As far as media availability goes, Florida State football’s preseason camp came to an end Friday morning.
The Seminoles held their 19th preseason practice at their practice facility and it was the 17th that has been open to the media in its entirety. FSU closes preseason camp Saturday with its mock game.
As coach Mike Norvell’s third preseason comes to an end, he took some time to reflect on how much his team has grown since the end of his first preseason ahead of the 2020 season.
“I would say probably the overall understanding of the necessity to the push. The focus on those little things,” Norvell said. “One of the things I like is if you have a player make a mistake, their understanding of what it was. And every player is going to have a mistake, coaches will have mistakes. But when they can, in the moment, have an understanding of the why, I think that’s monumental. Because then you can see the way they adapt the lesson to the next rep or apply the lesson. Those are things that I appreciate. You can’t get that if you just go through the motions.”
The final practice availability was a back-and-forth affair where both the first-team offense and first-team defense had their moments in multiple periods of good-on-good work.
The first team period was a game-ending situation where the offense took over in its own territory with 1:05 left on the clock. Although getting behind the chains to start, the offense converted a long third down on a pass from Jordan Travis to tight end Preston Daniel. Daniel then caught another pass to cross midfield, and Johnny Wilson had a third-down conversion catch as well on third and medium to move the team into field goal range.
Ryan Fitzgerald capped off the one-minute drill with a 41-yard field goal as time expired.
In the second 11-on-11 period, we saw the first extended period of pre-snap penalties this preseason from the offense. There were a few false starts in a row. It was a concerning moment, but it didn’t last too long and it does bear mentioning that this hasn’t been a regular problem at all this fall.
One of the few offensive highlights of this period was an impressive concentration catch from tight end Markeston Douglas, who tipped a high pass to himself and caught it while facing tight coverage from linebacker Kalen DeLoach.
Cornerback Jarrian Jones had a few strong plays in this period, breaking up a pass to Mycah Pittman and recording a half-sack on a cornerback blitz on consecutive plays.
Wilson again had a number of impressive reps in 1-on-1 red-zone work. He’s a capable open-field receiver, but the red zone could be where he really shines this season if his practice performance is any indication. He also had a big-yardage catch in the final 11-on-11 period of practice.
In 11-on-11 red-zone work later in practice, Azareye’h Thomas added to his preseason takeaway tally with an interception on a pass that was tipped by Kentron Poitier. Amari Gainer and Akeem Dent also came up with impressive pass breakups, which saved touchdowns to Douglas and Wilson.
Offensively, running back Lawrance Toafili and Travis had rushing touchdowns during this portion of practice.
Safety Jarques McClellion also had an interception in the final 7-on-7 period on a ball that was overthrown a bit by Tate Rodemaker and Renardo Green had a pair of pass breakups during this period, continuing his recent run of production at practice.
The practice concluded with a lengthy portion of scout-team work, a fair representation of the Wednesday game-week practice it was simulating.
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