Florida State has hired its next quarterbacks coach after Tony Tokarz left to become the offensive coordinator at Buffalo. Head coach Mike Norvell has chosen to promote Austin Tucker, who was serving as an assistant wide receiver coach. Tucker began his college coaching career in 2016 at Auburn under Gus Malzahn before joining Mike Norvell at Memphis in 2017. Tucker served as the wide receivers coach at North Alabama in 2018 and 2019 before reuniting with Norvell at FSU.
He has been on Norvell’s staff since he arrived in Tallahassee. Tucker started as an analyst assisting with the running backs before moving to help with the quarterbacks in 2023. He then transitioned to receivers the past two seasons. Tucker has worked his way up the coaching ranks and will now take a lead role. It is an interesting decision to say the least. Promoting a coach to lead the most important position in football who did not play the position and only helped coach it for one season seems like an odd decision and was met with angst by the fan base.
A teacher of the game and developer of playmakers, our new quarterbacks coach is @AustinTTucker!
— FSU Football (@FSUFootball) December 18, 2025
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I will mention that last season Tommy worked closely with Gus Malzahn more than Tony Tokarz, so it may be a decision that has little impact anyway. The rumors are also that Tucker is a strong recruiter, but has never been in a lead role to close on a recruit. FSU has struggled mightily to sign and develop talented quarterbacks throughout Norvell’s tenure. Gus Malzahn is not exactly known as a quarterback whisperer either, so we’ll see how it plays out. If Tucker can at least help load talent at the position, that would be a nice bonus. It’s a hire that I admit I’m skeptical of myself, but as with anyone, he deserves a chance to prove himself.
Another move at the position is Brendan Bognar being elevated from offensive analyst to assistant quarterback coach. Bognar assisted with the quarterbacks at FSU in 2025. Before that, he coached quarterbacks at Samford in 2024 and served on Malzahn’s staff at UCF in 2022 and 2023. Thanks for reading, and Go Noles!
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