Dabo Swinney rips into 'embarrassing' airplane banner calling for Mike Norvell's firing that flew above FSU's stadium ahead of Clemson's win
· Yahoo Sports
Dabo Swinney was absolutely disgusted with whoever paid to fly an airplane banner calling for Florida State coach Mike Norvell’s firing over Doak S. Campbell Stadium ahead of the Tigers’ win over the Seminoles on Saturday.
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To be clear, we’re all assuming that the “FSU: Fire Novell - Peter Collins” banner was calling for Norvell’s firing. There’s no one named “Novell” associated with the FSU football program. Yes, the banner, somehow misspelled the name of the Seminoles’ embattled football coach while correctly spelling the full name of FSU’s board of trustees chair.
Swinney noticed the misspelling too. He didn’t mince words after his team’s 36-24 win.
“That was embarrassing what I saw above the stadium. It was embarrassing. It was an embarrassment,” Swinney said. “Florida State’s better than that. That’s not good for these kids. That’s not good — listen, I get it. Everybody’s got contracts and all this type of stuff, but man, that bothered me.
And they didn’t even spell his name right. Didn’t even have the freakin’ R in the name. That’s just disrespectful. Mike Norvell’s a good man. You ain’t gotta like him as a football coach, you ain’t got to like me as a football coach. That’s a good man right there. That’s a good man. And he’s a hell of a football coach. And I know Florida State’s better than that. There’s so many good people at this place and this program. Man, I’ve always had a lot of respect for Florida State. Bobby Bowden is one of my heroes in life. And I was — he ain’t gonna say it but I’ll say it. I was freaking disappointed to see that.
And hell, they may be flying one around Clemson next time I’m home, but I doubt it. I doubt it. Alright? But whoever did that? You ought to be ashamed of yourself. That’s what I would say.”
Florida State is now 3-5 overall and the loss to Clemson was the team’s third straight. FSU has allowed at least 36 points in all three of those defeats and turned the ball over four times on Saturday night.
Norvell is now 41-39 in six-plus seasons at Florida State and that record drops to 28-38 when you take out the 2023 season. Florida State has gone just 10-22 since that undefeated regular season three years ago. Overall, 23 of the team’s wins under Norvell came across the 2022 and 2023 seasons.
FSU improved by three wins to finish 5-7 in 2025 and Norvell kept his job for the 2026 season. There’s already been upheaval in the Florida State athletic department, and his future could be decided by the school’s finances as well as its next athletic director.
Florida State president Richard McCullough wrote an open letter to the school on Tuesday, telling fans that he didn’t expect them to “lower your expectations” and that FSU was “committed to changing them.”
That letter did not mention Norvell by name as it outlined Florida State’s process for finding its next athletic director. Mark Alford was fired in September and the school has not yet found his replacement.
“Ain’t nobody trying to lose. This job is hard,” Swinney continued. “This job is hard. OK? And that’s not what’s best for those kids out there that are fighting. They fought every second. Every second of that game, their kids fought. Alright? And I just — I walked out pregame looking up there and I just, it really bothered me.
“So listen, I know it’s a tough situation. And it went our way tonight. But Mike Norvell is a good man. He’s a husband. He’s a father. Alright? And I don’t know why we think because people make money and this and that that you just have the right to just destroy people as humans. I don’t know where we became this as a society where it’s just OK to just, I mean, just tear people down. It’s like a blood sport now. You lose a game, fire everybody, everybody stinks. Like, you know, how about we just support the kids? We just support the team. We count them all up at the end of the year and we go from there.”