When chips are down and nothing is working, culprits are easily found without deeper introspection. Former Florida State DC Adam Fuller suffered a similar tragedy in Tallahassee. FSU finished with a historically woeful 2-win season in 2024, and Fuller was fired. But his coaching acumen was still well acknowledged, and he quickly landed in the NFL as a safeties coach. In an unprecedented promotion now, he is being considered as DC for the same NFL team.

The Los Angeles Chargers’ DC Jesse Minter departed this month to become the Ravens’ head coach. The franchise is now searching for Minter’s replacement and has interviewed several candidates. One such candidate is none other than former FSU DC Adam Fuller. The team also reported on X that they have “completed an interview” with Fuller for the DC job.

Fuller joined Florida State in 2020 and quickly started improving the team’s defense. The new FSU DC had already worked in the same capacity under Mike Norvell at Memphis and had led the team to 12 wins, along with a conference championship title. All patterns pointed to the same dominance with Norvell and Fuller at the helm in Tallahassee.

In 2020, the Massachusetts native made LB Stephen Dix Jr. a Freshman All-American, and Asante Samuel made the First Team All-ACC, along with a second-round NFL draft pick. Nevertheless, 2020 was a rebuilding year by all means, and returning in 2021, Fuller started tracing his Memphis rhythm back.

Fuller completely reimagined FSU’s defense. His split-field concept was clever. He’d have one side of the field playing a different coverage than the other. This made it nearly impossible for quarterbacks to read pre-snap. Instead of everyone reacting to what the offense was doing, Fuller put his guys in specific matchups that played to their strengths. Routes got locked down, passing lanes got crowded, and FSU’s defense looked aggressive instead of passive.

The whole scheme was built around a 4-2-5 front with safeties who could do a little bit of everything. They could drop into coverage or blitz off the edge. It was a total departure from the old “reactive” mentality that had FSU’s defense on its heels for years. And once Fuller got his system humming, the results spoke for themselves.

Fuller’s 2021 defense was seventh nationally in red-zone, and the team averaged 7.2 tackles for loss per game, ranked 12th nationally. The D-line, too, matured and stood in the top five in sacks per game in the ACC. And the secondary took a major boost in notching interceptions. The same dominance continued, and Fuller’s peak came with FSU’s 2023 season with FSU.

Will Fuller’s redemption involve him becoming the Chargers’ DC?

In 2023, FSU finished with a 13-1 record, and the team’s defense stood elite in every metric. The team allowed just twelve passing touchdowns in the season, ranking 4th in the nation. Never mind notching a whopping 80 pass breakups. In his 5-year tenure at FSU, Fuller coached 7 NFL draft selections, and his defensive dominance never waned, except when FSU collapsed in 2024 (which had several factors to blame), Fuller was fired midseason.

“It’s frustrating,” Fuller said of his players before being fired at FSU. “I’m trying to do everything I can to make sure we’re stopping it. A few of those times, whether it’s a missed tackle or a misfit, those are things that need to be cleaned up in order for us to play winning football.” The Noles had accumulated a 1-9 record at the time, and there was no way the team could have salvaged the season. Despite the firing, the former FSU DC landed as the Chargers’ safeties coach in no time.

It was the first time Fuller was coming to the NFL, and by the looks of the Chargers considering him to promote, he has done well in just one year. The Massachusetts native has been in the coaching game since 1998 and now also has familiarity with the Chargers’ personnel. Additionally, he has immense transition potential, evidenced by his FSU stint and the job he did. Expect Fuller to be one of the top names for the Chargers’ DC job, although other names are also in the mix.