FSU Football should hire Power Five assistant as next coordinator

FSU football is still in the market for an offensive coordinator and they should be going after someone who has experience at the highest level of coaching.

There is going to come a time where the FSU football team is going to have to hire an offensive coordinator. In the weeks that have passed since Walt Bell left to become the next head coach of powerhouse UMass, plenty of names have been mentioned as the one who should lead the Seminoles on that side of the ball.

One of the biggest names who is still out there is Kendal Briles, who spent the last season as the offensive coordinator for the Houston Cougars following a one year stint as the offensive coordinator for the Florida Atlantic Owls that came following nine years coaching under his father, Art, at Baylor – you might want to Google that now for more on that stint.

Florida State Seminoles Football

Nonetheless, Briles is one of the hot young names in the coaching game because of what he has been able to do numbers wise – the Cougars finished seventh in the FBS last season in both total offense and points scored while the Owls were fifth in total offense and eight in points per game the year before.

For some FSU football fans, that’s plenty of reason for him to take over for an offense that was one of the worst in all of college football last season – however, a deep dive into the numbers shows that they can be pretty deceiving.

Over the last two seasons, Briles coached offenses have played a total of 23 different teams with 11 of them – nearly half – ranking 90th or worse in total defense. With the Cougars combining for a 16-7 record over that span, 10 of those wins came against those teams that were among the worst defensively.

Seven times, the Cougars or Owls combined to play a team ranked in the top half of the FBS – No. 65 or higher, for those scoring at home – when it came to total defense…and came out of those games with a 3-4 record.

This is the problem that comes with trying to bring someone in that doesn’t have experience against a Power Five defense on a consistent basis (as Briles has gone 1-2 over the last two seasons against Power Five teams, with a win over Arizona this year). Briles can blow up his numbers against teams like Akron and Navy, but playing the ACC is a whole different animal.

The Seminoles would be better off going after someone from a Power Five program – whether it be someone like Josh Gattis from Alabama or Jeff Scott from Clemson or even former FSU football assistant coach James Coley, who went on to be the coordinator at both Miami and Georgia.

I am not saying that Briles isn’t a good coach – off field ties to what went on at Baylor are another story for another day – but right now, the Seminoles need someone who have experience dealing with teams like Clemson, not Charlotte, and Oklahoma, not Old Dominion.