Last Stop for the Gus Bus
A few weeks ago I wrote about some wrinkles in FSU’s draw game that caught my eye. This week, I’m breaking down my favorite play calls from Gus Malzahn’s final season at FSU. Malzahn has always been one of the more creative offensive minds in college football, and even in a down year for the Seminoles, his play design gave defenses real problems. The Gus Bus still had some gas left in the tank.
Jump Pass
FSU weaponized their hybrid tight end in goal line sets as a wildcat runner throughout the season. Against UVA, they took it a step further and pulled out the jump pass. The tight end takes the snap and sells the run, the condensed receiver sells the crack block, then it’s a full stop, jump, and a touchdown for the Seminoles.
Reverse Flea-Flicker
The slot receiver releases upfield before coming back for the handoff, and the design alone is enough to put a defense on its heels. What makes this call particularly dangerous is the late-leaking tight end on the wheel route. That second stress point on the coverage is the perfect complement to the reverse flea-flicker action, giving the quarterback a bail-out option and making an already difficult play to defend nearly impossible to rep in a week of preparation.
Post Rail
Post Rail into the boundary was a staple of Malzahn’s offense all season, and it’s easy to see why. FSU does a great job creating eye candy with jet motion, or orbit, and that motion puts immediate stress on flat defenders before the rail route attacks them underneath. When you have the discipline to put your number one receiver into the boundary and draw that extra attention, the play almost runs itself. The cutup below shows just how consistently this concept created clean looks against every coverage they saw.
Double Screens
Double screens are only as good as the quarterback running them, and Malzahn has always known how to build concepts around a decision maker who can feel the defense flow. Get the defense flowing one direction, come back and hit the screen the other way. When the quarterback processes it correctly, it’s a weapon.
Reverses
When you have a record-setting 400m champion on your receiver depth chart, you better find ways to get him the ball in space. Malzahn leaned on the reverse heavily as his primary vehicle for doing exactly that, and it’s hard to argue with the logic.
Play Sequencing
What has always set Malzahn apart is his ability to sequence plays across games. Through the first three weeks, FSU ran a boot action flat concept repeatedly, establishing it as a reliable third and short answer. That kind of situational repetition is exactly what makes the play dangerous before he ever pulls the trigger on what comes next.
Then, against UVA in overtime, Malzahn dials up the perfect screen back off that same boot action. The Noles don’t make the throw, but the window is there and the result would have been six. UVA was playing ultra-aggressive all game, which made this the ideal call at the ideal moment. That’s coaching, though. You can draw up the perfect play and it still doesn’t matter if the execution isn’t there.
Remember that jet sweep action paired with the post-rail concept? Malzahn sequences it perfectly against Pittsburgh, coming back with a screen to the opposite side off that same look. The defense has seen the jet motion all game and they’re flying to it, which is exactly what makes the screen work.
Final Thoughts
The Gus Bus has made its last stop. Malzahn announced his retirement in February 2026 after 35 years in coaching, capping his career with one season as FSU’s offensive coordinator. In that single year, he turned a unit that averaged just 270 total yards and 15 points per game in 2024 into the ACC’s top offense in both total yards and rushing yards. The Seminoles finished sixth in the nation at 472.1 yards per game and put up 218.7 rushing yards per contest, the program’s highest mark since 1995.
The concepts we broke down in this article are a big reason why. The jump pass, the reverse flea-flicker, the post-rail sequenced into screens, the double screen off flowing action. None of those plays exist in a vacuum. They all feed off each other, and that is exactly what made Malzahn’s system so difficult to defend week to week. You could not just game plan for one thing because he was always setting up the next call three series ahead of you.
Gus Malzahn spent 35 years building offenses that defensive coordinators lost sleep over, and his final stop was no different. The Gus Bus may have pulled into its last station, but the film he left behind is a clinic in play design and sequencing that coaches at every level can learn from. Take notes.