Florida State hired John Garrett as general manager of player personnel on Thursday, a newly created position as part of a football staffing revamp.
Garrett spent the past two seasons in the same role at Duke, which hit it big with several key portal acquisitions en route to winning the 2025 ACC title, including quarterback Darian Mensah, wide receiver Cooper Barkate and running back Anderson Castle.
Also on Thursday, first-team All-ACC wide receiver Duce Robinson announced that he will forgo the NFL draft and return to Florida State. Robinson caught 56 passes for 1,081 yards and six touchdowns this season, becoming Florida State’s first 1,000-yard receiver since 2019.
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Garrett has familiarity with the Seminoles and coach Mike Norvell, spending the 2022 and 2023 seasons at Florida State as director of scouting for offense. Those were the two best seasons Florida State has had under Norvell, going 23-4 with a 13-0 regular season in 2023 and ACC title.
Florida State has gone 7-17 since but decided to retain Norvell for 2026. As part of that decision, the school announced it would reevaluate and restructure its football department to enhance performance.
Under its new structure, Garrett will lead all aspects of roster construction with Norvell, including high school recruiting strategy, transfer portal acquisition and retention, scholarship allocation and long-term personnel planning. In addition, NIL, player evaluation and recruiting analytics will be centralized.
“This is a transformational step for Florida State Football,” athletic director Michael Alford said in a statement. “The college game has fundamentally changed, and elite programs must operate with the same discipline, structure, and clarity of roles as professional organizations. John Garrett brings a proven background in roster management, player evaluation, and operational leadership that will allow our coaches to focus on coaching while ensuring we are building our roster in a smart, sustainable, and competitive way.”
