TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (seminoles.com) — 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.”
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.
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 onboarding 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 sports 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 letter-winner 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.
