A coaching veteran who has tutored players at the highest level in both college and professional football, Jay Norvell joined the Sun Devil coaching staff in February 2016 as wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator.
 
“Jay will be an incredible asset for our student-athletes, our program, and our university as a whole,” ASU head coach Todd Graham said when he announced Norvell’s hire. “He brings unmatched experience, both at the professional level and some of the top programs in Div. I, and has been a part of offenses with three Hall of Fame wide receivers in the National Football League, and a Heisman Trophy winner, two Biletnikoff semifinalists and 14 bowl games at the collegiate level.”
 
Norvell has coached in both the BCS National Championship Game and the Super Bowl with the Oklahoma Sooners and the Oakland Raiders, respectively, and has three decades of coaching experience with stops at UCLA, Texas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Oakland Raiders, Indianapolis Colts, Iowa State, Wisconsin, Northern Iowa, and Iowa.
 
“I’m really excited to be a part of the energy and direction surrounding Coach Graham and the Sun Devil Football program,” Norvell said. “I have great respect for this place and what Coach Graham has done here, and the dynamic, innovative and cutting-edge things going on inside these walls make this the perfect fit for me.”
 
Throughout his career Norvell has worked with some of the game’s most prolific offenses and productive wide receivers, including Ryan Broyles, a finalist for the Biletnikoff Award and All-American who tallied a NCAA-record 349 career receptions from 2008-11, and Marvin Harrison, who was recently voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame and ranks in the top five in the league in both career receptions and touchdown receptions.  
 
Norvell also has a wealth of postseason experience with 14 bowl games, including the 2009 BCS National Championship Game, four NFL playoff games, and Super Bowl XXXVII. He spent the 2015 season as the wide receivers coach at Texas and took over the play-calling duties for the Longhorns following the team’s first game of the season as UT picked up wins against No. 9 Oklahoma and No. 12 Baylor.  
 
Prior to his one-year stint at Texas, Norvell was at Oklahoma for seven years, including three seasons as the assistant offensive coordinator and receivers coach (2008-10), and four years as co-offensive coordinator and receivers coach (2011-14).
 
Norvell coached three of the top four players on OU’s all-time receptions list, including Broyles, Kenny Stills, and Juaquin Iglesias, oversaw five of the program’s top six single-season reception marks and the top 12 single-game receptions marks in program history, and helped his receiving corps earn 10 all-conference and three academic all-conference first team honors from 2008-14.
In 2014, OU ranked 20th in the nation in scoring offense at 36.4 points per game and 23rd in total offense with 464.7 yards per game.
 
Broyles finished his four-year stay in Norman as the all-time NCAA career receptions leader, and his 4,586 career receiving yards and 45 receiving touchdowns ranked second and fourth, respectively, in NCAA record books. He racked up 131 receptions for 1,622 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns in 2010 and was named a consensus All-American and Biletnikoff Award finalist. 
 
Stills tallied 2,594 receiving yards and 24 touchdowns on 204 catches, the third-highest reception total in school history, in three seasons under Norvell. He was a fifth-round selection by the New Orleans Saints in the 2013 NFL Draft and led the league with a 20.0 yards-per-catch average as a rookie with the Saints.
 
Sterling Shepard was a semifinalist for the Biletnikoff Award and earned First Team All-Big 12 honors in 2014 after he caught 51 passes for 970 yards, the ninth-highest single-season total in OU history. His first season at OU in 2008 produced the program’s single-season record for total offense, scoring, and passing touchdowns, and Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. Iglesias led the Sooners with 74 receptions, 1,150 receiving yards and 10 touchdown receptions that season, and all three marks still rank in the program’s top 10 of their respective categories.
 
Norvell also worked with a number of accomplished running backs at OU, including All-Pro Demarco Murray and All-American Samaje Perine. The Sooners, under Norvell, ranked 10th in rushing offense at 261.2 yards per game in 2014 and 18th in 2013 with 223.9 yards per game, the program’s two highest averages since 1990.
 
Norvell was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at both UCLA in 2007 and Nebraska from 2004-06.
 
In 2006, the Cornhuskers were one of only two teams in the nation to rank in the top 25 in total offense, scoring offense, rushing offense and passing offense as his offensive unit ranked 14th in the nation in total offense with 414.57 yards per game, 17th in scoring offense at 30.6 points per game, and 23rd in both rushing and passing at 170.5 and 244.1 yards per game, respectively. Nebraska won nine games and the Big 12 North Division, and quarterback Zac Taylor earned Big 12 Offensive Player of the Year honors behind school records in passing yards, touchdowns and total yards.
 
Norvell coached six years in the NFL, including four with the Colts and two with the Raiders. He coached tight ends for two seasons with the Raiders from 2002-03 and worked with an offense that featured Hall of Fame receivers Tim Brown and Jerry Rice. Oakland advanced to Super Bowl XXXVII in 2002 behind a unit that led the NFL in total yardage and passing yards per game, and included four Pro Bowlers. He joined the Colts staff as wide receivers coach in 1998 and was involved in the team’s offense for four seasons through 2001. He mentored Harrison during some of the Hall of Famer’s most prolific seasons as he tallied 385 receptions, 5,376 receiving yards and 48 touchdowns in the four-year span with Norvell, and was a part of the Colts during two-time Super Bowl champion Peyton Manning’s first four years in the NFL.
 
Norvell was assistant head coach at Iowa State from 1995-97 where he worked with quarterbacks and receivers, including Sage Rosenfels, who went on to play with the Minnesota Vikings.
 
From 1989-94, Norvell coached offensive line, receivers and special teams at Wisconsin, which followed his first full-time position as receivers coach at Northern Iowa in 1988.
 
A 1986 graduate of Iowa, Norvell was an All-Big Ten defensive back and recorded a league-high seven interceptions in 1985 as he helped the Hawkeyes put together a 10-2 record, a conference championship and a spot in the Rose Bowl. He was a member of the Chicago Bears in 1987 before he began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at his alma mater.  
 
Norvell, who is from Madison, Wis., has a wife, Kim, and son, Jaden. He is the author of a book, “Complete Wide Receiver,” which was published in 2012.
 
Coaching Experience?
2016 – Arizona State (Wide Receivers/ Offensive Passing Game Coordinator)
2015 – Texas (Wide Receivers)
2011-14 – Oklahoma (Co-Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers)
2008-10 – Oklahoma (Asst. Offensive Coordinator/Wide Receivers)
2007 – UCLA (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)
2004-06 – Nebraska (Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks)
2002-03 – Oakland Raiders (Tight Ends)
1998-2001 – Indianapolis Colts (Wide Receivers)
1995-97 – Iowa State (Asst. Head Coach/Quarterbacks/Wide Receivers)
1989-94 – Wisconsin (Offensive Line/Wide Receivers/Special Teams)
1988 – Northern Iowa (Wide Receivers)
1986-87 – Iowa (Graduate Assistant)
 
College Bowl/NFL Postseason Experience?
2014 – Russell Athletic Bowl (Oklahoma)
2014 – Sugar Bowl (Oklahoma)
2013 – Cotton Bowl (Oklahoma)
2011 – Insight Bowl (Oklahoma)
2011 – Fiesta Bowl (Oklahoma)
2009 – Sun Bowl (Oklahoma)
2009 – BCS Championship (Oklahoma)
2007 – Las Vegas Bowl (UCLA)
2006 – Cotton Bowl (Nebraska)
2005 – Alamo Bowl (Nebraska)
2002 – NFL Playoffs – Divisional Round, AFC Championship, Super Bowl XXXVII (Oakland Raiders)
2000 – NFL Playoffs – Wild Card (Indianapolis Colts)
1999 – NFL Playoffs – Divisional Round (Indianapolis Colts)
1995 – Hall of Fame (Wisconsin)
1994 – Rose Bowl (Wisconsin)
1987 – Holiday Bowl (Iowa)
1986 – Holiday Bowl (Iowa)