Florida State's offense is certain to improve in 2025. The question is: by how much will it improve? The Seminoles had one of the worst offensive units in college football last season, ranking 131st among 134 FBS teams in offensive production.
Averaging a mere 15.4 points per game (PPG) along with an average of 2.9 yards per carry (YAC), the offensive production cannot get worse. Nonetheless, here are some things to expect heading into the season.
1. Sharing of the Play Calling Duties
Newly hired offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn and his veteran counterpart, offensive line coach Herb Hand, look to revamp the Florida State offense. The two former UCF coaches boast impressive résumés, with over 60 years of combined coaching experience. Historically, Florida State head coach Mike Norvell has been unwilling to give up the play-calling duties. Most would blame this on a rather inexperienced former offensive coordinator, Alex Atkins, who was seen as ill-equipped to handle play-calling duties. However, with tensions rising after a disastrous 2024, Norvell may be more lenient. You can expect Hand, and more notably, Malzahn, to play a vital part in the infrastructure of this offense.
2. High-Tempo No-Huddle Implementation
If you watched the Florida State offense last season, you most likely saw a dysfunctional, modest-tempo approach. With the Gus Malzahn addition, you can expect things to be different this season. While both Norvell and Malzahn utilize the spread offense, Malzahn is notoriously known for his high-tempo, no-huddle smashmouth spread offense. The goal of this offense is to exploit the defense by controlling the tempo and wearing down your opponent. Malzahn also looks to emphasize run gaps by spreading receivers to the boundary while setting up shots to the deep part of the field. If you're watching the Seminoles this season, gear up for a high-tempo attack with an emphasis on the run.
3. Different Personnel and Formations
In Malzahn's scheme, he often implements an H-back or also known as the fullback. As you might recall from his well-known buck sweep at Auburn, the goal of the H-back is to seal off the edge defenders, so the pulling guards can get outside of him, thus setting up a huge gain. The H-back can also find opportunities in the short and intermediate passing game. UCF TE transfer Randy Pittman will likely fill this role a majority of the time.
Regarded as one of the best offensive minds in college football, Malzahn's heavy H-back utilization isn't the only innovation in his offense. You can expect several different formations, ranging from empty set formations to heavy formations. One formation I expect to see less of is the pistol set.
Behind a weakened offensive line, Florida State was caught in many slow-developing runs last year that resulted in too many negative plays while utilizing the pistol formation. More times than not, the Seminoles will be lined up in the shotgun this season, where Boston College transfer QB Tommy Castellanos can play off run-pass option (RPO) reads.
As with Cam Newton, Nick Marshall, KJ Jefferson, and other former Malzahn-led quarterbacks, Castellanos is sure to have a duel-threat impact on the ground and in the air.