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Welcome to the coaching carousel, Florida State. The Seminoles are among multiple P4 programs that are already in the market for a new head coach after firing Mike Norvell on Sunday.
Florida State will be conducting a national search for Norvell's replacement, and there are plenty of options. The Seminoles don't want to rush into a decision, but the Early Signing Period is roughly a month away, so time is of the essence.
While FSU has fallen off over the last three years, the program is expected to be one of the more alluring in the current cycle. The Seminoles can't afford a third failed coaching hire after striking out on Norvell and Willie Taggart.
Here are ten potential candidates we've identified that Florida State could pursue to be its next head coach. This list isn't in any particular order.
Chesney is less than a year into his tenure at UCLA, so it's worth wondering if he would be comfortable enough to make another jump so quickly. Regardless, his consistent trajectory of success cannot be denied. The Bruins are sitting at No. 5 in the country with an 8-0 record, the same number of games they won over the past two seasons combined.
In 17 years as a head coach from the D3 level to P4, Chesney has only recorded one losing season. Overall, he's 132-52 with eight conference championships.
Chesney succeeded Curt Cignetti at James Madison. He promptly delivered a 12-2 campaign and the program's first-ever College Football Playoff appearance in just his second year on the job. Could Florida State be enough to bring the Pennsylvania native back to the East Coast?
He's making an average of $6.75 million per year.
Potentially the most interesting name on the list, Jake Dickert has earned a reputation for doing more with less. Wake Forest took a shot on Dickert following a solid stint at Washington State, and the move paid off.
After a 9-4 record in his first season, Dickert has the Demon Deacons at 7-1 and firmly in the College Football Playoff conversation. Wake Forest has climbed to No. 14 in the country despite beginning the season unranked.
Dickert is already successfully navigating the ACC with one of the cheapest rosters in the conference. What could he do with the type of resources that Florida State can put in his hands?
He's currently bringing in an estimated $3.5 million per season.
Diaz has direct ties to Florida State, graduating from the university in 1995. He was a graduate assistant for the Seminoles a few years later, working directly with Bobby Bowden and Micky Andrews. It's safe to say that Diaz understands the standard in Tallahassee.
The South Florida connections through his stint as the head coach at Miami are also intriguing. Though Diaz was fired by the Hurricanes in 2021, he rebuilt his stock as the defensive coordinator at Penn State.
Since taking over at Duke, Diaz is 24-11 and won an ACC Championship in 2025. Florida State GM John Garrett worked for Diaz for two seasons.
Diaz is making somewhere around the $8 million range annually.
Stein is only in his first season as a head coach, as he previously cut his teeth as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Oregon. He's known for his ability to coach up quarterbacks, working directly with Bo Nix, Dillon Gabriel, and Dante Moore with the Ducks.
So far, Stein has the Wildcats out to a 7-1 start and ranked No. 8. It might be hard to pull him away from Kentucky, but it's a conversation that might be worth having.
Stein is making $5.5 million this season.
Dillingham has worked at Florida State within the last half-decade, serving as offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach under Mike Norvell in 2020-21. He helped develop Jordan Travis, but Dillingham wasn't the primary play-caller at Florida State, so he left for that opportunity at Oregon.
Following just one season with the Ducks, Dillingham landed his dream job as the head coach at Arizona State. While his tenure has been filled with highs and lows, he guided the Sun Devils to the College Football Playoff in 2024, and is on pace to make a bowl game for the third straight year.
It may be hard to pry him away from the job he's always wanted. Plus, Dillingham is close to home.
Dillingham is making an average of $7.5 million per season.
FSU fans might grimace when they see another head coach from Memphis on this list. I don't blame them, since the last one didn't work out.
Huff is only in his sixth year as a head coach, but he's produced at three different stops. He beat No. 2 Notre Dame in South Bend in just his second year at Marshall. Two years later, the Thundering Herd were 10-3 and atop the Sun Belt Conference.
Southern Miss brought him in last year, and Huff made a bowl game before leaping to Memphis to replace Ryan Silverfield. The Tigers are 7-2, and one victory away from matching their win total from last season, despite being decimated by the coaching change.
Everyone is looking to find the next Curt Cignetti, Jon Sumrall, or Bob Chesney before they establish themselves. That could very well be Jason Eck, who has succeeding at two programs that aren't known for winning.
Eck got his start at Idaho in 2022, which had one winning season since 2010. He promptly went 26-13 with the Vandals and made the FCS Playoffs in all three of his seasons.
New Mexico brought him in last year. The Aggies were in a stretch of two winning seasons in 17 years. Eck finished 9-4 in year one and is off to a 7-1 start in 2026.
The Aggies are inside the top-25 for the first time in school history, slotting in at No. 22.
Eck is making $1.75 million per year.
Though he's never been a head coach before, Schumann has learned from some of the best in the business, working under Nick Saban and Kirby Smart since 2008. The Valdosta native is familiar with Tallahassee and the surrounding area, with deep ties to South Georgia.
Schumann has led some of the top defenses in the country since being named Georgia's defensive coordinator in 2024. It's only a matter of time until someone gives him a shot.
Faulkner was gaining momentum to be a head coach candidate as early as this year, but his stock fizzled slightly with the Gators dropping four of their last five games. He developed a prolific rushing attack at Georgia Tech, and brought the same concept to Gainesville.
With Ousmane Kromah and Samuel Singleton Jr. potentially returning to FSU in 2027, Faulkner could continue running the rock at a high level in Tallahassee. However, with the state of the program, can the Seminoles really bank on a first-time head coach?
Nostalgia can be a killer. The last time Florida State was a perennial winner was when Jimbo Fisher was in the building. He went 83-23 with the Seminoles and delivered the program's most recent national title.
Currently working for the ACC Network, Fisher has expressed interest in the job behind the scenes. It's clear that he's still very fond of Florida State, and might even hold some regret for how things ended in 2017.
With that being said, Fisher has been out of the game for three years. He only had one losing season at Texas A&M, but he wasn't able to produce relative to his resources. Fisher had more to work with than most programs in the country, plenty of five-stars, and still got fired.
As much as it would be a feel-good story, Fisher isn't the fit that Florida State needs right now.
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