Florida State debuts “Seminole Scholar” uniform patches

Florida State Seminoles football head coach Mike Norvell hasn’t been hesitant about bringing over some of the coaching traditions he’s picked up along the way at stops at Arizona State and Memphis.

We’ve seen the team participate in brotherhood retreats and events, something Norvell said he took from his time in Tempe, in addition to defensive end Joshua Kaindoh being selected to wield Norvell’s Mighty Hammer and smash a rock signed by all players and coaches in a ceremony designed to recognize the hard work of an individual player and celebrate the progress the team as a whole has made.

The Seminoles were apparently out at Doak Campbell Stadium today taking season pictures (possibly before the team’s “mock game scenario” we’ve heard mention of) and we saw the debut of another Norvell-introduced tradition — the scholar patches.

Here’s a bit of background on them, from a 2019 Memphis press release:

Norvell’s hire immediately invigorated the Memphis program and while the team continues to climb to new heights on the field, its performance in the classroom is just as impressive. The Tigers’ Academic Progress Rate (APR), a measure of academic performance by program year-over-year, stands at 976 out of 1000. Norvell takes pride in his players’ academic accomplishments and honors them for their work in the classroom with the Tiger Scholar patch. A total of 52 players who either posted a semester GPA of 3.0 or higher, or already graduated, were presented with the patch this spring.