Change. A healthy yet seldom welcomed endeavor in the reality of life. Florida State football is changing, as expected. Starting on offense.
Gus Malzahn has stepped down as head coach at Central Florida to become the offensive coordinator in Tallahassee.
Malzahn stepped down from UCF following the program's worst season since 2015, the final year of George O'Leary's tenure, where the team went 0-12.
When Gus Bus took over in 2021, he got off to a hot start in Orlando, leading the program to back-to-back nine-win seasons. However, the wheels fell off the bus following the program's jump to the Big-12 conference from the American Athletic.
Two years of Big-12 play that saw the Knights go 10-15 and 5-13 in conference play. The 2024 season's 4-8 record marks the first time Central Florida will not go bowling since the 0-12 campaign in 2015.
UCF had high hopes as the program entered year two of power-conference play, especially after the acquisition of Arkansas transfer quarterback KJ Jefferson.
Jefferson, a player Malzahn himself, claimed to be the closest thing he'd had physically to Cam Newton. Jefferson only started five games in Orlando in 2024 before being benched for the season.
Before becoming head coach at Auburn, Malzahn served as the team's offensive coordinator from 2009 to 2011 and was the Broyles award-winning architect of Newton's 2010 Heisman campaign and Auburn's BCS National Championship win over Oregon.
A familiar face to Seminole fans born before the college football playoff era, Malzahn was the head coach of the Auburn Tigers in the National Championship game against Florida State. The championship in which Jamies Winston's late-game heroics snatched the crystal ball from Malzahn and company in the final BCS game.
Malzahn's tenure at Auburn ended in 2020, marking the end of an eight-year period that saw an 83-55 record and a 3-5 bowl record.
The move for Malzahn makes a ton of sense. Rumors circling the coaching carousel suggested that the Gus Bus was on its way out, whether that was on his accord or not, sometime within the following calendar year.
The proper lens to look at Malzahn's decision is through the lens that Chip Kelly took in stepping down as the head coach of UCLA this past offseason to take the offensive coordinator position at Ohio State.
Now, soon to turn 60, it shouldn't be surprising to see an older and experienced coach opt for a coordinator position rather than a full-time CEO position as a head coach, especially at a marquee brand like FSU.
In today's college football world, we offer high school athletes twelve million dollars in NIL deals to come to our universities.
In today's college football world, coaches have to recruit their current rosters at the end of every season to urge potentially the team's best player to refrain from entering the transfer portal.
In today's college football world, where the once-prophesized phenomenon of recruiting commitments feels meaningful, we no longer possess any sense of finality.
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. It's different now, folks. This isn't the first coach to do so; it certainly will not be the last.
While it may not be the name Florida State fans clamored nor hoped for, it is a name that should spark a sense of confidence offensively,
His offenses have produced in his 19 years at the college level across multiple head coach and coordinator positions.
If you have followed college football for a while, you may recall that Guz Malzahn, also known as Gus Bus, was once regarded as one of the sport's most innovative offensive minds.
A true architect of the run game going back to his time at Auburn, his last three offenses in Orlando all ranked top-10 nationally in rushing production.
If you have watched even a drive of Florida State football this season, Malzahn's expertise in implementing a physical identity to an offense would have been a welcomed presence.
It was a nightmare season that will go down as the worst in program history since the beginning of the Bobby Bowden era in Tallahassee. A season that boded a grueling 2-10 (1-7) record that guaranteed a last-place finish in the ACC, as ironic as an outcome as you could have when the university is undergoing a lawsuit with its native conference.
An offense, if you can call it that, that managed to score 20+ points just twice all season, with the season high in scoring (41) coming vs a 1-11 FCS team in Charleston Southern.
2024 was a generationally criminal display of offensive football.
An offense whose statistics at season-end include:
- #133 Scoring
- #132 Yards Per Game
- #133 Yards Per Play
- #133 Yards Per Rush
- #132 Rush Yards Per Game
- #127 Yards Per Pass
- #115 Pass Yards Per Game
- #132 Third Down Conversion %
- #104 Redzone Scoring %
- #131 Sacks Allowed
- #132 Turnover Margin
The signing of Gus Malzahn makes sense on the Florida State side as well. Following the historically poor offensive season, acquiring a successful, experienced, and recognized offensive mind is a safe move.
Mike Norvell has ties to Gus Malzahn dating back to their time at Tulsa from 2007-2007, where Norvell was a graduate assistant, and Malzahn was the assistant head coach, co-offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks coach.
The Gus Bus will serve as Florida State's primary play-caller, a role held by Mike Norvell until now. This marks a significant shift in the Seminoles' coaching style.
A pivotal aspect of this hiring is the mesh of Malzahn's run philosophy with Norvell's background as a pass game specialist. The underwhelming skill talent and poor offensive line play prevented this from occurring in 2024 for FSU.
Quarterback Luke Kromenhoak has shown flashes of being the future signal-caller in Tallahassee in his freshman campaign with his raw arm talent and dual-threat ability. Malzahn's scheme is built upon the 11-man run game, including the 2013 championship run that featured defensive back turned quarterback Nick Marshall as one of the most dynamic dual-threats in college football.
The next step is to hire an offensive line coach, a position held by offensive coordinator Alex Atkins before being fired. Keep an eye out for Herb Hand at UCF, a proven recruiter and highly regardest offensive line coach.