Carter Barfield

Carter Barfield is in his second season as a special teams analyst for Florida State in 2022.

Barfield brought 14 years of coaching experience to Tallahassee, having most recently served as special teams analyst at Georgia Southern in 2020 following eight years as the running backs coach at Mercer.

The special teams unit at Georgia Southern produced a third-team All-American long snapper and third-team all-conference punter while helping the Eagles win eight games, including the New Orleans Bowl. At Mercer, he helped the Bears win 41 games and coached five all-conference selections and an Academic All-American. His running backs paced the second-best rushing attack in FCS in 2013 to lead Mercer to a 10-win season, including a 6-2 mark in Pioneer League play. In 2014, the Bears moved to the SoCon and averaged 32.5 points per game while boasting the conference’s leading rusher. The 2015 squad averaged 215.5 rushing yards per game with 23 rushing touchdowns. In 2018, when he also served as co-recruiting coordinator, he saw senior Tee Mitchell break the program’s career rushing record and helped bring in one of the nation’s best recruiting classes.

He began his career with a three-year stint at the University of Tennessee-Martin, serving as a graduate assistant on defense in 2007, moving to offense in 2008 and being promoted to the Skyhawks’ quarterbacks coach in 2009. He then spent two seasons at Kentucky working with the quarterbacks as a quality control coach.

Barfield played collegiately at Furman, helping the Paladins win the SoCon championship in 2004 and finish four seasons ranked in the top-12 nationally. He earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Furman in 2006. He and his wife, the former Jenny Watson, have two daughters, Hannah and Sarah James, and one son, Noah.