After challenging offseason, FSU coaches will push pace in preseason camp
Editor's Note: This is the last in a series of six stories detailing how Mike Norvell and Florida State's first-year coaching staff worked to lead their players remotely during the first four months of the coronavirus pandemic.
Part 1: An inside look at the most daunting offseason in college football history
Part 2: Long-distance dedication: FSU staff learns to teach, coach, lead via Zoom
Part 3: Plan, adapt, advance: How Mike Norvell led FSU football through quarantine
Part 4: Pandemic forces FSU coaches, staff to get resourceful with recruiting
Part 5: The Race to Return: How FSU got back to work before nearly everyone else
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Scoreboards don't light up in the offseason. Even during an offseason like this one, where the challenges have been greater than many college football teams might face in a typical fall.
There were no cheering crowds when Florida State's football players finished the spring with their highest grade-point average for a semester in school history, despite learning and working remotely for the final six weeks.
The Marching Chiefs didn't strike up the fight song each time the Seminoles' players impressed their coaches by learning complex schemes and packages via Zoom this summer.
ESPN didn't show highlights on SportsCenter when guys like quarterback James Blackman and linebacker Amari Gainer continued adding muscle to their bodies during the quarantine, without the direct help of FSU's strength and conditioning staff.
The Seminoles' coaches took notice, of course. They appreciated the strides their players made during these past five months -- in an offseason affected in every way imaginable by the coronavirus pandemic.
But now, the stakes are going to get much higher.
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When Florida State's players take the field this morning for their first full-speed practices of the 2020 preseason, they will be expected to harness all of the individual improvements they made during these challenging months and apply them in a team setting.
They will not be given extra credit for persevering during trying times.
That is all in the past.
When the Seminoles put on their helmets and practice jerseys and jog from the locker room to the field, they will be evaluated by head coach Mike Norvell and his staff just like they would have been under normal circumstances.
“They’ve definitely put in time,” Norvell said of the players' offseason preparation. “But there’s a lot of things that go into translating from a meeting room to a football field. That’s why we need to get on the field with them -- we have to see the application from the meeting room to the field. There’s plenty of times when it’s 70 degrees in an air-conditioned meeting room, and you’re talking about an assignment and what you’re gonna do.
"But when you’re there and you’ve got another grown man lined up across from you, and there’s movements and shifts, to be able to execute with proper fundamentals and techniques … that’s something you have to work through and you have to rep. So we’re excited about the process, we’re excited about the growth that we’ve seen, but there’s a lot of work to be done.”
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