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Florida State football announces off-field hires of Corey Fuller, Keiwan Ratliff
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- Florida State football announces off-field hires of Corey Fuller, Keiwan Ratliff
Florida State has hired Corey Fuller and Keiwan Ratliff to its off-field staff, head coach Mike Norvell announced Friday. Fuller will serve as FSU's director of football relations, and Ratliff is the assistant director of high school relations.
"I'm incredibly excited to bring Corey and Keiwan to our staff," Norvell said. "They were remarkable players in college who played a combined 18 years in the NFL and since then have poured their efforts into building up the next generation. Corey is a former Nole who will be a great liaison to our former players and help showcase the Seminole Standard with our current team. Keiwan has strong relationships in central Florida, which is a critical area for us, and is passionate about helping student-athletes succeed in all areas."
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Fuller, a four-year letterman for the Seminoles at defensive back, played from 1990-94 and was part of 54 wins, three ACC championships and Florida State's first national championship in 1993. Florida State was undefeated in bowl games during his tenure, five years of the program's 14-year unbeaten streak in bowl games, with two wins in the Orange Bowl, a win in the Sugar Bowl and victories in the Cotton Bowl and Blockbuster Bowl. He was a first-team All-ACC selection in 1994 when he recorded 41 tackles, 1.0 for loss, one interception, 10 pass breakups, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Fuller played in 41 games in his collegiate career and totaled 106 tackles, 1.0 for loss, two interceptions, 23 pass breakups, six forced fumbles and one fumble recovery.
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A Tallahassee native, Fuller was selected in the second round of the 1995 NFL Draft by the Minnesota Vikings and played 10 seasons. He was named to the 1995 All-Rookie Team and played in 152 professional games with 127 starts, recording 597 tackles, 13.0 for loss with 1.5 sacks, 17 interceptions, 80 pass breakups, 10 forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries.
Fuller has been a successful coach at four area high schools and also coached at FAMU. He coached at Rickards, West Gadsden, East Gadsden and Godby. He then returned to East Gadsden to lead the renamed Gadsden County High School. He was the head coach at Godby in 2017 and 2018, leading the Cougars to 11 wins and the regional semifinal round of the 5A state playoffs each season. He had two stints as head coach at East Gadsden, including a run to the state semifinals in 2011, before returning to Gadsden County from 2018-21 and guiding the Jaguars to the 4A state semifinal round in 2019. He coached cornerbacks at FAMU and served as interim head coach for the last four games in 2014.
Fuller earned his bachelor's degree in child development from FSU in 1995.
Ratliff joins FSU after three seasons as assistant director of player personnel at his alma mater. As a player, he appeared in 49 games with 27 starts from 2000-03 and recorded 133 tackles, including 7.0 for loss with 2.0 sacks, 12 interceptions, 17 pass breakups, three forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries. He was a Consensus All-American, SEC Defensive Player of the Year, first-team all-conference and a finalist for the Thorpe Award his senior year when he grabbed a single-season program-record nine interceptions.
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Ratliff, who also broke the program's career record with 860 punt return yards, was picked in the second round of the 2004 NFL Draft and played eight seasons in the NFL. He saw action in 76 games as a professional, making 161 tackles, 5.0 for loss, five interceptions, two forced fumbles and five fumble recoveries. He is a member of the University of Florida Athletic Hall of Fame and in 2021 was inducted into the Florida-Georgia Hall of Fame.
He began his coaching career in 2012 as an intern coach with the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League and also spent time as an intern coach with the Miami Dolphins working with defensive backs that same year. He also founded the Rat Pak 7-on-7 program in 2012, which has helped more than 200 student-athletes earn college scholarships. Current FSU student-athletes Stephen Dix Jr., Gino English and Brendan Gant are part of a group of nearly 20 Seminoles who played for Ratliff's 7-on-7 program.
Ratliff earned his bachelor's degree in sociology from Florida in 2018.
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Reach Curt Weiler at cweiler@tallahassee.com or follow him on Twitter @CurtMWeiler.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Former Seminole Corey Fuller back with FSU football in off-field role
