Mike Norvell

Michael Kelly Norvell (born October 11, 1981) is an American college football coach who is currently the head coach at Florida State.

He has coached at Memphis, Arizona State, Pittsburgh, Tulsa, and Central Arkansas.

So he enrolled in online college courses and became an assistant coach at Grace Prep in the early fall of 1999 at the age of 17 (turning 18 in October of 1999).

Norvell then walked on at Louisiana Tech in 2000 and then transferred to the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) from 2001 to 2005 and played wide receiver.

He set the school's all-time reception record with 213 pass receptions for 2,611 yards and 15 receiving touchdowns, 1 rushing touchdown, and 2 passing touchdowns during his career.

He played wide receiver at the University of Central Arkansas from 2001 to 2005 and is the school's all-time receptions leader.

Norvell played wide receiver at Grace Preparatory Academy in Arlington, Texas, coached by former Houston Oilers tight end Mike Barber.

After graduating, because of his small physical stature, he decided to wait a year before walking on to a college football team.

During his senior season in 2005, Norvell was part of a UCA Bears team that won the Gulf South Conference championship, and made it to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division II playoffs, finishing the season 11–3.

In 2007, Norvell was hired for his first coaching role, with Tulsa, working under Gus Malzahn.

His first offensive coordinator position was at Pitt with Todd Graham.

The next season, he worked as the offensive coordinator for Arizona State, following Graham.

On December 4, 2015, Norvell was introduced as the 24th head football coach of the Memphis Tigers.

The youngest FBS head coach in the nation at the time of his hiring (aged 34), Norvell had overseen one of the nation's most explosive offenses at Arizona State under Todd Graham.

Like Justin Fuente, Norvell was a young, up-and-coming offensive coordinator who employed an up-tempo, pass-oriented spread offense and brought the high-octane system with him to Memphis.

One of Norvell's first moves as head coach was to retain Darrell Dickey from Fuente's staff, naming him associate head coach/co-offensive coordinator and running backs coach.

The University of Memphis signed Norvell to a five-year contract that paid him a base salary of $1.8 million for his first year that would increase slightly each passing year.

The Tigers finished with an 8–5 record in 2016.

With Riley Ferguson taking over as the team's starting quarterback, Memphis began the Norvell era with a 35–17 victory over FCS opponent Southeast Missouri State on September 3.

The next week, Norvell's team defeated Kansas by a margin of 43–7.

In the season's third game, the Tigers defeated Bowling Green 77–3 behind Ferguson's six passing touchdowns and one rushing touchdown in the game's first half.

On October 1, Ole Miss handed Memphis its first loss of the season in a 48–28 rout.

Five days later, the Tigers defeated Temple by a score of 34–27.

That was followed by a 24–14 victory over Tulane on October 14.

Memphis lost its next two; dropping a 42–28 contest to #24 Navy and a 59–30 blowout to Tulsa.

On November 5, the Tigers defeated SMU by a score of 51–7.

The next week, Norvell's Tigers lost a shootout to South Florida by a margin of 49–42.

They closed the regular season with a 34–27 win over Cincinnati on November 18 and a 48–44 victory over #18 Houston in a shootout.

The Tigers accepted a berth in the 2016 Boca Raton Bowl, a game they lost to Western Kentucky by a score of 51–31.

In 13 starts in 2016, Riley Ferguson threw for 3,698 yards and broke Paxton Lynch's single-season record with 32 touchdown passes set the previous season.

After the 2016 season, co-offensive coordinator Chip Long left the Tigers to take the same position on Brian Kelly's staff at Notre Dame.

To replace Long, Darrell Dickey was named the team's sole offensive coordinator.

On May 12, 2017, it was announced that the University of Memphis signed Norvell to a one-year contract extension though the 2021 season and gave his assistant coaches raises.

Kicker Jake Elliott was selected in the fifth round with the 153rd overall pick in the 2017 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Memphis went 10–3 in 2017.

They started the season on August 31 with a 37–29 victory over Louisiana-Monroe.

The Tigers were supposed to play UCF on September 9, but due to Hurricane Irma, the game, which originally had been moved up one day to September 8, was rescheduled for September 30.

In order to reschedule the American Athletic Conference game, Memphis canceled their game with Georgia State, leaving the team with only 11 regular season games as opposed to the usual 12.

On September 16, the Tigers upset #25 UCLA 48–45, marking only their second victory over a ranked opponent in 21 years.

After a 44–31 victory over Football Championship Subdivision opponent Southern Illinois, Norvell's Tigers suffered their first loss of the season in the form of a 40–13 defeat in the rescheduled UCF game.