As FSU coordinator, Malzahn aims to boost ground game

TALLAHASSEE — Gus Malzahn is at Florida State because of his coaching connection to Mike Norvell, going back nearly two decades to Tulsa. But Malzahn’s connection to FSU is also clear, and it’s a visual that hangs up at the Moore Athletic Center near the new offensive coordinator’s office.

He sees it daily — Seminoles wide receiver Kelvin Benjamin going up for a pass over the middle from Jameis Winston on a play that sealed the 2013 national title over Malzahn’s Auburn team.

“I’ve got to walk by the picture of the guy catching the ball as I go to the office every day,” Malzahn said Wednesday. “That was a real special game. There were a lot of great players on the field. It went down to the very end. It was probably entertaining or a great game to watch. It was tough, obviously, to be on the losing side.”

The 59-year-old Malzahn has been mostly successful in a coaching career that began at the high school level in Arkansas before landing college assistant coaching jobs. Malzahn is 105-62 as a head coach at Arkansas State, Auburn and UCF. His teams won nine games apiece in 2021 and ’22 with UCF in the American Athletic Conference before the program made the jump to the Big 12, where the Knights were 6-7 in 2023 and 4-8 this season.

Malzahn was set to earn $5 million at UCF in 2025 on a deal that had three years remaining. But Malzahn resigned and, a UCF spokesperson confirmed,  “There was no buyout.”

Malzahn spoke at a media session on Wednesday and expressed a desire with a changing college football landscape to be a coordinator and not a head coach.

“The job description of a head college football coach has changed dramatically in the last two years with everything — transfer portal to collectives to agents and everything that goes with that,” Malzahn said. “I’m just an old school football coach. I love coaching football, and head coaches, it’s hard to do that a lot. So that had something to do with it. And then the opportunity and being familiar with Mike and having so much respect for this university, coached against this university in the national championship, I know what this place is capable of doing.”

Florida State has seen its share of highs and lows in the Norvell Era, including a wild fall from a 13-1 season and Atlantic Coast Conference title in 2023 to a 2-10 mark this fall. Norvell has overhauled the staff, dismissing offensive coordinator Alex Atkins and defensive coordinator Adam Fuller among his early moves before season’s end.

Malzahn was part of a Tulsa staff that hired Norvell as a graduate assistant in 2007. They didn’t work together very long but have remained close through the years, both coaches have said.

Now Malzahn joins Norvell and will try to jump-start an offense that was among the worst in the FBS in 2024, averaging 15.4 points (131st out of 134 schools). It will start with common ground as Malzahn and Norvell value the run game as the foundation of the offense.

UCF’s rush offenses were consistently good, ranking in the top 10 in each of the three seasons with Malzahn as head coach as well as Herb Hand as offensive line coach. Hand has also joined Malzahn in Tallahassee. The Knights were seventh in the FBS and first among Power 4 schools in rushing in 2024, averaging 248.1 yards per game.

“I’m a big believer you got to run the football downhill,” Malzahn said. “It makes everything better as far as pass protection, better on the quarterback, everything. … And we’ll get that done.”

Norvell has called plays as the head coach at Memphis and Florida State, often with success, while hiring offensive coordinators to help with the game plan. But Malzahn has been hired to call the plays on game days.

The play-caller will be new but the offensive scheme and desire to use tempo is similar, Malzahn said.

“Our foundation on offense is from the same family,” Malzahn said. “He’s got his own wrinkles, and I’ve had my own wrinkles. But there is a lot more things that are in common. We still have the same terminology, the way we identify things like formations and player alignment, numbers.

“It’s from the same family. So that’s why it’s a really, really easy transition. We’re going to play fast. I think that’s the No. 1 thing. We’re going to play fast.”