Former Florida State great Terrell Buckley preparing for first game as Orlando head coach in XFL

Terrell Buckley has been involved in high-level football for over three decades now.

He was at the pinnacle of the sport as a player, starting for 13 seasons in the NFL after an outstanding career at Florida State.

And for the last 15 years, he has been climbing the ranks in coaching, spending time as a graduate assistant at his alma mater and then as a secondary coach at places like Louisville and Mississippi State and Ole Miss.

He has seen it all on a football field. And he’s essentially done it all.

Except for one tiny thing: He’s never been a head coach.

Until now.

On Saturday, Buckley will make his debut as his Orlando Guardians take on the Houston Roughnecks in the first weekend of the 2023 XFL season. Because it’s a new league, with new teams, Buckley said this week that it’s really hard to know what to expect from his team’s opponents when the season kicks off out in Texas.

“That’s been nerve-wracking, because you really don’t know,” Buckley said. “And that’s one of the things: The unknown. So, I just go back to something I got from Coach Bobby Bowden when I was playing: Worry about yourself. Make sure your fundamentals are sound, make sure you’re ready to go, then be ready to respond. Because we don’t know what we’re going to get. We don’t know how they look.

“We could be pretty good. I think we are. But you never know until you show up.”

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Buckley is heading one of the eight new teams in what amounts to the third iteration of the XFL. The first came — and went very fast — back in 2001, making some headlines for a few weeks but then quickly fizzling. The next came in 2020 and played the first five weeks of the season before COVID essentially killed any chance of it surviving.

So, Buckley and everyone associated with the new XFL, which is now owned by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, hopes the third time is the charm.

Amazingly, not only is Buckley not the most decorated former player in the head coaching ranks, he’s not even the most decorated former defensive back. That honor goes to NFL Hall-of-Famer Rod Woodson, who is coaching the Las Vegas squad. Buckley’s first head coaching opponent on Saturday is longtime NFL coach Wade Phillips.

Former Pittsburgh Steelers star Hines Ward is also one of the coaches in a league that has a few quirky rules — like tiered extra points (score from the 2-yard line and it’s one point, from the 5-yard line it’s two points and from the 10-yard line it’s three points); and double-forward passes (as long as the ball doesn’t cross the line of scrimmage); and the ability to get the ball right back after a touchdown in the fourth quarter as long as you can convert a fourth-and-15 from your own 25-yard line.

So, no, this isn’t exactly the football Buckley has been accustomed to for most of his life, but he can’t wait to start his head coaching career.

“This is a league of opportunity, not just for players, but for coaches,” Buckley said on the league’s official website. “I’m forever grateful for this chance, and this team has a chance to get noticed. In this league, special teams will be huge and we will be good there. Hopefully great there. We will also be first class. No swearing, no fighting in practice. No naughty words in the music we play at practice. 

“We will know the rules cold. We won’t get caught napping. We will be ready.”

Because of more quirky rules on kickoffs, where the two teams are only separated by five yards instead of 10, almost all kickoffs in the XFL will get returned. And teams also have a better chance of making big plays in the punt return game as well, which, if you know anything about Buckley, you would imagine that could be a nice advantage for the Guardians.

As for the team itself, Buckley was asked earlier in the week repeatedly about his quarterback position, which features former Florida State starter Deondre Francois as one of the primary competitors.

The head coach wouldn’t tip his hand at all about who would be starting on Saturday night, and said there’s a chance all three — Francois, Central Michigan’s Quenten Dormady and former NFL first-round pick Paxton Lynch — could all play in the opener.

“It could be series to series out there.” Buckley said. “All of them are looking very good. It’s going to be a very tough decision for us to decide who runs out there. … I see a situation where we use three. Who says you can’t play all the guys?

“They were good enough to make the team, so they should be good enough to play.”

Buckley’s defensive coordinator with the Guardians is former Florida State and NFL cornerback Tony Carter.

The Orlando-Houston game is scheduled for Saturday at 8:30 p.m. on ESPN and FX.

Talk about this story with other die-hard FSU football fans on the Tribal Council.