Can Mike Norvell return Florida State football to its past glory?

As Mike Norvell prepares to open his third year as Florida State coach, he can no longer point at coaching turnover, roster turnover, poor staffing numbers and uneven financial support to explain the challenges he inherited.

Now, Florida State simply has to win.

The Seminoles, who begin their season Saturday against Duquesne (5 p.m. ET, ACC Network), have not had a winning record since 2017 and to say this is a critical year for Florida State is underselling its importance. The ACC needs Florida State to look more like the Florida State everyone has come to know — with 15 conference championships and three national championships since joining the league in 1992 — to help its football brand and marketability. Florida State needs to win just to prove it can still be Florida State.

“It is always important, always a big year for us to keep taking those steps to get Florida State back to the top echelon of college football,” athletic director Michael Alford said. “Mike knows that we have 100 percent faith in where it’s headed. Mike and I have talked about this: We’re setting it up for long-term success, not short-term success.”

If the last year has brought anything into stark focus, it is that Florida State picked a bad time to have four straight losing seasons. With realignment in the SEC and Big Ten reshaping the collegiate landscape, the ACC is a distant third from a revenue generation standpoint.

University president Richard McCullough reportedly told the Tallahassee Chamber of Commerce in comments earlier this week the school planned on being “very aggressive” when it came to securing its future.

“It’s something I’m spending a lot of time on and we’re getting a lot of help,” McCullough told the group. “We’re trying to do anything we can to think about how we…