--Norvell, towards the end of the interview, was asked about a picture of him from his playing days at Central Arkansas that has made the rounds on the internet...because he was rocking cornrows.
Norvell started laughing before the question was even finishing, knowing what was coming.
“It was really a funny time. I was going into my sophomore year, and I’m working an inner-city youth camp right before we start fall camp, and we broke up into groups that had competition. I had long hair, and the group that I had said ‘coach, if we win, we’re going to braid your hair.’
“So after looking at my group, I thought they had no chance to win, so I made the deal. And I tell you what, it was an unbelievable inspiration because they dominated every competition that they had. I went back to Arkansas with the cornrows in my hair and then here came the decision, we always had Media Day the first day we reported. And I decided it would be a great idea to keep the cornrows and take a picture to try to be funny.
“Little did I know, when I’d be standing on the stage on GameDay 20-something years later, that’s what I’d be talking about, and little did I know that when I got the opportunity to be the head coach at Florida State, that would be the picture that’s associated with my past. So I tell our guys, ‘understand, social media, it’ll come back to get ya.’”
