FSU football: Impact of hiring Adam Fuller as defensive coordinator

FSU football has fielded a sub-par defense for at least the last two years. Could new defensive coordinator Adam Fuller restore order in Tallahassee?

FSU football and the words Harlon Barnett draw the ire of Nole fans nowadays. Barnett has been the defensive coordinator behind the worst FSU defense in a decade, but it looks like his days in Tallahassee will be coming to an end.

The guy to replace him is Adam Fuller who will be following Mike Norvell over from Memphis. Fuller only spent one year with the Memphis Tigers and saw their defense improve drastically.

The year prior saw him take a Marshall defense and finish No. 22 according to SP+ advanced metrics based on the competition level.

He comes from the Mike Elko tree(former Notre Dame defensive coordinator) and current defensive coordinator for Jimbo Fisher at Texas A&M.

A lot of FSU fans were hoping Georgia defensive coordinator Dan Lanning would be joining Norvell as FSU defensive coordinator.

He was previously at Memphis with Norvell before moving on to Georgia, but Fuller’s defenses actually performed better for what its worth with roughly the same players.

How does the hiring of Adam Fuller impact FSU football?

Credentials

Adam Fuller brings six years of defensive coordinator experience to the Noles. He spent four years and Chattanooga, a year at Marshall and the current year at Memphis.

He has a knack for improving defenses and runs and multiple 4-3 look. I mentioned this over a week ago before Mike Norvell was even hired at FSU.

I figured it would be an unpopular hire but the guy has proven at two different places he can flat-out coach. Memphis went from allowing 31.9 ppg to just 24.4. Their yards per play average went from 5.61 to 5.23.

Memphis’s defenses faced less third downs under Fuller and went from 222 third downs faced to 197 with the conversion rate going from 39.64 to 38.58 percent.

Of course FSU could never get off the field under Harlon Barnett as FSU allowed 296 first downs this season (in 12 games).

Memphis’s defense under Fuller only allowed 257 first downs(in 13 games) this year compared to 311 the previous year.

That pretty solid considering the number from the previous, but can Fuller recruit though?

Recruiting

This is the biggest question mark for Adam Fuller. It’s kinda similar to the question folk had about Mike Norvell coming from Memphis.

The good news is Fuller has experience recruiting in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida of which the last two are talent rich states the Noles historically have pulled great players from.

I’m not too worried about Fuller when it comes to recruiting. I mean you never want to waste a position on staff when it comes to recruiting.

I feel like Fuller can take the Mike Norvell approach and show players film on how they would be used in the defensive scheme.

The good news is he has the past two years of film from some pretty good defenses to use to his advantage.

The other thing he has to his advantage is the FSU football logo. If he can field a top 25 defense in 2020 that would go a long way aiding his recruiting options in the coming years.

Final Thoughts

A lot of folk may poo poo the hire but I’m not turned off by it. In fact, I think it’s a positive to bring Fuller over since he was already working with him THIS year.

Fuller knows exactly what Norvell wants from a defense and knows how Norvell wants to run his offense.

Zack Blostein from Noles247 is reporting Fuller will be in Tallahassee this weekend to assist with the final recruiting weekend.

It’ll be interesting to see how the recruits interact with him and what they may post on social media about their visits.

The good news is Fuller was making $400,000 as the defensive coordinator at Memphis compared to the near one million Harlon Barnett was making.

So FSU could have a much better defensive coordinator for a fraction of the price meaning other money can be allocated elsewhere?

That sounds like a smart move to me.