New offensive coordinator Dillingham brings energy, passion to FSU football

So while it's not official quite yet -- HR paperwork will need to be completed -- it's all but certain the two will be working together again.

Dillingham was Norvell's offensive coordinator at Memphis for three seasons before being hired away by Gus Malzahn and Auburn on Dec. 9, 2018.

Here's what Malzahn said of Dillingham at the time: "Kenny is one of the rising stars in our profession, coaching two top 10 nationally ranked offenses the last two years."

Norvell actually worked for Malzahn as a graduate assistant at Tulsa before being promoted several times, taking another job and then eventually going to Arizona State as offensive coordinator.

That's where he met Dillingham, who then was a 21-year-old senior who also happened to be the offensive coordinator at Chaparall High School in Scottsdale.

Dillingham had actually been coaching at the high school since he was 17.

The player/aspiring coach tore his ACL during his senior year of high school and his head coach at the time, Charlie Ragle (now the special-teams coordinator at Cal), asked if he wanted to help coach the junior varsity team. Four years later, he was the offensive coordinator of the varsity squad.

And that's about the time he struck up a relationship with Norvell. Two years later, in 2014, Dillingham was hired at Arizona State as an offensive assistant.

He then went to Memphis with Norvell in 2016 and helped put together one of the top offenses in the country during his time with the Tigers.