LSU football coach Brian Kelly was close to hiring former Florida State offensive coordinator/offensive line coach Alex Atkins as his new running game coordinator and tight ends coach on Wednesday.
Everyone deserves a second chance or more, but bottom line is Atkins would come to LSU with some significant baggage.
First off, Atkins was just fired by Florida State head coach Mike Norvell last Nov. 10 after a 1-9 start along with defensive coordinator Adam Fuller and wide receivers coach Ron Dugans. All three had been with Norvell since 2020 when he was hired. Atkins added the offensive coordinator title to his duties before the 2022 season, but Norvell called most of the plays.
More importantly, last year, the NCAA slapped Atkins with a two-year show cause penalty for NIL-related recruiting violations he was involved with regarding Florida State trying to entice Georgia offensive tackle Amarius Mims into transferring in 2022. The NCAA said Atkins got Mims together with a Florida State booster who allegedly offered Mims $15,000 a month if he would come to FSU.
Mims stayed at Georgia and became the 18th pick of the first round by Cincinnati in the 2024 NFL Draft. The NCAA ruled that Atkins also violated its ethical conduct standards by lying about his involvement in the recruitment of Mims and was guilty of two Level II infractions with Level I being the most serious.
Level II violations “provide a competitive advantage that is more than minimal and less than substantial,” according to the NCAA handbook. Atkins served a three-game suspension to start the 2024 season at FSU.
By NCAA show cause rules, LSU will have to explain its decision to hire Atkins to the NCAA before hiring him officially.
When Florida State fired Atkins, a contributor at tomahawknation.com wrote this:
“He was once seen as an ace recruiter and rising star in the coaching world. He was hit with a show-cause penalty after the botched recruitment of Amarius Mims. After an anemic year and horrendous performance from his offensive line, Atkins has paid the price with his job.”
Norvell was quoted at the time about all three firings.
“I have never doubted their passion for our players and for Florida State,” he said. “Unfortunately, we have not upheld the Florida State standard with our results on the field this season. I did not make any of these decisions lightly, but I felt changes needed to be made to elevate our program back to where we all desire it to be.”
Florida State fifth-year senior starting center Maurice Smith praised Atkins to reporters before his last game – a loss to Florida that dropped the Seminoles to 2-10.
“Coach Atkins was dear to my heart,” Smith said. “A great O-line coach, a real person. He was a father figure.”
Prior to Florida State, Atkins was the offensive coordinator and offensive line coach at UNC-Charlotte in 2019 and was Tulane’s offensive line coach from 2016-18. He was also offensive line coach at Georgia Southern (2014-15) and at UT-Chattanooga (2012-13).
A Chicago native, Atkins was an offensive lineman for Tennessee-Martin from 2003-06 and started his coaching career there as a tight ends coach in 2008.
Atkins would replace tight ends coach Slade Nagle, who was also LSU’s special teams coordinator. He left after one season to become offensive coordinator at Houston. Kelly is still in the market for a new special teams coordinator, though he could give those duties to a present assistant coach. He just hired Grambling special teams coordinator Aman Anand last week to be a special teams analyst.
LSU did not have a coach with the running game coordinator title last season. Frank Wilson coaches the running backs and has the associate head coach title. Joe Sloan is the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. Cortez Hankton is the wide receivers coach and has the co-coordinator title. Brad Davis is the offensive line coach.
Atkins would be Kelly’s second hire at LSU with an NCAA violations record. Wilson, who was LSU’s recruiting coordinator and running backs coach from 2010-15 under coach Les Miles, was reprimanded by LSU in 2012 for meeting with a recruit off campus against NCAA rules. LSU banned him from recruiting off campus at the time.
In 2011, then LSU athletic director Joe Alleva testified to the NCAA concerning the violation that Wilson was “not forthright and honest” in his testimony to the NCAA about the violation.
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