Gus Malzahn breaks down how Tommy Castellanos is handling learning Florida State offense

The Florida State Seminoles are just a few weeks away from unveiling their new-look offense. Ahead of that opener to the 2025 season, new offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn shared how transfer quarterback Tommy Castellanos is handling the new system.

Luckily for Castellanos, the system isn’t brand new to him. Castellanos had actually played one season for Malzahn while they were both at UCF. So, there is already some understanding that the two have, which is rare in this kind of situation.

“He’s already familiar with the big picture stuff we did,” Gus Malzahn said. “Obviously, being with me a couple years ago. I think the challenge — our defense presents so many challenges. There’s some unconventional things with the things that we do, which makes it really tough on offenses with IDing things. So, when you’re installing, sometimes you’ve got to take that into account with everything. But he’s done a really, really good job up to this point.”

In his freshman season at UCF, Castellanos would play in five games. In that time, he completed nine of 16 pass attempts for 75 yards. He’d also flash his athleticism, rushing for 120 yards on 8.6 yards per attempt and a touchdown.

Since then, Castellanos transferred to Boston College. There, he’d have two head coaches and offensive coordinators in two seasons. So, in a way, at his third school and fourth season of playing college football, it’s actually like 2025 will be the first time he has a second season in a single system. That familiarity will help his transition. It should also help the rest of the offense who haven’t played for Malzahn before and are learning his system for the first time.

At the very least, Castellanos is confident to be playing at Florida State and under Malzahn. He even suggested at the 2025 ACC Football Kickoff that the Seminoles could score 40 points per game.

“At its max potential, 40 points per game,” Castellanos said. “If we do what we need to do and execute and be one accord and play fast and how we need to, I think it could be 40 points a game at its best.”

Certainly, Florida State needs to hit the reset button from last season. The Seminoles are coming off a campaign where they finished 131st nationally in scoring offense, averaging just 15.4 points per game. Much of their issues fell on the quarterback position too. So, it’s on the Malzahn and Castellanos connection to help fix that and turn things around.

That connection is going to be tested immediately too. Florida State opens with Alabama at home, a team that Castellanos has been very confident publicly about beating.