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The buzzword emanated from a baritone voice possessing a mild Southern drawl. New FSU offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn used it at least five times during a recent chat with reporters at a pre-spring luncheon.
And with every utterance, those 59-year-old eyes that once seemed glazed appeared to glisten.
Malzahn called it “refreshing” to be reunited with Seminoles coach Mike Norvell, with whom he worked at Tulsa in 2007 and ’08. When asked about being able to focus solely on offense, the former UCF and Auburn head coach said, “It’s been refreshing from my standpoint.” A couple sentences later, when elaborating on the subject, he used the r-word again.
“If you’re a head coach, you have to worry about every little thing,” Malzahn said. “And sometimes the joy of just coaching offense (dissipates), which, I’m an offensive guy. It’s been real refreshing to go back and just focus on that one area.”
Like 61-year-old peer Chip Kelly, who walked away from his head coaching gig at UCLA 13 months ago to call plays for eventual national champ Ohio State, Malzahn has opted for one headset in lieu of many hats.
College football’s overhauled landscape, in which players are compensated and enjoy de facto free agency, has prompted most Football Bowl Subdivision programs to reimagine their staffs in the form of NFL front offices (complete with general managers). As a result, the head coach now is a CEO of sorts, presiding over the transfer portal, recruiting, name, image and likeness compensation for players, and — oh, by the way — game-planning.
Toss in consecutive losing seasons at UCF, including a 4-8 mark last fall, and Malzahn was bogged down and beleaguered. Small wonder, then, that word of his hiring at FSU leaked only a day after the Knights’ season finale last November.
The practice field “is kind…
Source link : https://www.tampabay.com/sports/seminoles/2025/03/24/fsu-gus-malzahn-mike-norvell-kam-davis-tommy-castellanos/
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Publish date : 2025-03-24 17:31:00
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