The biggest questions surrounding FSU football reside on the offensive side of the ball. The 2024 offense was historically bad, barely averaging 15 points per game, and that artificially inflated due to FSU's game with Charleston Southern.
FSU has a new everything on offense. New coordinator, quarterback, mostly new offensive line, starting tight end, wide receivers, and probably a new starting running back.
Gus Malzahn is a proven offensive coordinator, and it's no secret what he wants to do. It's not entirely different than Mike Norvell. They both like to run the ball successfully to avoid predictable third and long and to set up explosive passing plays.
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So what will the 2025 FSU offense look like this year? It'll look a lot like the 2022 UCF offense. That was Gus Malzhan's offense, which was uptempo and averaged 6.17 yards per play and 5.2 yards per rush.
UCF ran the ball 57.6 percent of the time, but 26 percent of the run plays were with the quarterback, and that's what FSU quarterback Thomas Castellanos does best. His skillset is extremely similar to UCF quarterback John Rhys Plumlee in 2022. UCF had a three-headed rushing attack that season between the quarterback and two running backs.
FSU will likely have the same with Castellanos, Gavin Sawchuk, and freshman running back Ousmane Kromah eventually taking over that third spot.
UCF had two receivers with over 700 receiving yards and a tight end with over two hundred receiving yards. Those FSU players will likely be Duce Robinson, Squirrel White, and Randy Pittman at tight end.
However, all of this depends on how well the FSU offensive line performs. UCF had offensive line coach Herb Hand in 2022, and he's now at FSU with Malzahn.
That UCF offense was top 30, but the UCF schedule they played that season wasn't tough. At the same time, I expect the 2025 FSU defense to be much better than the 2022 version of UCF.
Ultimately, that 2022 UCF offense averaged 32.9 ppg. I expect FSU to be in that ballpark or better in 2025 if they can stay healthy. If so, that's light years better than last year.