Expanded support staffs: The new arms race in college football

Chances are you've seen them during football games or from video clips of practices throughout the year. You might not know who they are -- either by name or face -- but rest assured, they play an integral role in the success of Florida State and other elite college football powers.

They are "support staff" members. They're the ones doing much of the behind-the-scenes work that allows head coaches like Jimbo Fisher to free up their full-time, on-the-field assistant coaches to devote all of their efforts to coaching and recruiting.

Their roles are varied. Some are graduate assistants looking to break into coaching; others are former college players or high school coaches who now serve in "quality control" positions. There are strength and conditioning coaches, recruiting assistants, videographers, nutritional staffers, administrative assistants and more.

"It's the support systems behind the scenes for the kids," Fisher told Warchant earlier this year. "It's the number of people who can help them (the players). ... If you don't think it matters, you're missing the boat in sports today. You have no idea what's really going on."

Their numbers are growing.

According to a Florida State Football organizational chart obtained through a public records request by Warchant.com, 34 staff members report up to Jimbo Fisher. While that list includes a handful of office workers, the vast majority of those employees are either hands-on coaches or staffers who perform functions that free up additional time for the coaches.

Two of FSU's top rivals, Florida and Clemson, show similar staffing levels, according to documents obtained through public records requests.

A CBSSports.com article, published earlier this year, stated that Nick Saban started the trend when he left the Miami Dolphins and took the Alabama job in 2007. Quality control positions had become commonplace in that league over the previous two decades, and Saban believed they could have a similar impact at the college level.

Not everyone was as quick to adapt. As recently as 2009, the final season of Bobby Bowden's tenure at Florida State, the Seminoles were still sticking with the bare minimum.

"Our staff was very much limited compared to what it is now," former FSU defensive coordinator Mickey Andrews said. "That meant your coaches had to do more work. We didn't have quality control guys, but we did have a guy that was in charge of our recruiting program. He had one or two people who assisted him."

Upon hearing the size of FSU's current staff, Andrews joked, "They can fill up a bus to take those people to games."

The increased staff sizes have not come without controversy. While the NCAA limits the number of on-field assistant coaches to nine, the strength and conditioning coaches to five and the graduate assistants to four, a school currently can hire as many support staffers as they are willing to pay.

Florida State, for example, has eight "quality control" staffers assigned to help coaches perform various tasks -- from breaking down film to helping with other areas of player development. While that is in line with other national powers, such as Clemson and Alabama, it is substantially larger than some of the schools in the ACC with smaller football budgets.

“There shouldn’t be any reason why one Power Five team or staff has more staff,” Boston College coach Steve Addazio complained in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution article last month. "I mean, they regulate how many [graduate assistants], they regulate how many full-time coaches you can have, they should be regulating all this other nonsense, all the quality controls, interns and whatever else they call this.”

According to that AJC report, at least four Atlantic Coast Conference coaches -- Addazio, Georgia Tech's Paul Johnson, Pitt's Pat Narduzzi and North Carolina's Larry Fedora -- support limiting the number of support staff positions.

Fisher bristles at that idea. While he knows NCAA legislation could be coming, he is a staunch proponent of schools having the right to invest as much as they want in the development of their players and coaches.

"I think the more the merrier," Fisher told Warchant. "You develop young coaches. You help get guys in the business. And it makes your coaches and players better."

In a separate interview with Warchant's "Wake Up Warchant" morning radio show, Fisher's voice rose when addressing the critics who want to limit support staffs.

"Why?" he said. "It helps the kids."

While college football powers might have gotten by with smaller staffs in the past, Fisher said those days are long gone. He points out that student-athletes are asked to play earlier than ever before, while also dealing with external pressures (i.e., social media) that didn't exist for college athletes in previous generations.