Florida State gave Mike Norvell another season to repair a program that has gone from undefeated ACC champions to one of the conference's biggest disappointments year in and year out. And even with a Week 0 win, it looks like this could be his final year as head coach for FSU.
From the perspective of the Miami Hurricanes, the fans and members within the program should hope the Seminoles whiff on their next hire (again).
Here are three coaches that FSU could hire that would have Canes fans sleeping soundly.
Brian Kelly: CBS Sports Analyst
LSU fired Kelly in October 2025 after a 5-3 start, ending a four-year run at 34-14. He won 10 games in each of his first two seasons, reached the SEC championship game in 2022 and coached Jayden Daniels to the 2023 Heisman Trophy.
Kelly joined CBS Sports this season as a Mountain West game analyst and has said he has not closed the door on coaching again, even if the next job looks different from the ones he already had.
FSU would be hiring a coach in his mid-60s whose last championship-caliber employer decided he wasn't meeting the standard. Kelly was actually so much of a failure at LSU, the Tigers ate a massive buyout for him to not coach the team (cue the scene from Moneyball where Billy Beane clashes with David Justice).
Tom Herman: FSU Assistant to the Head Coach
The Seminoles hired Herman in July as assistant to the head coach, adding a former Houston, Texas and Florida Atlantic head coach to Norvell's staff. Herman is 60-38 as a college head coach and that record would make him an obvious interim candidate if Florida State made a change during the season.
There was a stretch when Herman looked like one of the rising names in the sport. He went 22-4 in two seasons at Houston, including a 13-1 debut in 2015 that ended with a Peach Bowl win and a No. 8 finish in the final AP poll. He then went 32-18 in four seasons at Texas, including a 10-win year and a Sugar Bowl victory in 2018. He was 5-0 in bowl games across those first two stops.
But then Herman ended up at Florida Atlantic in 2023 and that stop wasn't so great. The Owls went 4-8, then 2-8, and FAU fired him with two games left in his second season. He left Boca Raton with a 6-16 record. While Herman might actually not be that bad of a hire, Miami fans won't be scared.
Dave Doeren: NC State Head Coach
Doeren has a 95-71 record in 14 seasons (including Week 0 of 2026) at NC State, and he is the winningest coach in Wolfpack history. NC State has reached at least eight wins in seven of the past nine seasons and has four nine-win years in that span. The Wolfpack finished 8-5 last season after winning its last three games, including a bowl victory over Memphis.
But with Doeren, the concern would be his ceiling as a HC. He has never won 10 games at NC State, he has never won an ACC title, and he has certainly never put the Wolfpack in the College Football Playoff.
Stability is valuable to most programs and FSU definitely doesn't have that currently. But even though he is a talented P4 head coach, this wouldn't be a hire that would strike fear into FSU's in-state rivals.
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