Florida State’s coaching search is now running on two tracks, with the school bringing in Daniel Parker of Parker Executives to oversee both the next athletic director hire and the search for the Seminoles’ next head football coach.
University president Richard McCullough announced the move Sunday, Nov. 1, and said the firm was already in place after the university decided on Friday to use it for the athletic director search. Once Mike Norvell was fired after seven seasons, McCullough said Parker would handle the coaching search too.
“We hired Daniel Parker, Parker Associates, to run our AD search. We literally made that decision based on Friday.
He's already begun on the AD search. He will also do the coach search as well.
So we are going to be running those simultaneously,” McCollugh said. “It's complicated, but we're already on it.”
McCullough said the university will get regular updates from the search firm, and he added that Bruce Warwick, the interim athletic director, will have a role in the next head coaching decision.
No firm timetable was given for either hire, but McCullough made clear the urgency. With the transfer portal set to open in January and high school national signing day in December, he said the school cannot afford to move slowly.
“Top priority for us is to get all of this done and everything in place. You don't have to be a rocket scientist, and I have a Ph.D. in chemistry; I am a scientist.
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to go, 'What happens in January? What happens in December?"
McCullough said when referencing the transfer portal opening in January and high school national signing day in December. “Time is of the essence, I think.”
Parker’s background, according to his bio on the Parker Executives website, includes more than 200 collegiate athletic director searches, along with basketball, baseball and football head coach searches, conference commissioner searches, and work for the USOC and other professional sports organizations. The company says its sports practice has remained one of the leading executive search and consulting firms in the field.
Florida State enters the stretch run at 3-5 overall and 1-4 in the ACC. The Seminoles have beaten New Mexico State, Central Arkansas and Virginia, while losses have come against SMU, Alabama, Louisville, Miami in 2OT and Clemson.
The remaining schedule includes a trip to Boston College on Nov. 7, a visit to Pittsburgh on Nov. 13, a home game against NC State on Nov. 21 and the regular-season finale against Florida on Nov. 27.
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