TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — You probably don’t remember the night Tulane beat Memphis in 2018, but Mike Norvell does. On a Friday night in New Orleans, the Green Wave racked up 318 yards rushing and beat Norvell’s Tigers 40–24. Alex Atkins was on the other sideline as run game coordinator, serving under offensive coordinator Doug Ruse and head coach Willie Fritz.
In 2020, Norvell was hired at Florida State, and, while trying to find an offensive line coach, Atkins’s name came up. Norvell called.
“He asked me, ‘What do you want? What is your desire? I’m gonna hold you accountable to what you say you want,’” Atkins says. “If you say, ‘Hey, I’m gonna become a coordinator.’ I’m gonna treat it as you told me that. I’m gonna see how much you put in to get it. It’s not just maximizing players, it’s maximizing coaches. We work for the coach. There’s only one coach and we’re the assistant. If you say I want to do this, well, then display the qualities to do that.”
