List of Florida State Seminoles head football coaches

Bobby Bowden in a suit speaking.
Bobby Bowden won 304 games during his 34 years as head coach at Florida State.

The Florida State Seminoles college football team represents the Florida State University in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The Seminoles compete as part of the NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The program has had 13 head coaches, and one interim head coach, since it began play during the 1902 season. Since December 2019, Mike Norvell has served as head coach at Florida State.[1]

Seven coaches have led Seminoles in postseason bowl games: Tom Nugent, Bill Peterson, Larry Jones, Bobby Bowden, Jimbo Fisher, Odell Haggins, and Norvell. Four of those coaches also won conference championships: Don Veller captured three as a member of the Dixie Conference; Bowden captured twelve, Fisher three, and Norvell one as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference.

Bowden is the leader in overall wins and seasons coached with 304 wins during his 34 years as head coach. Fisher has the highest winning percentage at 0.783. Ed Williamson has the lowest winning percentage at 0.000. Of the 13 different head coaches who have led the Seminoles, Bowden and Darrell Mudra have been inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame.

Key

Key to symbols in coaches list
General Overall Conference Postseason[A 1]
No. Order of coaches[A 2] GC Games coached CW Conference wins PW Postseason wins
DC Division championships OW Overall wins CL Conference losses PL Postseason losses
CC Conference championships OL Overall losses CT Conference ties PT Postseason ties
NC National championships OT Overall ties[A 3] C% Conference winning percentage
† Elected to the College Football Hall of Fame O% Overall winning percentage[A 4]

Coaches

List of head football coaches showing season(s) coached, overall records, conference records, postseason records, championships and selected awards[A 5]
No. Name Season(s)[A 6] GC OW OL OT O% CW CL CT C% PW PL PT CC NC Awards
1 W. W. Hughes 1902–1903 9 5 3 1 0.611 — — — — — — — — — —
2 Jack Forsythe 1904 5 2 3 0 0.400 — — — — — — — — — —
3 Ed Williamson 1947 5 0 5 0 .000 — — — — — — — — — —
4 Don Veller 1948–1952 44 31 12 1 0.716 12 0 0 1.000 — — — 3 — —
5 Tom Nugent 1953–1958 63 34 28 1 0.548 — — — — 0 2 0 — — —
6 Perry Moss 1959 10 4 6 0 0.400 — — — — 0 0 0 — — —
7 Bill Peterson 1960–1970 115 62 42 11 0.587 — — — — 1 2 1 — — —
8 Larry Jones 1971–1973 34 15 19 0 0.441 — — — — 0 1 0 — — —
9 Darrell Mudra† 1974–1975 22 4 18 0 0.182 — — — — 0 0 0 — — —
10 Bobby Bowden† 1976–2009 405 304 97 4 0.756 105 27 0 0.795 21 9 1 12 2
1993
1999 		Bobby Dodd COY (1980)
Walter Camp COY (1991)
ACC COY (1993, 1997)
11 Jimbo Fisher 2010–2017 106 83 23 — 0.783 48 16 — 0.750 5 2 0 3 1
2013 		—
Int. Odell Haggins 2017
2019 		6 4 2 — 0.667 1 0 — 1.000 1 1 0 0 — —
12 Willie Taggart 2018–2019 21 9 12 — 0.429 6 9 — 0.400 0 0 0 0 — —
13 Mike Norvell 2020–present 60 33 27 — 0.550 21 20 — 0.512 1 1 0 1 —

Bobby Dodd COY (2023)
Paul "Bear" Bryant COY (2023
ACC COY (2023)

Notes

  1. ^ Although the first Rose Bowl Game was played in 1902, it has been continuously played since the 1916 game, and is recognized as the oldest bowl game by the NCAA. "—" indicates any season prior to 1916 when postseason games were not played.[2]
  2. ^ A running total of the number of head coaches, with coaches who served separate tenures being counted only once. Interim head coaches are represented with "Int" and are not counted in the running total. "—" indicates the team played but either without a coach or no coach is on record. "X" indicates an interim year without play.
  3. ^ Overtime rules in college football were introduced in 1996, making ties impossible in the period since.[3]
  4. ^ When computing the win–loss percentage, a tie counts as half a win and half a loss.[4]
  5. ^ Statistics correct as of the end of the 2023 NCAA Division I FBS football season.
  6. ^ Florida State did not field a team from the 1905–1946 seasons.

References

  1. ^ "Mike Norvell hired as Florida State's new coach". ESPN.com. December 7, 2019. Retrieved January 28, 2023.
  2. ^ National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) (2011). Bowl/All-Star Game Records (PDF). Indianapolis, Indiana: NCAA. pp. 5–10. Archived (PDF) from the original on October 5, 2011. Retrieved August 21, 2011.
  3. ^ Whiteside, Kelly (August 25, 2006). "Overtime system still excites coaches". USA Today. McLean, Virginia. Archived from the original on September 6, 2010. Retrieved September 25, 2009.
  4. ^ Finder, Chuck (September 6, 1987). "Big plays help Paterno to 200th". The New York Times. New York City. Archived from the original on September 28, 2013. Retrieved October 22, 2009.