FSU football coach Mike Norvell fired an offensive coordinator who had never coached at a major program before arriving at FSU and hired a proven guy with a track record of top 25 offenses nationally but you'd think FSU took a step backward if you listen to some fans and pundits.
UCF went to the transfer portal for a quarterback in 2024, got a lemon in KJ Jefferson, and still has the No. 28 offense nationally. FSU ranked No. 118. Here are some of the insane narratives I've seen:
- Malzahn's offense is drastically different than Mike Norvell
- All Malzhan wants to do is run the ball
- QBs don't want to play in Malzhan's offense because they can't get to the NFL
- Wide receivers don't want to play in the offense because they run it all the time.
- The offense is outdated.
Mike Norvell learned a lot of his concepts from Gus Malzahn when they coached together at Tulsa when Malzahn was the offensive coordinator and Norvell was a graduate assistant. They both emphasize establishing the run game to set up the vertical passing attack. Both will play to the strengths of the team.
For instance, we saw Jordan Travis use his legs much more between 2020-21. Travis averaged 12.7 rushing attempts per game. That's about the same amount as John Rhys Plumlee at UCF in 2022-23. It's funny, FSU fans never complained about Jordan Travis using his legs when it helped win games, but now they are worried about Tommy Castellanos running all the time.
Malzhan does like to run the ball. He ran the ball 58 percent of the time on average at UCF between 2021-2024. The best offensive year Mike Norvell had at FSU was in 2022. The FSU offense ranked No. 7 nationally and ran the ball 56 percent of the time. Jordan Travis accounted for 16 percent of the rushing attempts (82).
If guys don't want to play in Gus Malzahn's offense, it's one of two things. They are afraid to run the ball themselves, and probably listen to people they have no business listening to (cough, Luke Kromenhoek). Malzhan quarterbacks have the ball in their hands A LOT and have the potential to put up crazy numbers IF they are good enough. Just look at what he did with Cam Newton at Auburn. Heck, look at what a converted defensive back did to FSU's vaunted 2013 defense in the national title game. Auburn had guys running wide-open, and they probably missed two wide-open touchdowns because of poor throws by the quarterback.
Also, look at what other quarterbacks who ran a lot of college have done. Lamar Jackson (first-round draft pick) averaged 20 rushing attempts and 31 passing attempts per game in his Heisman year at Louisville. Deshaun Watson (first-round draft pick) averaged about 13 rushing attempts per game over his final two years at Clemson and averaged 38 pass attempts per game. Believe it or not, Malzhan has had seasons where his quarterback averaged 40 passing attempts per game while at Tulsa and threw for over 5,000 yards. It comes down to the strengths and weaknesses of the quarterback. Clemson's Cade Klubnik has averaged about nine rushing attempts per game while at Clemson. Jalen Milroe averaged 13 rushing attempts per game last year and nobody was saying quarterbacks didn't want to play at Alabama. Riley Leonard averaged 11.5 rushing attempts at Notre Dame last year. Ohio State's Will Howard had over 100 rushing attempts last year. I could go on and on, but the narrative that quarterbacks don't want to pay in Malzahn's offense because he likes to run the quarterback is hogwash.
It's not Malzahn's job to develop quarterback for the NFL, but the production can get them there if they play their cards right. Jalen Milroe isn't a good passing quarterback, but some NFL team will draft him. Jordan Travis would have gone higher than the fifth round if he hadn't had that gruesome injury.
FSU football fans love Jimbo Fisher's offense, but Gus Malzhan had more receivers drafted in four years at UCF than Jimbo had in seven years at FSU. How crazy is that? Malzahn has at least two receivers with over 500 receiving yards in three of his four years at UCF. FSU has only had that once (2023) since Mike Norvell took over in 2020. FSU has 84 receiving touchdowns since 2021 and UCF had 89 in the same span. Malzhan also does a great job incorporating his tight ends in the passing game. FSU tight end Randy Pittman had 51 receptions for 631 yards and three touchdowns in his first two years at UCF.
Some people believe Malzhan's offense is outdated, which is weird when they had no QB and still managed to be top 30 last year. They averaged 30.4 ppg and 6.5 yards per play(No. 16 nationally). They averaged 5.77 yards per rush last year. I'd run the ball a lot too if I could average that per rush! All college offenses are not too entirely different. It comes down to two things. It's who limits turnovers and executes the plays the best.
Final Thoughts
We'll probably see FSU run the ball quite a bit, but it's not going to be much different than what saw in 2022 when FSU had a top-10 offense(I'm not claiming FSU will have a top-10 offense). We'll see Tommy Castellanos use his legs to make things happen, just as Jordan Travis did. We'll see them try to stretch the field vertically as FSU did with Ontaria Wilson and Johnny Wilson. We'll see the tight ends involved more because this tight end room is better than what FSU had in 2022.
The effectiveness of the offense will come down to how well the offensive line blocks and how well Castellanos passes the ball. That's the challenge for any offense, regardless of who the coordinator is. We saw the FSU offense take off once Jordan Travis progressed as a passer. Can Tommy Castellanos ascend to close to that level? We'll have to wait and see. So send this to all your buddies who run with these narratives without doing any legwork to see if they are true.