Clark: Observations from fourth day of spring practice

I made a promise to myself that I wasn't going to start another one of these writing about the quarterbacks. And I'm keeping that promise.

Because I'm going to write about the guys they throw to instead.

Specifically two third-year players who maybe -- just maybe -- are starting to figure it out.

Kentron Poitier and Darion Williamson were both really good in Friday's practice. Not good for them. Or good for backups. But just good. Period. They made tough, contested catches, they got open repeatedly in one-on-one and seven-on-seven drills.

And they both hauled in 60-yard TD passes as well. Poitier, in fact, had a long TD catch to end Wednesday's practice as well.

And while Williamson did struggle with some drops earlier in the week, he had some really impressive moments on Friday. It was good to see from both guys.

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Because frankly we haven't seen much of anything from either one of them since they got here. But it sure seems like the addition of four transfer receivers to the roster has made them raise their game to try and keep up.

That's my theory anyway.

When I presented it to Mike Norvell he agreed there was some merit to that thought. But he also thinks they're just growing up.

"Those guys are both young players," the FSU head coach said. "They're two years into the program, going into year three, this is where you should see strides. Kentron only played a couple years of high school football. He is just now coming into his own. Darion, the same thing. He had a devastating injury his senior year of high school.

"Now you see that confidence that's continuing to grow."

Poitier and Williamson have a chance to step up and show just how much they've grown. So far, they've delivered.

But before we start etching their names on the Biletnikoff Award Watch List, they have to prove they can do it on a consistent basis.

Verse looks legit

I honestly didn't pay that much attention to him during the first three practices, two of which were in helmets and shorts, but on Friday I made it a point to focus on defensive end transfer Jared Verse.

And man. He has something to him.

Again, I'm not saying he's the next Jermaine Johnson (Johnson was out there on Friday by the way, I saw him talking to his former teammates and even a recruit during the practice), but Verse has some significant gifts it would appear.

He won every rep I watched him take except one. And when he went up against a freshman on the second team, it was utter domination. Just not a fair fight. I'm sure there's plenty of room for him to grow -- and again I'm not calling him the next Peter Boulware (yet!) -- but what I saw on Friday had me really, really, really encouraged.

Highlight plays

OK. Now that I got that out of the way I'll write about some of the best things I saw on Friday. Tate Rodemaker, whom Norvell said maybe had his best practice of his career on Wednesday, came back out on Friday and had another good day. Not great. Not sensational. He wasn't better than Jordan Travis. But it was nice to see him come back with another solid showing.

Tatum Bethune had an incredible read on one play early on, firing into the backfield for a tackle for loss on a zone-read play.

Freshman linebacker Omar Graham Jr. had an incredible stretch in 7-on-7 drills. He intercepted a pass thrown by A.J. Duffy -- it was to a running back and it was a bit behind him and Graham just yanked it away -- and then also forced a fumble and had two tackles for loss. It all happened in about six minutes. Really good stuff from the freshman.

Mycah Pittman had two great catches on Friday -- one where he dove and caught a 40-yard pass from Rodemaker in one-on-ones and another where he looked to get his toe inbounds by the pylon on a contested catch. Freshman defensive tackle Bishop Thomas had the hit of camp so far when he beat his block and smashed into Lawrance Toafili as the ball was being handed off. Corey Wren had two nice runs from the running back position, including one near the end of practice where he cut back inside and sped into the end zone for a 14-yard TD. A.J. Duffy then finished of his first week of spring ball with two touchdown passes in a row in red-zone drills -- one on nice throw on the run to Josh Burrell and another on a back-shoulder throw to Jordan Young.

And that's a wrap from me for the first week in spring practice.

If you want to know more about the guys on the line of scrimmage -- pretty important part of football team I'm going to go ahead and say -- wait for the great Tom Lang's story to drop at some point tomorrow. He was paying attention to the big dudes all day on Friday and will have a detailed report.

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