She Was Already IN the Building — And Now FSU Volleyball Is Hers
Let’s talk about the most interesting power move in college volleyball this offseason. Florida State didn’t go hunting for a new head coach. The job was already in the right hands; Tallahassee just finally made it official.
First, The Goodbye
On January 7th, Chris Poole stepped down after 18 seasons leading Florida State volleyball. The numbers are genuinely staggering: 405 wins, 15 NCAA Tournament appearances, four ACC championships, and the distinction of becoming the first ACC team to reach the National Semifinal in 2011. Poole is the seventh-winningest coach in Division I history with 955 career wins across 39 seasons as a head coach. He didn’t get pushed out. He chose to walk, opting not to seek a contract extension and announcing he intends to pursue a career in athletics administration.
A legend exits gracefully. The door swings open. And the woman standing right behind it? Already knew everything about this program.
Enter Lindsay Allman
Florida State hired Lindsay Allman as its next head volleyball coach on February 5th. The headline reads like a standard succession story. The details are anything but.
Allman didn’t parachute in from some rival program. She spent the previous four seasons as FSU’s associate head coach, serving as recruiting coordinator while primarily developing the Seminoles’ outside hitters and serve receive, an area that ranked in the top three of the ACC throughout her entire tenure. She has been quietly running a significant piece of this program for years. The championship foundation Poole built? Allman helped lay parts of it.
And the receipts are there. In 2023, Allman helped lead FSU to the ACC championship with a 16-2 conference record — the program’s first conference crown since 2012 — while Audrey Koenig was named ACC Player of the Year and Khori Louis ranked fourth in the country in hitting percentage. In 2025, Iane Henke earned AVCA All-America honors while Kyleene Filimaua developed into one of the top passing outsides in the country under Allman’s direct guidance.
She didn’t just watch the success happen. She built the offensive and recruiting engine behind it.
The Résumé You Might Have Missed
Before Tallahassee, Allman was already a head coach. Her five seasons at Indiana State culminated in 2021 with 18 wins, the program’s most since joining the Missouri Valley Conference in 1983, along with the program’s first-ever postseason appearance. She took a program that hadn’t sniffed the top five of its own mid-major conference since 2003 and turned it into a postseason team. That’s not luck. That’s a builder.
Before Indiana State, she cut her teeth at Bradley, Wake Forest, and Southern Miss, where she coached under Olympic gold medalist Ricci Luyties and helped the Golden Eagles to a 27-5 record and the program’s first regular-season conference title. The woman has been winning at every stop.
What Makes This Hire Spicy
Here’s the thing nobody is saying loudly enough: FSU could have gone hunting. When a program with that history opens up, you get calls. Big names surface. Boosters start whispering about splashy hires from national title contenders. And Florida State looked at everything available — and promoted the woman who had been in the building winning for four years.
That is either a sign of tremendous institutional confidence in Allman, a savvy move to maintain recruiting continuity, or both. Probably both. Allman herself said it plainly: “My family and I chose Tallahassee and Florida State for a reason, and without a doubt, there is no other place like FSU.” That’s not just press conference language. Her husband is a Tallahassee native and FSU graduate. She planted roots here intentionally.
The Portal Factor
Now comes the real test. Allman takes over a program mid-transition, with the transfer portal window wide open through June 1st. FSU’s beach program is reportedly already seeing portal movement — and the indoor program will be navigating its own roster questions as players assess whether the new coaching staff is the right fit for their final years of eligibility. Keeping the pieces together while simultaneously recruiting her first class as head coach? That’s a high-wire act.
But she’s not walking into this blind. She already knows every player in that gym. She already knows which recruits are committed and why. She already knows where the bodies are buried and where the opportunities are. There is no learning curve.
The Bottom Line
FSU volleyball just handed the keys to a woman who spent four years earning them. AD Michael Alford said she “brings a proven track record of building winning programs and developing elite student-athletes while leading with integrity and energy.” The subtext: we watched her do it from the sideline for four years. We know exactly what we’re getting.
Tallahassee, the volleyball era of Lindsay Allman has officially begun. The Garnet and Gold faithful should be very, very excited. ☕
— VolleyTea