The Florida State football coaching staff continues to evolve as it looks to modernize and catch up with the elite programs in college football. FSU made two major hires to its back office, with John Garrett and Taylor Edwards. FSU Athletic Director Michael Alford said more hires would be coming, and there is a report that Florida State will bring home a familiar face in a new role.
Former senior offensive analyst, Gabe Fertitta, will rejoin the staff as Director of Football Strategy & Offensive Assistant Coach, according to a report by Pete Thamel:
Sources: Florida State is expected to hire Gabe Fertitta as the Director of Football Strategy & Offensive Assistant Coach. He’d spent 2025 as the OC at Nicholls State. He spent the three previous years as an FSU analyst and worked in quality control at Louisville in 2021. pic.twitter.com/5pBJ9ezuqC
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) February 9, 2026
A familiar face who was at FSU when they had things rolling for a couple of years on offense
Fertitta left FSU after the 2024 season for a promotion, taking the Offensive Coordinator/QB coach role at Nicholls State University.
Fertitta was part of the 2022 and 2023 FSU offenses that ranked among the best in college football with Jordan Travis at quarterback. Fertitta is well-liked and respected, and it’ll be interesting to see what type of impact he’ll have in his new role. We don’t have any criteria about what that role would entail.
His role would likely take some of the load off Mike Norvell and Tim Harris Jr. when it comes to game-planning since Fertitta is familiar with how Norvell likes to piece game plans together. It also allows Harris Jr. to focus on coaching up the wide receivers, since that position group remains part of his job.
There will likely be more hires in the back office over the next few weeks and months. Will these moves impact the 2026 season? Potentially, but at least FSU is moving towards modernization of its program.