“I want our players and their overall situational awareness to be better:” Norvell pushing FSU to elevate as spring camp passes midpoint
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Florida State has officially passed the midway point of spring camp, with Tuesday’s practice serving as its eighth and producing what head coach Mike Norvell called the offense’s best day.
“They were good in a lot of different situations,” he told local reporters afterwards. “We did red zone compete, we were able to get the ball in the end zone a couple times. We had a backed up series, working a lot of elements of the passing game and I thought they did a nice job.”
After shouting out freshmen wide receivers Devin Carter and Jasen Lopez following last Saturday’s scrimmage, Norvell once again offered his compliments to a duo that he says are practically a lock to see the field come fall.
“Devin and Jasen, they’re going to play,” Norvell said. “They would have to almost regress from where it is right now.”
Asked to follow up on what he’s seen from Lopez, Norvell expanded on the impression that the dual-sport athlete has left on the coaching staff and teammates.
“I called him up at the end of practice because that’s a guy…first week, he wasn’t here. The second week, he was acclimating, so he was just in a helmet, really wasn’t getting all the team reps. His first padded practice was a scrimmage, and today was his second.
“He’s making mistakes, but you don’t feel the pullback. He’s just out there playing football, getting better. He’s already shown extreme intelligence, being able to move around a little bit in such a short period of time.”
Speaking on the offensive line, Norvell praised the group’s versatility and football IQ as position battles continue to take shape at the midpoint of spring, saying: “I like the ability. They’ve got the size, the athletic ability. In pass pro, we’ve got a couple dynamic movers on the defensive side and these guys, when they’re utilizing the technique and fundamentals, they can really do some good things.”
“We’re not getting extreme and putting them at all five positions, but you see the carryover, understanding the concepts. When you have guys that have that have done that and have a high level of intelligence, they can carry that over pretty well.”
Norvell said the team used Tuesday’s session to address some of the communication and operational breakdowns that surfaced in Saturday’s scrimmage, pulling coaches to the sideline and putting the onus on players to execute.
“Really trying to push tempo, pushing communication,” Norvell said. “We really kept the coaches over to the side more today, coming off of Saturday where I wanted some things to be a little bit cleaner just in our communication and operation. We’re finished with practice eight so we’re more than halfway through spring ball. I like where things are trending but still a lot of competition and guys trying to emerge and I think it’s a good tough physical practice.”
With the second scrimmage coming Saturday, Norvell said execution, communication and emodiment of expectations are being hammered.
“I want it to be cleaner….I want our staff and players, as we have some new faces, I want to see that improved,” he said. “I want our players and their overall situational awareness to be better. There were some things that showed up in the first scrimmage that we were not good enough — situational football. Come Thursday we’re going to introduce a little bit of two-minute. Saturday we’re going to get, with the officials, a couple two-minute situations, see guys go and operate. That’ll be big, and then just continue to let guys cut it loose and go play to show exactly where they are.”
Norvell also spoke on the defensive line’s early standouts, the safety group’s development and the expanded D-line coaching staff, the second scrimmage scheduled for Saturday and Legacy Weekend’s impact on current players and recruits — the full interview can be seen below:
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