Florida football: Recruiting in Florida just got hotter with coaching changes

The college football landscape changes every year. Fortunately, that change isn’t directly impacting Florida football. But, will it indirectly?

Well, the biggest mystery outside of what bowl game Florida football will be attending was solved Saturday.

Florida State has hired Memphis head coach Mike Norvell to be its new head coach.

Another Florida coach has flown the coop to rejoin the Southeastern Conference ranks as Florida Atlantic head coach — and former Tennessee and Oakland Raider head coach and former Alabama coordinator — Lane Kiffin is coming back to the SEC as the head coach for Ole Miss.

Both are teams Florida football will play next season. Coincidently, both games in 2020 will be on the road.

But, what does Norvell landing at Florida State and Kiffin coming back to the SEC mean for Florida football?

Well, for one, you can expect recruiting in Florida to get even hotter than it has been.

https://twitter.com/OleMissFB/status/1203442835866832896

Kiffin is a known name in college football and can recruit very well. He took a below-average Florida Atlantic team and turned it into a conference champion in just three seasons.

You can’t do that by just recruiting the Boca Raton area.

Now that he has some SEC street cred to back up his already flamboyant style, expect some recruits to take a hard look at going to Oxford in the coming years.

The biggest issue is Kiffin’s stability. In fact, his longest tenure was four seasons at Southern California. But, Florida football fans will never forget Kiffin’s remarks at a booster breakfast in 2008 in Knoxville where he accused then-Florida football coach Urban Meyer of violating NCAA recruiting rules.

Yeah, don’t think that one’s not going to resurface on Oct. 17, even though Florida is the visiting team.

All-in-all, bringing Kiffin back is actually good for the SEC. When Ed Orgeron is one of your biggest football coaching personalities, there is trouble.

But, how long Kiffin will last in Oxford is questionable. The Rebels fired Matt Luke after just three seasons.

The coaching change that does concern me is Norvell being hired at Florida State.

Norvell is one of the hottest names in college football after leading Memphis to a 12-1 record and its first AAC title. The Tigers also won the conference championship game and will be headed to the Cotton Bowl.

Memphis has won eight or more games in all four seasons under Norvell as he becomes the second-youngest coach of a Power 5 school after Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley.

But Norvell is heading into a hot mess in Tallahassee with an athletic director virtually clueless and facilities below even that of South Florida or Central Florida.

He will bring an offensive prowess to Florida State, but I suspect it will take time for that to happen.

I just wonder how much the Seminoles had to ask boosters to get Norvell on board after raising a small fortune to buy out former coach Willie Taggart.

On the recruiting front, I fear Norvell for Florida football recruiting more than I do Kiffin.

That said, I think Florida football still has all the pieces in place to establish dominance in Florida for years to come.

It’s just the recruiting environment temperature just got turned up quite a bit hotter now.

No. 6 Florida football will take on No. 24 Virginia in the Capital One Orange Bowl on Dec. 30 in Miami Gardens.