TALLAHASSEE -- Mike Norvell had a plan for what he wanted to do at quarterback in the first 10 days of his Florida State tenure.

A pretty good plan, it turns out.

Less than two weeks into the Norvell Era at FSU, the new coach did what his predecessor couldn’t in the two previous recruiting classes: Sign a high school quarterback...and then another, for good measure.

FSU added two quarterbacks to its 2020 recruiting class on National Signing Day, receiving signatures from four-star Arizona prospect Chubba Purdy and three-star Tate Rodemaker from nearby Valdosta.

“Coming in here late in the process, I believe there was a specific need at that position of what we wanted to do to attract and what we were going to go after,” Norvell said. “Getting two young men like Tate and Chubba, man I think we hit an absolute home run.”

Both quarterbacks are players that Norvell had to flip from other schools (USF for Rodemaker, Louisville for Purdy), and they were absolute necessities after numerous misses at the position by Willie Taggart in the 2018 and 2019 recruiting cycles. FSU is believed to be the only Power Five program to not sign a quarterback out of high school from 18-19 as the Seminoles instead were forced to turn to transfers in order to build serviceable depth this past season.

Norvell did in 10 days what Taggart couldn’t in 698.

Now, with two new prep quarterbacks in the fold, FSU has some flexibility in how it’ll continue to build up the position along with its current players on the roster: RS Soph. James Blackman, RS Fr. Jordan Travis, and walk-on Wyatt Rector.

“We think it’s essential,” offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham said. “You need competition not just at the quarterback room, but throughout your entire program. At that room, we felt like we needed to add two guys to create that competition to the guys we have on the roster, which we really like the guys we have on our roster. But competition helps breed success, and that’s what we’re trying to create.”

This, in theory, gives FSU options moving moving forward.

What’s remarkable is that Purdy and Rodemaker were both secured in such a short window. Quarterbacks are traditionally off the board earlier than most other positions, so Norvell and Dillingham had to work diligently and effectively.

Norvell was familiar with Rodemaker given that he recruited him at Valdosta, that helped. Rodemaker was one of the first players Norvell offered at Memphis during this recruiting cycle, so he was at least well on the coach’s radar when he arrived in Tallahassee.

“I’ve always loved the way that he’s played the game. He’s very intellectual, extremely accurate,” Norvell said. “...When I got a chance to evaluate where we are and what we need moving forward, I thought he was a great fit in every aspect.”

There were others trying to get Rodemaker in for an official visit the same weekend as FSU, including Baylor as the Bears had set up an official the day immediately after FSU was slated to host the South Georgia signal caller.

“When he stepped foot on campus and had the opportunity to see what was in place, and obviously all the opportunity that would be in front of him, it was definitely excited to know that he cancelled that second trip,” Norvell added.

Rodemaker was offered a scholarship on Wednesday -- about 30 minutes before FSU and QB pledge Jeff Sims parted ways -- and he was on campus by Thursday. He left Friday and committed later that evening.

With Purdy, both Norvell and Dillingham had familiarity with his family from their time in Arizona. His older brother, Brock Purdy, is a sophomore at Iowa State.

“I remember Chubba way back when he was a freshman, because of his brother and me having connections there,” said Dillingham, who was a prep coach in Arizona before joining the staff at Arizona State as an offensive assistant in 2014. “So his freshman teams were whooping up on freshman teams that his team shouldn’t have beaten, and I’ve kind of kept track of him ever since.

“But for me, I’ve been in areas and regions of the country and coaching staffs that didn’t want to recruit out West, so just didn’t go out there to recruit him because that wasn’t our focus. So when I got here and I knew we needed a quarterback to come in and compete young, compete early, I said ‘you know what, I’m going to give him a call’ because I know one who can do that.’”

Norvell happened to call Dillingham to ask him his thoughts on Purdy right before Dillingham was going to call Norvell. They were on the same page and they pooled their Arizona ties together to get in contact with Purdy on Thursday, days before the Early Signing Period.

Purdy spoke to FSU on the phone Thursday night, Dillingham was persistent with text messages and soon -- after a delayed flight -- Purdy was in Tallahassee for an official visit by Saturday afternoon.

“At first I was really upset because I just wanted to get there as soon as possible and spend a lot of time there to just see the campus, the facilities and just to get to know the really coaches as well,” Purdy told Sports360AZ. “We got there at 2:15 on Saturday and right when we got there, we walked in and started going right at it. They showed us around, I really liked it. It was a time crunch, but I think we got everything done.

“I just fell in love with it.”

FSU, in a short window, rolled out the red carpet for Purdy. This included setting up a meeting with the quarterback and FSU president John Thrasher.

By Tuesday evening, FSU had two commitments from quarterbacks who were previously pledged to other institutions.

Norvell and Dillingham had to scramble in getting acclimated to FSU’s situation. They relied on the knowledge of interim coach and long-time assistant Odell Haggins as well as recruiting assistant TJ Bonasorte to familiarize themselves with the roster and learn about the positions of need. Once they took that info and weighed it with current AND projected scholarship allocation, they started to look at senior film of current prospects.

It became clear that quarterback had to be a point of emphasis. And looking at senior film of prospects, the coaches identified some attainable prospects who were perhaps undervalued.

That led FSU to Purdy and Rodemaker. Norvell and Co. put together a plan and executed it.

“We wanted to first and foremost be able to address a need at the quarterback position, and right now we have two quarterbacks on scholarship. Very excited about both of those young men,” Norvell said. “But to go out and get what I believe are two of the best quarterbacks in the country in this year's class, young men that are a tremendous fit, being able to get Tate and Chubba to come together and both sign here today in December, it is definitely a dynamic group.”