On Wednesday, 247Sports first reported that Florida State Seminoles football general manager Darrick Yray would leave the FSU program to take the same position with the UCLA Bruins. The news was confirmed by Matt Zenitz of 247 Sports on Thursday evening. UCLA hired former James Madison head coach Bob Chesney last week to be the […]
On Wednesday, 247Sports first reported that Florida State Seminoles football general manager Darrick Yray would leave the FSU program to take the same position with the UCLA Bruins. The news was confirmed by Matt Zenitz of 247 Sports on Thursday evening. UCLA hired former James Madison head coach Bob Chesney last week to be the head coach of their program after firing Deshaun Foster in September.
Yray was the GM of the FSU program for four seasons, joining the Seminoles in 2022 from Oregon State. In his first two seasons, he helped Florida State achieve tremendous success through the portal, culminating in 10 NFL Draft picks in 2024, seven of whom joined the program as transfers during Yray’s tenure.
However, Yray’s portalling prowess disintegrated in 2024, and Florida State’s 2025 transfer portal class didn’t fare a ton better. In one of his largest failures, Yray was instrumental to bringing QB DJ Uiagalelei to Tallahassee, due to their Corvallis connections.
Along with a hot-and-cold portal record, Yray and FSU’s high-school recruiting never punched above their weight, with an average class rank of 14.75 according to 247Sports. While high-school recruiting doesn’t fall specifically on the GM, it displays a larger theme of the Noles being unable to find, attract and keep top players in their program.
It became clear that Yray’s tenure in Tallahassee was coming to a close after Florida State released a statement saying they’d retain Mike Norvell next season, but that the player personnel department would undergo significant changes at the end of the year. Many expected Yray to be let go before the early signing period, but his decision to leave for another P4 school puts an amicable end to a tumultuous time period.
On one hand, Yray has become a scapegoat for the Seminole program’s lack of success and doesn’t deserve the lion’s share of the blame. He assembled a roster with enough talent to throttle Alabama by two touchdowns, but it was coaching that led FSU to go 2-7 the rest of way against P4 opponents.
However, Florida State clearly lost its touch in the portal as the rest of the country caught up, and the program’s depth took a hit as a result. A new general manager who supersedes Norvell and can bring momentum to the program while focusing on the high school ranks will be instrumental to the Seminoles as they try to dig themselves out of a two-year hole.
Yray’s time in Tallahassee will be remembered like the rest of this staff, a flash in the pan with a couple seasons of perfect evaluations, but ultimately, not enough talent, ability or luck to keep the success sustainable.
Yray’s bio from Seminoles.com
Darrick Yray (pronounced Ray) was named Florida State’s general manager of personnel on Feb. 7, 2022, and is in his fourth season with the Seminoles in 2025.
Yray played a pivotal role in assembling Florida State’s 13-win ACC championship season in 2023. That 2023 squad produced a program-record 25 All-ACC selections and an ACC-best 10 picks in the 2024 NFL Draft, led by first-round selection Jared Verse and balanced with five offensive players and five defensive players for the first time in program history.
Yray joined Florida State after seven years at Oregon State, elevating to the role of director of player personnel. He also served as director of recruiting operations, coordinator of on-campus recruiting and assistant director of player personnel for the Beavers. Oregon State’s 2022 signing class was the highest-rated nationally for OSU since 2011, and the 2021 team produced 17 All-Pac-12 recognitions, the program’s most since 2008, while advancing to a bowl game for the first time since 2013.
He was responsible for managing all aspects of Oregon State’s recruiting operation, including identifying potential student-athletes and scheduling official and unofficial visits to campus, while also serving as the Beavers’ pro liaison.
Prior to his time in Corvallis, Yray spent four years as an offensive assistant and three as assistant director of football operations at Fresno State. He was the pro liaison with the Bulldogs along with his recruiting, team travel, player personnel and other operations duties. As an offensive assistant, he was tasked with preparing scouting reports, charts, film breakdown, academics and special teams. In 2010, Yray was a guest coach with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders working with special teams and the defensive line.
Yray earned his bachelor’s degree in communications from Fresno State in 2011 and completed his master’s degree in kinesiology at Fresno State in 2013. He is married to Minda McCullough, and the couple has one son.
Category: General Sports
