FSU football: Rick Stockstill Comes Home

Former Florida State QB and MTSU head coach makes his return to Tallahassee.

Update: Officially Named Director of Scouting for The Offense

Dane Draper of Noles247 reported this afternoon that former Florida State QB and MTSU head coach Rick Stockstill will be hired as an offensive analyst for the Seminoles. Stockstill became available after he was let go after seventeen years as the head football coach for Middle Tennessee State University. It is my understanding that the MTSU Athletic Director wanted to take the program in a new direction.

Coach Stockstill is a throwback to the Bobby Bowden era, quite literally. He played quarterback for four seasons under Coach Bowden, and earned honorable mention All-American honors as a senior in 1981. Not long after, he began his coaching career at Bethune-Cookman as an Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks coach from 1983-1984. Stockstill then moved to the University of Central Florida as a Wide Receivers coach from 1985-1988.

He moved to Clemson in 1989, and spent the next fourteen seasons in a variety of roles from coaching quarterbacks to serving as a Recruiting Coordinator. After a lone 2003 season as an Offensive Coordinator/Quarterbacks coach for East Carolina; Stockstill then accepted a Recruiting Coordinator position at the University of South Carolina.

He would spend his final two seasons as an assistant there coaching the wide receivers and tight ends. Stockstill was given the opportunity to become a head coach by Middle Tennessee State University, which had a fledgling program transitioning from the FCS to the FBS.

The Blue Raiders had never played in a bowl game before Coach Stockstill arrived in 2006. He changed that narrative quickly, winning a conference title and earning the program’s first postseason berth. Stockstill deserves a lot of credit for building a young program that went to ten bowl games in his eighteen-year tenure at the school.

Of course, his finest moment may have come last season. The Blue Raiders were a 25.5 point underdog against FSU’s hated arch rival the Miami Hurricanes. Coach Stockstill brought his team down to Miami, and absolutely thumped the Canes. Stockstill endeared himself to many a FSU fan with that performance.

Now he comes home to Tallahassee to finish out his coaching career. I believe Coach Stockstill still has something to offer. His decades of coaching experience are invaluable. Stockstill has truly seen it all in his coaching career, and can be a mentor to all the coaches on staff in some form or fashion. It also cannot hurt to have a former player who can be a liaison to the older boosters.

I believe this is an excellent hire by Coach Norvell and yet another indicator Florida State is fully committed to playing football at the highest level.