FSU President John Thrasher explained that the university won't move forward with its original blueprints until Norvell and his staff have had a chance to review them and make sure they meet the program's current needs.

*WARCHANT EXTRA: Our Ira Schoffel answers' subscriber questions about this project

"We're going to get with Coach Norvell on that," Thrasher said. "Let him kind of look at that and see what he thinks. Get his input. And then we'll go from there."

That could mean tweaking the existing plans, which were unveiled more than a year ago, or considering an earlier option that called for renovating and expanding the Moore Athletics Center, which houses the football offices, locker room, weight room, meeting rooms and a number of classrooms and other departments.

That option was championed by some in the department and others within the Seminole Boosters leadership, but former head coaches Jimbo Fisher and Willie Taggart both preferred a separate standalone building.

"There's still, to me, options -- if we wanted to redo some of the Moore Center instead of building a new facility," Thrasher said. "But our promise to him (Norvell) was that when he had a moment to take a breath -- after recruiting and all that -- that we would sit down and go over all that in detail. And show him what the different options were that are out there. And kind of take some guidance from him on that."

This will make Norvell the third FSU head coach to play a role in the process, which has been contentious at times.

The project first bubbled up early in 2017 when Thrasher and former athletics director Stan Wilcox confirmed to Warchant they were beginning -- at Fisher's request -- the planning phase for a facility similar to the one opened at Clemson that January.

When Fisher bolted for Texas A&M later that year, sources confirmed he was frustrated that the project wasn't moving fast enough. He wanted the school to begin construction even before fundraising had been completed.

Then just a few months after Taggart was hired, he ruffled feathers in the administration when he took a very public stand on the project and said he was not in favor of expanding the Moore Center. He described that proposal, which also would have cost tens of millions of dollars, as a "Band-Aid."

"We need an upgrade big-time," Taggart said at the time. "I just don't think we need to Band-Aid anything anymore. Just do it right and do what's best for Florida State University. We can't get behind. That's for sure. And nobody's stopping. They're only moving forward."

Four months later, Florida State announced it finally had a plan. The new standalone facility would cost about $60 million -- about $5 million more than Clemson's -- and be part of an overall $100 million fundraising effort. The groundbreaking was scheduled to take place after FSU's final game of 2019, and the building would be operational by July 2021.

But after an initial surge in donations, led by a $20 million gift from Al and Judy Dunlap, the effort lost steam in recent months. And once it appeared unlikely that Taggart would be able to turn the program around, the administration decided to let the next head coach have a say.

That will be Norvell, who was introduced two weeks ago.

"He needs to obviously see the facilities, let his assistant coaches get here, see what we've got and then kind of kind of see where we want to go from there," Thrasher said.

The project has faced challenges aside from money.

Because of space constraints around Doak Campbell Stadium and the practice facility, there are limited options for where a new building could be constructed. And if the Moore Center is renovated and expanded, it would call for displacing several other departments. It also wouldn't be connected to the practice facility.

Regardless of the obstacles and delays, Thrasher said the university is committed to giving the football program all of the resources it needs to be successful.

A football operations center is going to be created one way or the other.

"You know, I keep going back to this," Thrasher said, "and I said this to him (Norvell) when we interviewed: Our facilities aren't bad. Everybody says, 'Oh, we need this or that.' You know, maybe we need a slide down the thing or a bowling alley. I don't know. Maybe we need some of that stuff. But I'll just say this: I think anybody who comes here would say our facilities are pretty good right now.

"Now, can it get better and can we do that? Absolutely. Yeah. There are things we need. And we're going to get there."

Note: Check back with Warchant on Monday for more of our interview with President Thrasher, including his in-depth thoughts on Taggart's dismissal and more.

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