A year ago at this point, Ryan Fitzgerald had missed three field-goal attempts and was adjusting his pre-kick mechanics.

Fitzgerald looks and feels confident now, making 4 of 4 field-goal attempts and all 23 extra-point attempts in Florida State’s 4-0 start.

“Ryan has done a great job this year to this point,” special teams coordinator John Papuchis said. “And he’s handled everything like a pro. Whether it’s when he wasn’t hitting the ball as well a year ago, and really toward the end of last year I thought he did a nice job of responding. I feel like it’s carried into this year.

“He knows though that you’re one kick away or one game away from people being back on you a little bit. I don’t think he worries about that. I think he’s going to go out there and do the best he can possibly do.”

Fitzgerald is doing just that, making field-goal attempts from 33, 35 and 30 yards to go with a 48-yarder at Clemson that tied the game at 17 in the third quarter. Going into Saturday’s home game against Virginia Tech, Fitzgerald has 221 career points and is just a field goal away from jumping into the top 15 on FSU’s all-time scoring list (Richie Andrews had 219 points from 1987-90).

For years, coach Mike Norvell and Papuchis have commented about the time investment the Seminoles put into special teams in practice. The results have been mixed. But FSU’s special-teams units have been a strength through four games. There could be improvements in the return game — Trey Benson’s fumble on the squib kick was the biggest negative — but there have been few concerns about FSU’s specialists.

Alex Mastromanno is averaging 47.5 yards per punt, which is ahead of Shawn Powell’s school record of 47 yards in 2011. Mastromanno had punts of 57, 52 and a 51-yarder that was downed at the Clemson 3 in the Seminoles' last game.

“That was huge,” Papuchis said. “I thought Alex did a great job for us. He was able to flip the field over a couple times, especially that punt that was late in the game and we were in our own end-zone, I thought he hit a great ball there. If he doesn’t, he’s going to set up a pretty short field position for them. Our coverage was really good and I think our guys recognize that.

“As a matter of fact, Alex was our special teams player of the game among our own team last week and it really came down to how he operated and how he was able to affect the field position in the game.”

FSU coach Mike Norvell also dropped this tidbit on his “Inside Seminole Football” show on Monday night: It is two years to the day that Fitzgerald made the game-winning field goal to lift FSU past Syracuse 33-30.

Since that kick on Oct. 2, 2021, FSU is 19-6.

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