The former Mississippi State head coach will work with Florida State in a defensive analyst role this season. Jeff Blake-Imagn Images

Florida State adds ex-SEC coach Zach Arnett to football staff: report

Originally posted on CFB-HQ on SI | By James Parks | Last updated Jun 11, 2025 1:55 PM ET

A former SEC head coach will land at Florida State for the 2025 football season.

Zach Arnett is set to join the Seminoles’ coaching staff in an analyst role set to work on the defensive side of the ball starting this year, according to 247Sports.

Arnett will take a position working underneath defensive coordinator Tony White.

He and Arnett have a previous working relationship, as White was the linebackers coach at New Mexico in the 2008 season when Arnett played the position at the school.

Arnett was named the interim head coach at Mississippi State following the hospitalization of then-coach Mike Leach late in 2022, and he was promoted to full-time coaching duties following Leach’s sudden death.

That tenure didn’t last long, as Arnett was relieved in November of the 2023 season, when the Bulldogs were 4-6, and the offense failed to surpass 20 points in five of those losses.

Arnett’s most recent experience during a football season was at Ole Miss, where he worked in an analyst role under head coach Lane Kiffin.

From there, he took on the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach positions at UNLV under head coach Dan Mullen in the transition from Barry Odom’s tenure, but stepped away from the program for personal reasons this spring.

Florida State’s defense is in need of overall repair following the team’s 2-10 outing a year ago.

The Seminoles ranked 87th in the country in scoring defense, allowing 28 points per game, and were 86th in total defensive output, surrendering 386 yards on average.

The team was a more respectable 41st in FBS defending the pass, but struggled badly against opposing rushers, ranking 107th nationally by allowing 185 yards on the ground per game.

(247)