After a successful 2022 season and an offseason that saw the Florida State Seminoles add a flurry of exciting transfers, Florida State is seeking to win the ACC and set a new precedent of success moving forward.
What does the Seminoles coaching staff look like under head coach Mike Norvell?
Florida State Seminoles Coaching Staff
Head Coach: Mike Norvell
Mike Norvell was named Florida State’s 11th full-time head football coach on Dec. 8, 2019. Norvell’s 2022 saw Florida State win 10 games, double their previous season. Norvell helped Florida State become one of only three teams to rank in the top 15 in yards per play on offense and defense in 2022.
Norvell’s time as a head coach has helped him build some talented coaching staffs and dozens of NFL prospects. For the 2023 season, 44 current Division I coaches, including five head coaches and 11 coordinators, have served on a Norvell staff.
Norvell has coached 19 NFL Draft prospects over the last seven years, a list that will certainly grow following the 2023 season.
Before serving as the head coach at Florida State, Norvell was the head coach for the Memphis Tigers from 2016 to 2019. While at Memphis, Norvell built a 38-15 record and helped the Tigers earn a spot in a NY6 bowl in the 2019 season.
Norvell led Memphis to a school-record 12 wins and the program’s first outright conference championship since 1969 that same season.
Norvell was the offensive coordinator at Arizona State from 2012-15 after serving as the wide receivers coach at Pitt in 2011 and Tulsa from 2009-10.
Norvell’s record as a head coach sat at 56-31 entering the 2023 season.
Defensive Coordinator: Adam Fuller
Fuller followed Norvell from Memphis in 2019 after serving as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator that season. Fuller brings over two decades of coaching experience at the collegiate level to this Florida State staff.
Fuller first started coaching as the linebackers coach at Worchester Polytechnical Institute in 1998.
Fuller would go on to coach the same position at Wagner College in 1999 before climbing up the ranks to be the co-defensive coordinator there in 2004. Fuller then became the defensive backs coach at Richmond before being put in charge of their special teams/linebackers in 2006.
Fuller took the head coaching job at Assumption College in 2008 but spent just a single year there before becoming the defensive coordinator at Chattanooga.
Fuller spent three seasons with the Mocs’ before becoming the assistant head coach/linebackers coach with the Marshall Thundering Herd.
Fuller would work his way up to becoming the Herd’s defensive coordinator in 2018 after developing two conference Defensive Players of the Year in Neville Hewitt and Evan McKelvey.
Fuller’s full coaching resume can be found here:
- Worchester Polytechnical Institute (Linebackers, 1998)
- Wagner College (Linebackers, 1999-2000; Special Teams Coordinator/Defensive Backs 2001-03; Co-Defensive Coordinator, 2004)
- Richmond (Defensive Backs, 2005; Special Teams Coordinator/Linebackers, 2006-07)
- Assumption (Head Coach, 2008)
- Chattanooga (Defensive Coordinator, 2009-12)
- Marshall (Assistant Head Coach/linebackers, 2013-17; Defensive Coordinator/Safeties, 2018)
- Memphis (Defensive Coordinator, 2019)
- Florida State (Defensive Coordinator, 2020-Present)
Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line Coach: Alex Atkins
A former All-conference player and OVC champion at UT-Martin, Atkins has helped pave the way for the Florida State offense to become one of the best in college football.
Atkins got started as a graduate assistant at his alma mater in 2007 before becoming the Skyhawks’ tight ends coach in 2008. Atkins became a graduate assistant at Marshall in 2009 before becoming the offensive line coach at Itawamba Community College from 2010 to 2011.
Atkins became the offensive line coach at Chattanooga in 2012, overlapping with Seminoles’ DC Adam Fuller. After two seasons in Chattanooga, Atkins took the offensive line job at Georgia Southern during their transition from FCS to FBS.
Atkins helped GSU average 381.1 rushing yards per game in his first year. Georgia Southern won their first bowl game in history the following season.
Atkins then moved to take the same job at Tulane under Willie Fritz. Atkins served as Tulane’s Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line coach from 2016 to 2018 before he became the Offensive Coordinator at Charlotte in 2019, where he helped tutor fourth-round pick Cam Clark.
Atkins spent two years as Florida State’s offensive line coach before being promoted to his current role in 2022.
Atkins’s full coaching resume can be found here:
- UT-Martin (Graduate Assistant, 2007; Tight Ends, 2008)
- Marshall (Graduate Assistant, 2009)
- Itawamba Community College (Offensive Line, 2010-11)
- Chattanooga (Offensive Line, 2012-13)
- Georgia Southern (Offensive Line, 2014-15)
- Tulane (Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line, 2016-17; Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line, 2018)
- Charlotte (Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line 2019)
- Florida State (Offensive Line, 2020-21; Offensive Coordinator/Offensive Line, 2022-Present)
Special Teams Coordinator/Defensive Ends Coach: John Papuchis
Papuchis is part of Norvell’s initial staff with Florida State and he’s in his fourth year with the Seminoles. Papuchis began his career as a graduate assistant at Kansas from 2001-03 before becoming a defensive intern at LSU under Nick Saban in 2004 and also coaching punters in 2007.
Papuchis then took over as Special Teams coordinator/Defensive line coach at Nebraska in 2008. There, Papuchis coached Ndamukong Suh to become one of the best defensive players of all time.
Papuchis’s work with Nebraska’s defensive line helped him earn the Defensive Coordinator job there in 2012.
Papuchis served in that role until 2015 and he became the linebackers coach at North Carolina that year. He served as linebackers coach his first two seasons before being promoted to defensive coordinator for the 2017 and 2018 seasons.
Papuchis spent the 2019 season as the Special Teams Coordinator/Inside Linebackers coach at Maryland before taking his current job at Florida State, where he has mentored first-round pick Jermaine Johnson II and All-American Jared Verse.
Co-Defensive Coordinator/Linebackers Coach: Randy Shannon
A three-time national champion, Shannon is one of the most recognizable names in coaching. Shannon began his coaching career at the University of Miami.
Shannon spent 20 years coaching in Miami, beginning his career as a graduate assistant at the University of Miami for the 1991 national champions before coaching the defensive line in 1992 and linebackers from 1993-97.
After three seasons on staff with the Miami Dolphins from 1998-2001, Shannon returned to the University of Miami as defensive coordinator for six seasons and head coach for four.
Shannon spent the 2012 season coaching linebackers at TCU and 2013 and 2014 in the same role at Arkansas.
Shannon returned to the state of Florida in 2015 as Assistant Head Coach/Co-Defensive Coordinator for Jim McElwain’s Florida Gators. Shannon became the full-time defensive coordinator there in 2017 and served as the interim head coach after McElwain was fired that season.
Shannon then became defensive coordinator for the University of Central Florida from 2018-20 before joining the Florida State staff.
Deputy Head Coach/Tight Ends Coach: Chris Thomsen
Thomsen joined the Florida State staff in 2020 after spending most of his coaching career in Texas. Thomsen played for and then coached for Abilene Christian in the early 1990s and became their offensive line coach in 1995 before transitioning to the defensive line in 1997.
Thomsen then flipped back to offense to serve as the Wildcats’ offensive coordinator from 1998-99.
After two years in the Texas high school ranks, Thomsen became the offensive line coach at Central Arkansas for the 2003-04 seasons before returning to Abilene Christian as their head coach from 2005-11.
Thomsen would then coach offensive lines at Texas Tech, Arizona State, and TCU before joining the Florida State staff. Thomsen coached 12 NFL Draft selections along the offensive line throughout his career.
Associate Head Coach/Defensive Tackles Coach: Odell Haggins
Haggins is the longest-tenured coach in college football, entering his 30th season on the Florida State Seminoles coaching staff. Haggins was an All-American nose guard for the Seminoles and spent three years in the NFL before joining Bobby Bowden’s staff at Florida State.
Haggins started on the offensive side of the ball, serving as the Seminoles’ tight ends/offensive line coach from 1994-95. Haggins then became Florida State’s defensive tackles coach in 1996, a position he hasn’t moved from since.
Haggins was promoted to Associate Head Coach in 2014 and has twice served as interim head coach for the Seminoles.
Haggins has coached 20 defensive linemen who have been selected in the NFL Draft while at Florida State.
Wide Receivers Coach: Ron Dugans
A Tallahassee native, Dugans was a wide receiver at FSU from 1995-99 and helped the Seminoles reach the BCS National Championship Game in 1998 and 1999.
He was drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the third round of the 2000 NFL Draft and played professionally for four seasons before returning to coach.
Dugans started his coaching career as a graduate assistant at FSU, working in the strength and conditioning program in 2005 before working with the offense in 2006.
He also served as a coaching assistant in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2007. Dugans began coaching wide receivers at Georgia Southern in 2008.
Dugans then coached wide receivers for Louisville from 2010-2013. Dugans mentored eventual first-round pick DeVante Parker.
Dugans took the same job with the South Florida Bulls in 2014, coaching Rodney Adams and Andre Davis, before coaching the Miami Hurricanes’ wide receivers from 2016-18.
Dugans helped Ahmmon Richards become a Freshman All-American while at Miami before taking the Florida State job in 2019.
Running Backs Coach: David Johnson
After his playing days at Nicholls State were up, Johnson served as offensive coordinator at John F. Kennedy High School and O. Perry Walker High School in Louisiana.
From 2005-08, Johnson coached wide receivers, tight ends, and special teams while also serving as the recruiting coordinator at Millsaps College. While there, he helped lead the Majors to three consecutive SCAC championships.
Johnson was the head coach at St. Augustine High School from 2009-11 before becoming running backs coach at Tulane in 2012. While at St. Augustine, Johnson coached Leonard Fournette.
At Tulane, Johnson coached a Freshman All-American in running back Sherman Badie as well as Orleans Darkwa.
Johnson joined Norvell’s staff as wide receivers coach in 2016, where he helped develop Anthony Miller into a second-round pick. Johnson then coached at Tennessee, coaching receivers in 2018 and running backs in 2019.
Johnson reunited with Norvell in 2020 and has coached several talented running backs such as Jashaun Corbin, Treshaun Ward, Lawrence Toafili, and Trey Benson.
Quarterbacks Coach: Tony Tokarz
Tokarz was a three-year starting quarterback at Worcester State and left as the program’s all-time leader in rushing yards by a quarterback while also ranking second in career touchdown passes and fourth in career passing yards.
Tokarz began his coaching career in 2012 at Anna Maria College, where he coached wide receivers.
Tokarz then moved to Stonehill College, where he coached wide receivers and worked with quarterbacks in 2013. Tokarz spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons at Memphis, working with the secondary in 2014 and quarterbacks in 2015.
In 2016, he returned to Stonehill College as the passing game coordinator, quarterbacks coach, and recruiting coordinator.
Tokarz then became a graduate assistant at Memphis under Norvell in 2017 and 2018 before becoming the full-time tight ends coach in 2019. Tokarz followed Norvell to Florida State as an analyst before becoming quarterbacks coach in 2022.
Defensive Backs Coach: Patrick Surtain Sr.
Surtain Sr is in his first year coaching on the Florida State coaching staff. After an 11-year NFL career, during which Surtain was named All-Pro twice and was a three-time Pro Bowler.
Surtain moved to coaching in 2013, coaching defensive backs at American Heritage High School. Surtain was promoted to defensive coordinator in 2015 before becoming the head coach at American Heritage in 2016.
Surtain spent 2022 as a defensive assistant for the Miami Dolphins last season before joining the Florida State staff.
