Tom Herman is back in a Power conference building, this time without a headset. The former Texas head coach has joined Florida State's staff in what multiple outlets describe as an analyst role, returning to college football three years after his Austin exit netted him a $15.4 million buyout. He spent 2023 as an offensive analyst with the Chicago Bears. Now he sits in Tallahassee, where Mike Norvell is managing playoff hangover and roster churn in equal measure.
Herman went 32–18 at Houston across three seasons, beat Oklahoma in the Peach Bowl, and parlayed that into the Texas job in December 2016. His Austin tenure produced 32 wins and four bowl appearances but never the Big 12 title or CFP berth boosters expected. Texas paid him to leave in January 2021, two weeks after a 55–23 Alamo Bowl loss to Colorado. He resurfaced briefly in the NFL last season, then went quiet. Now Norvell, who is navigating Florida State's post-CFP snub landscape and the program's looming ACC exit calculus, has added a coach who once carried similar expectations and watched them collapse under their own weight.
The timing is instructive. Florida State finished 10–3 in 2024, a sharp drop from the undefeated regular season that preceded the playoff snub. Norvell lost quarterback Jordan Travis to the NFL, watched several defensive starters enter the transfer portal, and is now assembling a staff that can both scout the portal and design schematic answers for a rebuilt roster. Herman's Houston offenses averaged 42.3 points per game in 2015 and 46.8 in 2016, both top-15 nationally. His Texas units never cracked the top 30 in scoring after year one. The gap between those numbers is the gap between coordinator genius and head-coach grind, and it is the gap Norvell is betting Herman can fill from an analyst chair.
The broader question is whether Herman still operates as a viable head-coach candidate or whether this is a permanent step down the ladder. He is 49 years old, young enough to rebuild credibility, but the Chicago stint and now an analyst role suggest the market has reset his price. Compare that arc to Lane Kiffin, who spent three years at Alabama as an analyst after his USC and Tennessee failures, then returned as a head coach at FAU and is now at Ole Miss with a 58–28 record and a $9 million annual salary. Herman's path may follow that template, or it may not. The difference will be whether Norvell's offense improves measurably and whether Herman's fingerprints are visible in bowl prep, portal evaluations, and game-plan adjustments that show up on tape.
Florida State's next coordinator hire matters more than this one. The Seminoles need a quarterbacks coach and likely a new defensive coordinator after several assistants left for lateral or minor-upgrade roles. Herman's presence suggests Norvell is building a staff that can absorb schematic complexity without requiring another high-dollar coordinator salary. The analyst role also keeps Herman off the road during recruiting dead periods, which means his value is in the building, not on the trail. That is a different skill set than the one he sold to Texas, and it is the one Norvell is paying for.
Watch for Florida State's offensive coordinator announcement, expected before spring practice begins in late March. If Herman's name appears in any public-facing role beyond analyst, that signals Norvell sees this as a longer rebuild than the 10–3 record suggests. Also watch the transfer portal closely through the end of the spring window in late April. Herman's Houston rosters were built on junior-college transfers and undervalued three-stars. If FSU starts adding similar profiles, that is Herman's influence showing up in the data.
The Chicago Bears paid Herman roughly $400,000 last year. Florida State's analyst salaries are not public, but comparable SEC programs pay senior analysts between $200,000 and $350,000. Herman is working for less than he made as a coordinator, betting the right situation rebuilds his market value. Norvell is betting Herman still knows how to design an offense, even if he never figured out how to run a program.
The takeaway
Herman's analyst hire signals Norvell is rebuilding FSU's offensive infrastructure without another coordinator-level salary, betting schematic depth over recruiting prowess.
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