FSU head coach Mike Norvell felt the need to change his coaching staff in November after another embarrassing loss against Notre Dame. One of the casualties of his decision was offensive coordinator and offensive line coach Alex Atkins.
Atkins was one of the original hires for Norvell when he took the FSU job in December 2019. Atkins was the offensive line coach before a promotion to offensive coordinator when Kenny Dillingham left after the 2021 season. He had some initial success in improving a terrible offensive line inherited from the previous regime. However, his biggest contributions were on the recruiting trail, landing several blue-chip players.
The only problem was none of those players ever developed into contributors, and the offensive line gradually deteriorated after the 2022 season. FSU struggled to run the ball in 2023 and couldn't run the ball or pass block in 2024, which led to his dismissal.
Atkins had several blue-chip players committed in the 2025 recruiting class, including Solomon Thomas, who eventually de-committed and signed with LSU. Ironically, that's where Alex Atkins may take a new role, according to the latest reports:
LSU is targeting Alex Atkins for a role on its offensive staff, sources tell @CBSSports/@247Sports.
— Matt Zenitz (@mzenitz) January 29, 2025
Atkins was Florida State’s offensive coordinator and offensive line coach the last three years. Respected figure in the coaching world who has garnered FBS head coach interest in… pic.twitter.com/BfxmDnncHS
FSU hired UCF OL coach Herb Hand who's made a big splash. He has a proven track record developing players and for physical offensive line play.
He got four offensive line commits from the transfer portal and secured two high school commits for the 2025 recruiting class in the last month.
Atkins can't take an on-field coaching job until next year because of a recruiting show-cause penalty involving offensive line recruit Amarius Mims. However, LSU may find a role until that penalty expires.
It would reunite him with Thomas and potentially give him a new start to jump-start a career that was on an upward trajectory until the last couple of years. There were rumors he might find a role with the rival Florida Gators, but it looks like that never came to fruition.
Either way, it looks like both parties mutually benefited from the departure.