Life after FSU: Coburn reflects on being A.D., relationship with Thrasher

David Coburn had no idea what he was in for when he came to work at his alma mater, Florida State University, 10 years ago.

After a career in state government, during which he held high-ranking administrative positions in both the House and Senate, Coburn accepted an offer in 2012 to be Chief of Staff under former university President Eric Barron. He stayed on in the same position when John Thrasher became president in 2014, then moved to the athletics department in 2018.

Coburn originally was named interim athletics director by Thrasher but later took the position on a full-time basis, and he remained there until retiring in late 2021. During that time, he was tasked with navigating a looming financial crisis, the firing of Willie Taggart as head football coach, the shutdown of all sports during the COVID-19 pandemic and several other challenges.

I recently sat down with Coburn to reflect on his tenure, his decades-long and unique relationship with Thrasher, his thoughts on the state of college athletics across the country, and more. This is Part I of that interview. Part 2 will focus on his thoughts about FSU Football under Mike Norvell, the state of the Seminoles’ basketball programs and other related topics.

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Q: So, are you officially retired retired? Or will you be doing some work on the side?

A: I am going to teach in the fall. I have been teaching with another [professor] for about 12 years in the master’s program. So, I am going to teach another course. I enjoy that quite a bit. So looking forward to that. We're also doing a little traveling to see family.

Q: What's a typical day like now?

A: Oh, a workout. Lots of email. Most days a lunch with somebody. Then reading. Not infrequent naps (smiling). Then football practice if I can do it. We go to a lot of FSU games and matches. Walks with Mary. It's a pretty full day. So, it’s good.

Q: You kind of went through the ringer those last couple of years between the financial challenges of the athletics department and COVID. How would you rank the stress of this job with the stress of your previous life working with state budgets and the Legislature?

A: This was like a (legislative) session that never ends. That's really what it was like. For me, anyway. It was frankly more than I anticipated, And you come to realize how hard those people work in athletics. Your day never ends, and your week never ends. They work really hard.

Q: It was going to be challenging before the pandemic hit, just with the financial situation. So you knew it wasn't going to be an easy job, and that you would have to make some unpopular decisions.

A: Correct. But I didn’t anticipate having to go through what we went through with Coach Taggart. I didn't anticipate the hurricane (Hurricane Michael in October 2019) ... probably should've. But I didn't. Knew the budget would be bad. Didn't realize how bad. COVID, social unrest ... it piled up. But it piled up for everybody. And it was time.

Q: Given all that, I think some people were surprised you went through the process of applying to be president. That wouldn't seem like a less-challenging job. Did you just feel like somebody needed to step up?

A: There were a lot of people who offered encouragement. It was an interesting experience. It was a learning experience. I am not sure I would do it again, in hindsight. But at the same time, I learned a lot. And I learned a lot about a lot of people.

Q: So how many years were you at the university in total? Between the A.D. job and being Chief of Staff in Westcott?

A: I started in 2012

Q: Was that something you envisioned earlier in your career?

A: No. Eric (Barron) and I had been talking about his staffing situation. And somehow it got around to him hiring me. I am still not sure how it happened. I think (former FSU Board of Trustees Chairman) Allan Bense probably had something to do with it. Or a lot to do with it. But I enjoyed it. Chief of Staff was a great job. Learning something entirely new in the university environment. It was a lot of fun.

Q: I've always been intrigued by your relationship with John Thrasher, who you worked with for all those years in the Legislature and then again here at FSU. The two of you are so different from a personality standpoint, but it seems like you fit together very well.

A: Yeah, we do. He’s the politician, and ... at least until I became athletic director ... I was behind the scenes. He's the big picture, and I'm the details. He’s the nice guy, I guess (smiling). And I wont go any further than that.

Q: Did you two hit it off immediately in the Legislature?

A: No, we didn’t. I think initially in the legislative process, we didn’t have that good of a relationship. Over time, we had the chance to work together a little bit. And we really, really got close. He realized I was going to be loyal to him. I realized how much I enjoyed working for him.

I'll tell you a funny story. He was fairly new to the process in the House, and I was staff director of the Appropriations Committee in the House. And somebody in the Republican leadership told him he needed to come down to Appropriations and talk to some of the staff about some of his projects that he wanted funded in a House bill.

So he came down, and I was down at one end of the suite. And he brought Jean (his wife) with him, because it was 7-7:30 at night. I came back down to my office, and there is this blonde woman sitting at my desk, on my phone. And I had no idea who she was. So I made it pretty clear to her that I wasn't terribly happy about that.

She said she was sorry and hung up and got up and left. A few minutes later, I walked out, and he says, "Let me introduce you to my wife, Jean." And I'm like, "Ohhh boy!" Yeah, so I was a while digging out of that one (smiling). Fortunately, Jean is a forgiving soul. So we were able to get along. Life's embarrassing moments!

Q: Do you like watching John work a room? It seems like people react to him in a very special way when he goes to events, games and things like that.

A: I am in awe -- every time I watch him. Because it's just so skillful and natural. It's just not that way for me. I tried to watch him and learn, and I like to think I learned something about how to do it. It’s just something about that certain type of personality that he has. It’s just amazing.

Q: Did you learn anything new about him when he took over as president? Because he obviously had a challenging tenure, too, with the hurricanes and shootings and other tragedies, even before COVID hit.

A: Just how hard he worked at it. You know, he really did not change the upper level, the cabinet, at FSU when he came in. And that paid off for him. Because it made the transition relatively seamless. He allowed them to continue to do their jobs, which I think allayed a lot of faculty fears. And then when he was able to get resources for the university, that made them feel even better.

But mostly, it was just his personality and the way he wins people over. The students just adored him; they still do. They just love him, and that’s great. That's great. Because when I was here as a student, the students really had no relationship with the administration. That's just the way it was.

Q: Before you stepped down, the athletics department was able to give employees back the wages they lost due to cutbacks during the pandemic. Was that something you had planned all along?

A: It was what I wanted to do. I wouldn’t say it was a plan. It was more of a design. But I had to be sure that I knew where we were financially before I could make that commitment. At that point last fall, I was comfortable that we would be all right to do that. It made me very, very happy. Those people work so hard and put up with so much.

Q: Did they know it was coming?

A: No. I did a Zoom with the whole department. There were people who started weeping. And the president was very supportive of it. I told him I wanted to do it right before Christmas, and he said absolutely.

Q: How were you able to do that? I mean, there was a point when everything shut down, where you had to be thinking about cutting sports. And you did eliminate some positions and cut expenses. How were you able come out with a surplus?

A: Well, ticket sales came in better than we thought. And we were able to carry forward a certain level of the savings that we had initiated, because we found we could sustain them. And that made it possible.

Q: It's probably not your direct concern anymore. But when you look at college athletics going forward and the revenue gap between the the SEC and Big Ten vs. the other conferences, does there need to be some bigger solution beyond what individual schools can do? The numbers are pretty staggering.

A: Yeah, I mean there are governance challenges obviously. Its going to be very interesting to see where (NCAA) D-I is in August with their implementation plan of that new Constitution. They’ve got some really smart people working on that. Thoughtful people.

But yeah, that revenue gap, that's real. We’re going to have to figure out where we’re going to be content. Because when this generation of coaches that we have (at FSU) begins to leave -- and they're great coaches, and they've stayed by and large because they love the place and they're happy -- when they age out and retire, we're going to end up with young up-and-comers. Who I'm not sure we'll be able to keep over the long haul (if nothing changes). I think we're going to have to adjust to churn.

Q: It does seem like something might have to change, though, from a big-picture standpoint. It just doesn't seem sustainable to have one or two conferences bringing in the kind of money that they're bringing in from television, and the other conferences not.

A: Well, they seem to think it is. And I don't know whether it is or not. At a certain point, if a lot of lower-level schools start to drop football because they can't afford to sustain, then you begin to lose football at the high school level, I think. If you think through that. Because so many of those kids are playing for the opportunity to get a scholarship somewhere.

If those scholarships disappear ... I mean, football is not an easy game. And if that incentive disappears, I'm not sure what happens to football at that level. And that impacts everybody, including the big boys with all the money. So it could be interesting to see how it all plays out. But greed is a powerful thing. And of course, I'd probably be saying something different if I was on the other side of it.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of our interview with David Coburn, which will focus on his thoughts about FSU Football under Mike Norvell, the state of the Seminoles’ basketball programs and other related topics.

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