Florida State announces four new off-field staff additions
TALLAHASSEE, Fla._ -_ Florida State has hired four additional off-field
staff members, head coach Mike Norvell announced Friday. Justin Crouse
and John Garrett are the Seminoles' new directors of scouting for
defense and offense, respectively, Maddy McCormack is FSU's new director
of recruiting operations, and Jackson Schafer is the new director of
sports science.
"I'm excited about the continued development of our staff," Norvell
said. "We are adding in areas that directly impact our student-athletes,
from their recruiting process to analytical analysis of their
performance on and off the field and a better understanding of the game
of football. JC and John will be a tremendous fit within our coaching
staff as they bring two experienced set of eyes to our scouting
operation. Maddy has shown a remarkable ability to coordinate all
aspects of recruiting in order to make the process easier for
student-athletes and their families. Jackson has gained knowledge at all
levels of football, and he will help us continue to enhance the
efficiency of our performance evaluation."
READ MORE: Observations from Florida State's first padded spring practice
Crouse joined the FSU staff after five seasons as the director of player
personnel at Memphis, a role he also held from 2007-10. He also has
experience in personnel at the NFL level, scouting the southeast region
for the New England Patriots for two years and serving as a scouting
intern with the Jacksonville Jaguars, as well as administration and
recruiting in the ACC and SEC. Prior to his most recent time at Memphis
he spent two seasons as the offensive recruiting coordinator at UAB
following one season as tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at
Iowa Western.
In 2013, Crouse was Vanderbilt's football administrator and from 2010-11
he was coordinator of recruiting development at Ole Miss. He was a
recruiting and operations assistant at Miami for one year while FSU
co-defensive coordinator and linebackers coach Randy Shannon was head
coach and spent six years as the assistant to the head coach and
assistant recruiting coordinator at Arkansas.
Crouse earned his bachelor's degree in marketing from Murray State in
1995.
READ MORE: Observations from Florida State's second spring practice
Garrett joined the Seminoles after serving as head coach at Lafayette
College from 2017-21, where he coached three All-Americans, 58
all-conference performers and 13 academic all-conference selections. He
led the Leopards to 13 wins in Patriot League play, including a 4-2 mark
and second-place finish in the conference in 2019 followed by a
second-place showing in the Patriot League South Division for the spring
2021 season.
Prior to his time as a head coach, Garrett was the offensive coordinator
at Oregon State in 2014 and at Richmond in 2016. He also has collegiate
coaching experience at the University of Florida in 2015 and as wide
receivers coach at Virginia from 2004-06.
He has 18 years of experience in the NFL, most recently as tight ends
coach for the Dallas Cowboys from 2007-12, including passing game
coordinator his last two seasons. He also spent time with the Cincinnati
Bengals from 2001-03 and 1995-98 and coached quarterbacks for the
Arizona Cardinals in 1999 and 2000. He began his NFL career in personnel
for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 1992-94 and returned to coach wide
receivers in 2013.
Garrett earned his bachelor's degree in history from Princeton in 1988.
He and his wife, Honor, have four children, John Jr., Honor, Olivia and
Caroline. His brother, Jason, was head coach of the Dallas Cowboys from
2010-19, and their father, Jim, spent 38 years in the NFL as a scout and
assistant coach.
McCormack previously was the coordinator of on-campus recruiting and
recruiting operations at Arizona. There, her tasks included overseeing
all aspects of recruit visits, including official, unofficial and
gameday visits, as well as camps. She was involved in the planning and
executing of recruiting strategies and communication with prospective
student-athletes, and she also maintained communication internally with
compliance and admissions in the on-boarding for new student-athletes
when they arrived on campus.
McCormack, who was a member of Arizona's cheerleading team for four
years and served as a team captain, also gained collegiate experience as
an athletics development intern and assistant cheerleading coach at
UMass.
McCormack earned her bachelor's degree in criminal justice from Arizona
in 2018 and completed her master's degree in sport management from
Liberty in 2020.
Schafer, who is a certified strength and conditioning specialist (CSCS)
through the National Strength and Conditioning Association, joined the
FSU staff after two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars' strength
staff. With the Jaguars, he was responsible for the implementation of
analysis technologies, including Catapult GPS tracking systems. He also
has NFL experience as an intern with the Indianapolis Colts for the 2017
season and the Arizona Cardinals in the summer of 2019.
He was the head trainer for draft preparation at Grossetti Performance,
responsible for programming mobility and recovery sessions as well as
implementing all strength and conditioning specifically for NFL Combine
drills, to prepare athletes for the 2020 NFL Draft. He spent the 2019
season as a graduate assistant strength and conditioning coach at
Youngstown State, where he worked directly with the softball, men's
tennis, women's bowling and throwers in addition to assisting with
football.
Schafer also gained experience working in strength and conditioning at
Mississippi State, the University of Indianapolis and Zionsville
Community High School. He was an intern at Zionsville, creating
in-season and off-season strength and conditioning programs, and at
Indianapolis he coached proper progressions for Olympics lifts. With
Mississippi State, he assisted in strength and conditioning, nutrition
and Catapult while also working with injured student-athletes through
modified conditioning programs.
He was a four-year letterwinner and team captain his senior year at
Franklin College, helping the Grizzlies win three Heartland Collegiate
Athletic Conference titles, and earned his bachelor's degree in exercise
science from Franklin in 2017.
