Mike Norvell is starting to sound a lot like Billy Napier before the collapse

If we rewind to a year ago, Florida fans were feeling optimistic about the 2025 season and for good reason. The Gators were coming off a win streak to end 2024, and with DJ Lagway at the helm, the possibilities were endless. 

Oops.

But if we look back at Billy Napier’s remarks at the 2025 SEC Media Days, there are a ton of similarities to the remarks FSU coach Mike Norvell gave this week at the 2026 ACC Media Days.

That’s not a good thing for Norvell or FSU fans.

Florida fans find Mike Norvell’s comments similar to Billy Napier

We are just going to take a sampling of comments Norvell made during his appearance this week and compare them to what Napier said this time last year, as a bit of a thought exercise and as a warning to our FSU friends that the end might be near for Norvell.

Norvell - “The time is now; the time is today.”

Napier - “It’s not about yesterday. It’s not about tomorrow. It’s about today.”

Sure, let’s just pretend that the past has nothing to do with the situation you find yourself in today. But we’re not convinced either coach knows when today is, or that just because you know it’s today, you know what you are doing.

Norvell - “In reality, the words don’t matter, it’s about the action.”

Napier - “They take action every day. They continue to stack days.”

Ah, yes, the old "judge us by our actions" approach. The problem is that the actions were terrible, and given what we have learned after the fact about Florida’s weight room under Napier, we aren’t actually sure what actions they were doing.

Norvell - “We understand the expectation. There’s no person or place that has higher expectations than we have being part of this program.”

Napier - “When we talk about expectation, I think the important part is what we expect from each other.”

What’s funny, looking back at this quote from Napier, is that in all his exit interviews since arriving at James Madison, he has indicated that he was surprised by the expectations at Florida. Likewise, does Norvell think missing a bowl for two straight years isn’t going to anger people?

Norvell - “Excited about the core of this football team, the guys that have returned.”

Napier - “We’re fortunate that we have a good core group of veteran players.”

Norvell - “We got an exciting team, a team that I think is a very talented roster.”

Napier - “I believe we have enough talent.”

The alternative is to state your roster sucks. Though in the case of both teams, the roster is/was legit better than what the results on the field showed, which is part of the frustration that both fanbases have/had.

Norvell - “It’s about taking the lessons, the application of that moving forward.”

Napier - “We’ve got choices. We can choose to blame other people or we can choose to be accountable.”

Napier sure has blamed a lot of people since getting fired at Florida. And in Norvell’s case, he went 2-10 and followed it up with a 5-7 season, so what lessons has he really learned?

Norvell - “This past season we showed glimpses of playing at a very high level. Big wins, some great moments.”

Napier - “At the end of the year, you could argue we were playing as good of football as anybody in the country.”

This is the one at the end of the day that should worry FSU fans the most, because it’s the same narrative Napier tried to sell Florida fans last year. If you are keeping score, both coaches talked about being accountable and learning a lesson, while simultaneously painting a picture that their previous season wasn’t really as bad as some made it out to be.

The downfall of Norvell has been quite the sight to see, and if FSU weren’t broke, he would have already been fired. Instead, they are going to try to catch lightning in a bottle and hope things work out in 2026.

But if you believe in a parallel universe, and Norvell’s comments sure do run parallel to Napier’s, it is hard to envision anything but a pink slip for Norvell by the end of 2026.

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