Florida State is bringing in Nick Williams to coach edge rushers/defensive ends, according to several reports. Williams coached the same position at Syracuse over the past two seasons.
It's the second coaching move made by Mike Norvell over the past few days. The offseason of promised changes began late last week when cornerbacks coach Patrick Surtain Sr. was not retained. Williams spent two seasons with the Orange.
Sources: Syracuse edges coach Nick Williams has agreed to become the next edges coach at Florida State. He’s been at Syracuse two seasons coaching the edges, including seventh-round pick Fadil Diggs. pic.twitter.com/Fwyb4grBlb
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) December 8, 2025
Williams' resume is pretty solid
The 35-year-old coach has stops at Georgia, Texas A&M and Colorado on his resume, spending time under Kirby Smart, Jimbo Fisher and Deion Sanders. That is certainly a group of characters to learn from. He played linebacker and safety at Georgia and North Alabama and was actually a quarterback in high school (Bainbridge, Georgia).
One thing to note about Williams coaching on staffs under Smart, Fisher, Coach Prime and even Fran Brown is that those are all coaches that stress recruiting at a high level, and he's been on staff to help bring in some top five classes with the Bulldogs and Aggies.
His addition will move some pieces around
We still don't know the status of several coaches. Last season, John Papuchis coached linebackers and that included edge rushers/outside linebackers. The addition of Williams will take that off his plate for now and, again, there are questions about whether Papuchis will stay on staff. His contract is reportedly up in February.
Terrance Knighton coached the entire defensive line last season. FSU splitting the defensive line coaching isn't anything new. For most of Odell Haggins' storied coaching career with the Seminoles, he coached the interior defensive line and someone else (Jody Allen, D.J. Eliot, Brad Lawing, Papuchis, etc.) coached the defensive ends. Haggins only coached the full defensive line for a couple of years when Willie Taggart was in Tallahassee.
So, FSU is going back to a familiar coaching alignment and one that should free up Knighton to focus his work on the position group that he's most familiar with. Williams' presence should be a welcome addition to the staff.