Tony Tokarz

Tony Tokarz is in his fourth season on FSU’s staff and second as quarterbacks coach in 2023.

In 2022, Tokarz’s quarterbacks directed one of the most explosive offenses in the nation while helping lead FSU to a 10-3 record and a final ranking of No. 10 in the Coaches Poll and No. 11 in the AP poll. Florida State led the nation with its average of 7.46 plays of 20-plus yards per game, the program’s highest season average since the 2013 national championship, and was third in the country with an explosive play rate of 17.15 percent. The Seminoles were one of two teams nationally to average at least 270 passing yards and at least 210 rushing yards per game in 2022. FSU also tied for the national lead with eight touchdown drives of 90-plus yards, and its 16 touchdown drives of 80-plus yards were third-most in the country.

The Seminoles led the ACC in third-down offense, yards gained per pass, yards gained per play, yards gained per rush, total offense per game, yards per completion, rushing offense per game and scoring offense per game. Florida State was the first team to lead the ACC in scoring offense and total in the same season since 2019 and was one of two teams nationally to lead its conference in yards per rush, yards per pass and yards per play in 2022.

During his first season leading the quarterbacks, Tokarz oversaw the continued development of starter Jordan Travis among the nation’s elite while continuing to grow depth in the room. Travis was PFF’s highest-graded quarterback in the nation and highest-graded offensive player in the ACC after passing for 3,214 yards with 24 touchdowns and only five interceptions while adding 417 yards and seven touchdowns rushing plus one receiving score. Travis, whose 32 total touchdowns were third-most in a season in FSU history, became the only Florida State player with 20 touchdown passes and seven rushing scores in one season.

Travis, who was named second-team All-ACC, joined Heisman Trophy winners Charlie Ward, Chris Weinke and Jameis Winston as the only FSU players with at least 3,000 total yards and 30 total touchdowns in a season. His 3,631 yards of total offense was the fifth-highest single-season total in FSU history, while his passing yards total was seventh and passing touchdowns were 10th. Travis led the ACC in yards per play, yards per pass attempt, yards per completion and pass efficiency rating. His average of 8.35 yards per play was third in the country, while his 9.10 yards per pass attempt was fifth nationally and his 14.22 yards per completion ranked eighth.

Travis peaked in his final appearance of the season, totaling an FSU bowl-record 468 yards of total offense in the Cheez-It Bowl victory over Oklahoma while garnering MVP honors. He completed a career-best 27 passes for a career-high 418 yards and two touchdowns and added 50 yards on seven rushes. Travis was only the fifth player in records dating back to 2000, and first since LSU’s Joe Burrow in the CFP National Championship Game, to have 400 yards passing and 50 yards rushing in a bowl game. Travis also ended the regular season with a program-record streak of six consecutive games accounting for at least three touchdowns.

Redshirt sophomore Tate Rodemaker and true freshman AJ Duffy benefited from Tokarz’s tutelage as well. Rodemaker led a second-half comeback at Louisville after Travis was forced from the game due to injury and was 6-for-10 passing for 109 yards and two touchdowns, including the game-winning score in the fourth quarter. In that game, Travis and Rodemaker became the first pair of FSU teammates with at least 100 yards passing and two touchdowns in the same game since 2005. Duffy played in three games and threw his first collegiate touchdown pass during FSU’s 49-17 win over Louisiana.

Tokarz, who was FSU’s senior analyst on offense for the 2020 and 2021 seasons, has 12 years of collegiate coaching experience. He has been on head coach Mike Norvell’s staff for the last six years and, in addition to his time coaching quarterbacks, also has experience coaching wide receivers and tight ends.

Tokarz spent three seasons at Memphis with Norvell, serving as tight ends coach in 2019 after spending the 2017 and 2018 seasons as a graduate assistant. The 2019 team won a school-record 12 games and the program’s first outright conference championship since 1969. The Tigers ranked eighth in the nation with an average of 40.5 points per game and with an average of 6.90 yards per play. Their team passing efficiency of 167.41 and average of 14.91 yards per completion were both 10th in the country.

In 2018, Tokarz worked with running backs as Memphis had the country’s fourth-best rushing offense with an average of 279.9 yards per game behind a school-record 3,919 total rushing yards and 48 touchdowns. It was the first season in Memphis history with two 1,000-yard rushers, led by Doak Walker Award finalist and unanimous All-American Darrell Henderson. Henderson broke the NCAA record with an average of 8.22 yards per carry, and his 2018 average of 8.92 yards per carry was the highest for a season with a minimum of 200 carries in records dating back to 2000. The Tigers ranked fourth in the country with an average of 523.1 yards per game and 7.12 yards per play while also ranking seventh with an average of 42.9 points per game.
The 2017 team averaged 45.5 points per game, the second-highest average in the country, and ranked fourth in the NCAA with 523.1 yards per game and 7.35 yards per play. The team passing efficiency rating of 160.15 was sixth in the nation, and their average of 335.0 passing yards per game ranked seventh.

Tokarz began his coaching career in 2012 at Anna Maria College, where he coached wide receivers and helped the program tie a single-season wins record that stood until 2021. He tutored Domenique Concepcion to first-team all-conference honors in a season that included breaking single-game school records with 17 receptions, 236 receiving yards and three touchdowns, single-season records with 72 receptions and 848 receiving yards, and the program’s all-time career records with 213 receptions, 2,585 receiving yards, 21 receiving touchdowns and an average of 5.46 catches per game.

Tokarz then moved to Stonehill College, where he coached wide receivers and worked with quarterbacks in 2013. That year, the Skyhawks posted their best record since 1996 and earned a share of the regular-season conference championship for the first time in program history. Wide receiver Nate Robitaille broke Stonehill single-season records with 91 receptions, 1,229 receiving yards and an average of 8.3 receptions per game while tying the single-season record with 13 receiving touchdowns.

Tokarz spent the 2014 and 2015 seasons at Memphis, working with the quarterbacks in 2015 and secondary in 2014. In 2015, the Tigers won nine games behind an offense that ranked 11th in the country in scoring and eighth in third-down conversion percentage. Tokarz worked with Paxton Lynch, who was a first-team All-AAC honoree as well as a finalist for the Manning Award and Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award after breaking program records for passing yards, passing touchdowns and 300-yard passing games. He ranked 11th in the nation in passing efficiency, 12th in completion percentage, 16th in passing yards and 19th in passing touchdowns. Lynch went on to be selected 26th overall in the first round of the 2016 NFL Draft by the Denver Broncos.

The 2014 team won 10 games, the program’s most in a regular season since 1963, and earned a share of the AAC conference championship. The defense ranked third nationally in red zone defense and ranked ninth in the country in total takeaways. Memphis also was third in the conference and top-25 nationally in scoring defense, rushing defense, passing efficiency defense, third-down defense, interceptions and fumble recoveries.

In 2016, he returned to Stonehill College as the passing game coordinator, quarterbacks coach and recruiting coordinator. That season, freshman Andrew Jamiel matched Robitaille’s single-season program record with 91 receptions and broke the receptions-per-game record with an NCAA Division II-best 9.1 catches per game. He also twice broke Robitaille’s single-game receptions record by posting 16 receptions in week two before breaking his mark with 18 catches for 169 yards and two touchdowns five weeks later in the Division II Football Showcase. Jamiel was named the conference’s Rookie of the Year, Stonehill’s first offensive player to earn conference rookie of the year honors, and headlined three all-conference selections on offense for the Skyhawks.

Tokarz was a three-year starting quarterback at Worcester State and left as the program’s all-time leader in rushing yards by a quarterback while also ranking second in career touchdown passes and fourth in career passing yards. He was a first-team all-conference performer in 2011 when he led the Lancers to an 8-3 record, the program’s most wins since 2003, and an appearance in the ECAC Northwest Bowl to cap his senior season.

Tokarz earned his bachelor’s degree in history from Worcester State in 2012. He is married to the former Emily Williams, and they have one son.