Alabama football coaching search nearly caused crazy chain reaction
It turns out that Alabama football nearly hired Mike Norvell to be the next head coach of the Crimson Tide or at the very least, Florida State was worried about losing its head coach to the Tide.
We all know that Alabama football wound up hiring Kalen DeBoer and in my opinion, that was a great move. He's a brilliant offensive coach with a track record of winning and developing quarterbacks. In this day and age, that's what you want.
Norvell would have been appealing though. He's built Florida State football into a powerhouse again and if Jordan Travis didn't get hurt last season, the Noles could have been national champions. They would have at least made the playoff. But just like Michigan, they didn't lose a game when they were healthy.
They also acted quickly enough to keep Norvell which was a godsend. The Noles lost their last big-time head coach, Jimbo Fisher, and they were determined not to have that happen again, although the backup plan if Norvell left wasn't bad either.
Lane Kiffin would have been Florida State's top target
Many people thought Lane Kiffin might have been on the radar of Alabama football, but actually, Florida State was the program interested in hiring Kiffin, that is if Norvell left. He was going to be a "prime candidate"
“In fact, in the wee hours of that Friday morning, the fear among Florida State officials was that Norvell was close to trading his FSU garnet for Alabama crimson,” Low wrote. “Sources told ESPN that Florida State was poised to move quickly if that happened and that Kiffin would be a prime candidate.”
I'm not sure if Kiffin leaves the SEC for the ACC, but Ole Miss isn't Alabama, Georgia, or LSU either. It's a middle-of-the-road job in the SEC and while you can make the 12-team playoff at Ole Miss, it remains to be seen if you can win a national championship there.
You can do it at Florida State. At least in the old era. Now, that the ACC has been weakened, we don't know if the Noles can, but I'd bet on Florida State winning a national title before Ole Miss, which is why if Norvell left, I feel like Kiffin would be the Seminoles head coach right now.
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It's crazy how things could have worked out. Instead, it was Washington, Arizona, and San Jose State who were caught in up in the chain reaction of Nick Saban's retirement.