Florida State may have sidestepped the 2025 coaching chaos, but that doesn’t mean the Seminoles are suddenly out of the woods. The school chose not to jump into a crowded search this past offseason, buying time as LSU, Penn State, Auburn and Florida all filled jobs elsewhere. That delay also gives FSU a chance to let Mike Norvell’s buyout shrink while the 2026 market takes shape.
The problem for Norvell is simple enough: getting the fan base back on board and restoring trust in the decision-makers in Tallahassee is going to be a grind, especially after a roster built on a tight budget this offseason. So if things unravel in Week 2, Week 12, or by the end of the season, Florida State will almost certainly be back in the market for a head coach.
And when that day comes, the most realistic names may not be sitting in headsets as current Power 4 head coaches. The way the last carousel played out showed how hard it is to pull entrenched coaches away from their current jobs in the NIL and transfer portal era.
A lot of established coaches believe they can win where they already are. That leaves Florida State looking more toward hot coordinators and rising Group of Six names than proven Power 4 hires.
One of the most intriguing offensive options is Buster Faulkner. He’s built a reputation across the Southeast as one of the best play-callers in the country, and after his time as Georgia Tech’s offensive coordinator, he’s now in Gainesville running the offense for new head coach Jon Sumrall. If Faulkner can bring quarterback Aaron Philo with him from Georgia Tech and get rolling quickly in the ACC, he’ll be in the head coaching conversation fast.
On the defensive side, Blake Baker has made a strong case. His aggressive approach helped LSU pull off one of the biggest defensive turnarounds in the country in 2024, a transformation that compared to what Corey Hetherman did in Miami last season.
Baker didn’t have two first-round edge rushers to lean on, either, and LSU’s defense still became a real strength. Now he’s staying on to run the defense for Lane Kiffin, with Kiffin calling the offense.
If that unit keeps humming, Baker could be ready for his first head coaching job, and he already has Florida experience after two years as Miami’s defensive coordinator from 2019-20.
That Miami connection matters because it leads straight to Manny Diaz, another name worth watching. Diaz, a Florida State alum, may not get the same kind of built-in support in Tallahassee that Mario Cristobal had at Miami, but he would still represent a jolt after the last two years under Norvell.
Diaz spent two seasons as Penn State’s defensive coordinator before landing at Duke, where he last season did something Miami still hasn’t managed: win the ACC. He’s not a finished product, but he has clearly grown from the coach he was the first time around and continues to do more with less.
Another coordinator who belongs on the radar is Shannon Dawson. At 48, he may be getting close to his first head coaching opportunity after helping guide Carson Beck on a run to the national championship game.
If he can get Miami’s latest transfer quarterback, Darian Mensah, producing at a high level, that case only gets stronger. Dawson, a branch off the Dana Holgorsen tree, has blended air-raid ideas with a physical rushing attack to build one of the best offenses in the country.
He’s never run a program, but with him calling plays, Florida State would at least be getting a top-30 FBS offense right away, and maybe more. With the right personnel, he’s already shown he can get to No. 1, just as he did with Cam Ward in 2024 when Miami averaged 3.83 points per drive.
Bryant Haines also has the kind of resume that should travel. He won the Broyles Award as the top coordinator in college football last year, though he didn’t draw much head coaching buzz during a busy carousel.
Indiana rewarded him with a raise, which likely helped keep him in place, but another season like the one he just had would make it hard to keep him off the list. Haines led the No. 3 defense by points per drive and did it while limiting big plays despite using base 4-3 personnel against 11-personnel offenses.
That kind of production usually gets a coordinator into the head coaching mix.
Florida State may also have to make a hard call on Rhett Lashlee, even if the odds are long. SMU has given him real momentum and a deep-pocketed donor base, and the program has been rolling in a way it hasn’t since the death penalty.
Still, it’s the sort of hire FSU has to at least explore. Lashlee was once Miami’s offensive coordinator, and the Seminoles can’t afford to ignore someone who has that kind of offensive track record.
Then there’s Kenny Dillingham, who turned down Michigan this offseason to stay at Arizona State. Family clearly played a role in his decision to remain at his alma mater, and he has experience at Florida State from his time working under Norvell in 2020-21.
He’s also spent the offseason pushing for more money to keep Arizona State in College Football Playoff contention. Even with those efforts, the Sun Devils lost Sam Leavitt and had to turn to Kentucky cast-off Cutter Boley.
Florida State isn’t exactly flush right now, but the job still offers a much higher ceiling, especially now that facility and stadium renovations are already complete.
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Florida States long-running standoff with the ACC may have found a fresh opening in Washington. The Seminoles, alongside Clemson, already forced major change when their lawsuit over the leagues restrictive multimedia rights agreement and withdrawal penalties ended in a settlement that altered revenue distribution and softened exit costs, but the conference picture could shift again if a proposed amendment to the Protect College Sports Act moves forward.
Backed by some ACC schools and Florida Sen. Ashley Moody, the amendment would let Power 4 programs leave their leagues without a five-year probationary period if they withdraw within 180 days of the bill becoming law. For Florida State, that would be a potentially meaningful development in its push to create a cleaner path out of the ACC, though the measure still has to clear both the Senate and House before any of that becomes real. [Read more 🡒]
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Seminole County officials have acknowledged the claim but have declined to say more because the matter is still pending, leaving a lot of the important details inside the legal process for now. For a former Seminole whose life after football was built around helping others, the unanswered questions around his condition and the handling of the incident make this a situation worth watching closely. [Read more 🡒]