Florida State absolutely shellshocked by Gus Malzahn announcement out of the blue

The Gus Bus is going out of service. 

Gus Malzahn announced his retirement from coaching this morning in a surprising development. The 60-year-old Texas native spent one year as the offensive coordinator at FSU after head coaching stints with Auburn and UCF.

His one year in Tallahassee had solid returns. The Seminoles were ranked 11th in the country with 448.9 yards per play and featured 1,000-yard receiver Duce Robinson. But they were only 40th in points per game (29.0) and both numbers were heavily skewed by blowout wins over FCS opponent East Texas A&M and lowly Kent State.

The Seminoles will promote pass game coordinator and wide receivers coach Tim Harris Jr. to offensive coordinator. Harris previously coached at UCF, Miami and FIU. He came to Tallahassee in 2025 when Malzahn was hired, replacing Ron Dugans.

FSU OC Gus Malzahn announces his retirement

There were rumors for most of the offseason about Malzahn's status at FSU after he didn't commit to staying with the program during his weekly press conference heading into the Florida game.

"My intent is to help us get bowl eligible and win this game and that's exactly what my focus is," Malzahn said at the time. 

But Malzahn seemed to be content to stay for another year and it showed with the acquisition of quarterback Ashton Daniels in the transfer portal. Daniels, who was previously at Auburn and Stanford, is a solid fit for Malzahn's offensive scheme that demands a lot of running from the quarterback and not that much accuracy in the pass game. 

Expect Mike Norvell to be more involved in coaching the offense

How things will change with Malzahn gone is unknown. Harris was an offensive coordinator at FIU in 2020, a co-offensive coordinator at UCF in 2021 and 2022 and then became the sole OC for the Knights in 2024 after spending a year at Miami as the running backs coach. One would expect head coach Mike Norvell to take a greater hand in calling the offense and working with the quarterbacks. 

“I want to thank Coach Malzahn for his effort and dedication to our program over the last 14 months,” Norvell said. “He did a wonderful job coordinating our offense and calling plays in 2025, and he has set a strong foundation for us to continue building on in 2026 behind the coordination of Tim Harris and the multiple other assistant coaches who are returning.”

The Seminoles' offensive staff is littered with guys Malzahn brought with him from UCF or have previous ties with him, including offensive line coach Herb Hand and recently hired running backs coach Kam Marin.

Malzahn was the offensive coordinator on the 2010 Auburn team that won a BCS championship led by Heisman Trophy winner Cam Newton. As head coach of the Tigers, Malzahn led them to the 2013 BCS Championship game where they lost to... Florida State.