Jordan Travis left Florida State nearly three years ago, but he still believes his final season in Tallahassee played a part in Mike Norvell losing his job. The former Seminoles quarterback says that his 2023 left injury set off a chain of events that ultimately led to Norvell’s firing. FSU dismissed the coach on Sunday, a day after a 36-24 home loss to Clemson dropped the team to 3-5. With Norvell gone and the program facing a reported $50M buyout, Travis is taking responsibility for what happened, even though he hasn’t played a snap for the Seminoles since 2023.
Travis is the player who made the Norvell era look like it was working. He transferred from Louisville, sat on the depth chart under Willie Taggart, and got his shot after McKenzie Milton went down. Under Norvell, he became one of the best quarterbacks in school history, finished fifth in the Heisman voting, and won ACC Player of the Year in 2023. On the November 6 episode of Travis Take Two with his brother Devon, he pinned FSU’s slide on one night in November 2023.
“I almost hold some weight, and some I carry so much weight on my shoulders,” Travis said. “Obviously, that’s ’23 season, me breaking my leg. If I don’t break my leg, Mike Norvell is still at Florida State, I believe. I believe that we compete for national championships for the next few years; these past few years, the record’s completely different.”
“If we go to the playoffs that year and go to the championship, we have a lot more money here at Florida State, and a lot more attention. Mike Norvell is still at Florida State today. So I carry a lot of weight of that. So that always sucks. If my leg does not break, Mike Norvell would still be at Florida State, I believe. But it is what it is.”
FSU was 10-0 on November 18, 2023, when Travis broke his left leg in the first quarter against North Alabama. The Seminoles won out, finished 13-0, and took the ACC title. They became the first undefeated Power Five champion left out of the four-team playoff. Then-committee chair Boo Corrigan said that FSU was a “different team” without him. Georgia beat them 63-3 in the Orange Bowl, and Norvell then signed an eight-year deal worth more than $10M a year.
Since then, FSU is 10-22 with a 2-10 year and a 5-7 year in the middle. Norvell’s quarterbacks after Travis were DJ Uiagalelei, Tommy Castellanos, and Ashton Danmiels, and the Seminoles haven’t beaten Miami, Florida, or Clemson since 2023. President Richard McCullough said he wasn’t seeing the “right trajectory.” Though nobody can prove Travis’ theory, one outlet argued that he deserves more credit for 2023 than the blame for what followed.
His own numbers back up the case for credit. Travis played 46 games with 38 starts and threw for 8,644 yards and 65 touchdowns. He ran for 1,910 yards and 31 more scores. Norvell went 29-10 with him as the starter and 12-29 without him. The New York Jets took him in the fifth round in 2024, and his pro career ended after one season in the NFL.
Travis also sent a Monday message thanking Norvell for seeing him “as a man before a football player” and said he fully supports McCullough’s decision. On the podcast, Travis went further, thanking Norvell, his wife Maria, and daughter Mila, saying, “You guys are like family to me,” and further mentioned his plan to keep visiting Norvell whenever he lands.
FSU now has to move forward without Norvell, with Rick Stockstill handling the team and Daniel Parker leading the search for a new head coach and athletic director. Three 2028 recruits have already decommitted, while names such as Jake Dickert, Kenny Dillingham, Manny Diaz, and Jason Eck have surfaced as potential candidates.
Travis can only hope the next coach brings Florida State back to the standard he remembers, when beating Miami and Florida was part of the job.