Norvell ends speculation with one tweet
My cell phone buzzed at 3:18 p.m. Monday afternoon. It was a text message from Memphis football coach Mike Norvell.
“Nice job quoting my tweet,” he wrote. “There’s your reply haha.”
This is how I found out Norvell is staying at Memphis for a fourth season.
Because at 2:46 p.m., I quoted one of his tweets, never expecting to get a response.
Because after the Tigers’ football program lost both its coordinators in a 24-hour span, lost another assistant coach to a conference rival a week ago, and lost all but three members of Norvell’s original coaching staff over the past 12 months, the most important person in all of this decided to send a reassuring tweet to fans.
“One of the most enjoyable things in life is to see people open doors through hard work and dedication,” Norvell wrote. “We are building something special here @MemphisFB and the country is taking notice. We’ll continue to #KeepCLIMBing showcasing the #TigerFam Players & Coaches EVERYDAY! #901Love”
To which I responded by quoting that tweet with my own tweet.
“This is just speculation on my part, and I could be off base here, but it would be weird to tweet this if you're not planning to stay here at Memphis. Right?”
And then 32 minutes passed by. And then my cell phone buzzed. And then the most media savvy coach in Memphis announced he isn’t planning to leave just yet in the most media savvy way: By calling out the overzealous local columnist on Twitter.
“Stop speculating that I’m going anywhere else,” Norvell wrote back. “I told you I have one of the BEST jobs in the country and I love me some #Memphis."
“It’s a place that I’m so very comfortable," Norvell said later in an interview. "We’ve got support from the administration. We’ve got support from the community . ... I will say there have been calls, but at the end of the day, I truly feel I have one of the best jobs in the country. I believe in what the future can hold here."
Norvell has elevated Memphis football
But Norvell also made it a more desirable job because of what he's done over the past three years.
He's won more games during that time than any coach before him here. He’s taken the Tigers to consecutive AAC Championship Games.
He’s been the conductor of offenses that ranked among the top-five in the country the past two seasons with two different quarterbacks, an offense that
produced one consensus all-American last year at wide receiver (Anthony Miller) and another at running back (Darrell Henderson) this season.
He’s been so good at identifying coaching talent that other schools keep poaching his assistants away, hopeful they can discover the magic that’s coursing its way through the Memphis football program these days.
His first year here, it was Notre Dame. Last year, it was Texas A&M, Tennessee, Georgia and Auburn. And now, over the past six days, Auburn came back for offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham, Northern Arizona hired defensive coordinator Chris Ball to be its new head coach and Tulane tabbed tight ends coach Will Hall as its offensive coordinator.
The constant in all this, of course, is Norvell.
"I believe we have a tremendous plan in place," he said. "I believe there’s great opportunity here and whenever a coach has left, I feel like we’ve been able to replace them with quality human beings and great coaches. The biggest thing is I got a great sense of what we’re looking for."
The right Power Five job is yet to come
And so what he tweeted Monday is the most significant development of all.
It should be clear now, after two offseasons in which his name went around and around the coaching carousel, that he isn’t looking for just any Power Five conference job. He’s looking for the right Power Five job.
That he's more than happy piling up yards and wins at the Liberty Bowl until that right job comes up.
That all those lists with his name on them won't decide the future. He will.
"It’s something I have no control over. Everybody seems to have the plan laid out for what they anticipate your actions being," Norvell said. "When I saw your tweet ... it’s something that I felt the urge to respond to because that’s something that wasn’t even in my thought process moving forward."
Which, in retrospect, he kept saying any time I asked the past couple weeks.
Several days before the AAC Championship Game earlier this month, once Norvell’s name popped up as a candidate for the vacant head coaching jobs at Louisville, Texas Tech and Colorado, he talked about his commitment to the community.
And then last Friday, as speculation about Norvell’s candidacy at Kansas State gained steam, he deftly sidestepped the issue and first mentioned that he already had one of the best jobs in the country right now.
That’s when, as it turns out, I should have realized Norvell wasn’t going anywhere.
Because around 3:18 p.m. Monday afternoon, my cell phone buzzed and a text message alerted me that the Memphis football coach wasn't going anywhere.
“I read your tweet and, to be honest with you, I thought it would be funny," Norvell said with a laugh. “I figured I'd take the opportunity to send a little spark. And I guess it worked.”