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Herman's Florida State hire tests whether failed head coaches can rebuild credibility in analyst roles before re-entering the coordinator market.
$24 million
to leave Austin
111th
nationally in scoring this past season
32-18
at Texas from 2017 through 2020
2-10
this season
Tom Herman is returning to college football as an offensive analyst at Florida State, three years after Texas paid him $24 million to leave Austin. The hire, first reported Tuesday, places Herman inside Mike Norvell's staff structure as Florida State attempts to stabilize an offense that ranked 111th nationally in scoring this past season.
Herman went 32-18 at Texas from 2017 through 2020, won the Sugar Bowl his first year, then watched his program slide into mediocrity while collecting one of the sport's largest separation packages. He spent 2022 as an NFL analyst with the Chicago Bears before disappearing from coaching entirely in 2023 and 2024. Florida State finished 2-10 this season, Norvell's worst record in Tallahassee, after losing quarterback Jordan Travis to the NFL and replacing him with a transfer portal assemblage that never cohered.
The move matters because Herman's hire signals Norvell is borrowing Alabama's rehabilitation playbook: bring in a former head coach at a discount analyst rate, extract scheme ideas without threatening the coordinator hierarchy, then quietly reassign him once the goodwill burns off. Nick Saban cycled through Lane Kiffin, Steve Sarkisian, Bill O'Brien, and Butch Jones using this exact model. Herman will work under offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn, who joined Florida State this January after four seasons at UCF. Malzahn's offense ran through tempo and constraint plays; Herman's Texas tenure leaned on gap-scheme run game and play-action verticality. If Malzahn adopts any Herman concepts, they will show up as third-and-medium counter plays and naked boots off 12 personnel—silent authorship, no credit.
Herman's value to Florida State is less about his Texas record and more about his recruiting Rolodex. He built pipelines into Houston, Dallas, and Austin high schools that Norvell has struggled to access since joining the ACC. Florida State's 2025 recruiting class ranks 34th nationally per 247Sports, the program's lowest finish in a decade. Herman still has phone numbers for every seven-on-seven coach between Katy and DeSoto. Whether those coaches return his calls after three years in exile is the actual test.
The financial structure is worth noting. Analyst roles in college football typically pay between $100,000 and $250,000 annually, a steep descent for someone who earned $6.75 million per year at Texas. Herman's buyout ran through January 2024, meaning he has been living off investment income while waiting for a palatable re-entry point. Florida State is not that point—it is the vestibule before the point. If Herman performs well in analyst purgatory, a coordinator job opens somewhere by December 2025. If he does not, he becomes a high school coaching consultant in Houston.
Watch for Florida State's spring transfer portal additions at quarterback and offensive line, the two positions Herman recruited best at Texas. Norvell needs immediate help at left tackle and a veteran backup quarterback who can run Malzahn's zone-read concepts without thinking. Herman's contacts in the Big 12 portal market—where he spent four years—could yield one or both. Also watch for any sudden defensive analyst hires in Tallahassing over the next thirty days; Norvell is rebuilding both sides of the staff, and Herman's arrival likely triggers a matching move on defense to preserve internal balance.
The calendar is tight. Florida State's spring practice begins March 18th, giving Herman six weeks to learn Malzahn's system, study 180 hours of ACC film, and prove he still remembers how to coach. Norvell's next contract extension talks begin this summer, and he cannot afford another 2-10 season. Herman just bought himself a chance to be part of the solution, provided he remembers that analyst jobs are earned in film rooms at midnight, not press conferences at noon.
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