FSU Football head coach Mike Norvell challenges team after up-and-down spring practice
The Florida State Seminoles are eight practices deep and are staring down their second scrimmage of spring camp on Saturday. The ‘Noles are looking to rebound after last year’s 2-10 season and have brought on a plethora of new faces both on and off the field to turn things around.
FSU head coach Mike Norvell met with the media after Thursday’s practice and gave an update on how his team was doing overall and described some uncharacteristic plays after a productive scrimmage last weekend.
While the defense is generally ahead of the offense early on in the spring, the offense, Norvell said, made some uncharacteristic mistakes despite the back-and-forth nature on Thursday.
“Today was kind of a back-and-forth practice with good and bad parts of it,” Norvell said “We tried to create some competitive situations: Red Zone, two-minute, third downs—trying to, as we’re leading into the scrimmage, we really want to see guys take another step as we get the next opportunity to go out there and have to compete.”
Norvell is highly critical of his team, especially after last year. Although he said he didn’t think it was a bad practice, it seems that there still is a lot of work to be done ahead of Florida State’s August 30 matchup against Alabama.
“I didn’t think today was a bad practice. I thought there were moments where we have to be better, and that’s where you as a football team, as the guys that are pushing, desiring to be leaders within groups, we got to answer that call,” Norvell continued. “And I thought there were some examples of that today, uh, but still want—want more.”
One of the major complaints last year was the inconsistencies within the wide receiver corps. Bad routes and drops plagued the Seminoles, and Norvell mentioned two big misses for the offense even though the quarterbacks were giving them the opportunity to go out and make a play.
“We had two drops that were big-play opportunities, and we’ve got to eliminate those things that show up. But I thought the quarterbacks did a good job of managing the pressure of different situations, giving guys opportunities to go make plays,” Norvell said. “All three of them had good moments throughout the course of practice…You just have to clean up some of those missed opportunities during practice. When you talk about looking for more, do you mean more in terms of focus and execution or more effort?”
Florida State will hold its second spring scrimmage on Saturday, April 5 as they look to clean up and build an identity ahead of summer workouts.
