Florida State's first week of spring practice is in the books, and we've already gotten opportunities to see a brief glimpse of Mike Norvell's offense, Adam Fuller's defense, the returning players and the promising newcomers.
The Seminoles were always scheduled to take a break this week because of spring break, but that hiatus obviously will be longer now because of precautions being taken across the country to prevent the spread of coronavirus. While we don't know exactly when the Seminoles will be back in action, we can break down what we've seen so far and how we think the interruption could affect FSU's 2020 season.
With that in mind, we have commissioned another edition of the Warchant Roundtable, with publisher Gene Williams, managing editor Ira Schoffel, senior writer Corey Clark and director of digital media Aslan Hajivandi discussing several key topics and questions.
Don't miss our great FSU sports coverage. Get your 30-day FREE trial
Q. What has stood out the most about how practices have been run so far?
GENE: Everything. I get that many are sick of hearing about the old staff, but it’s difficult to discuss how practices are different without comparing to how things used to be. Even if you only watched a few minutes of these new practices, you could immediately notice the staff's obsession with coaching up every detail. Whether it’s hand-placement, specifics on running a route, a defender getting in the proper stance, or how a drill is finished, no stone seems to go unturned. This is in stark contrast to the laissez-faire approach employed by Willie Taggart’s staff, where players ran drills with little direction and corrections were rarely made in-practice.
With the current staff, it isn’t just a couple of coaches preaching this absolute attention to detail. Instead, all 10 assistant coaches, the head coach and graduate assistants are on top of every drill and rep to make sure each player is employing proper techniques. Even more impressive is that everyone is on the same page. So, the players are constantly receiving the same detailed message from a variety of coaches in different drills.
COREY: This is a hard one to answer. Because so much has stood out. But I'll also go with the attention to detail. I know that's broad, but it's so evident when you watch these coaches coach that every little thing matters. Every. Little. Thing. It's not just whether a player makes a play or not, or if he gets to the right spot or not, but HOW he gets to that spot or makes that play. It's really pretty impressive. And it's from the top on down. Norvell is going over intricate little details just like all of the assistant coaches. The details clearly matter to this staff.
ASLAN: Urgency and authenticity. From the moment they get in their stretch line until the final drill of the day, there’s a non-stop hum to practice. Whether it’s being barked at to tuck the ball properly during warmups, or yelling at the quarterbacks to make the right read, every rep seems to have significance. Coaches are constantly creating stressful situations to make the players strain, and it’s an absolutely stark contrast to the last two seasons. And by authenticity, I mean the toughness of the practice. Under Taggart, the "Nole Drill" was an awkward tempo-setting period to make it appear that the team was battle-tested. But that never felt genuine, and it never translated to Saturdays.
IRA: I'd echo what everyone else said and add that I've been impressed by how the coaching staff works together. One of the cool things you can see during drills is that each assistant coach has a different coaching point to focus on during every drill. So as soon as a rep has been completed, players are getting feedback on any number of topics -- whether it's how they held the football or the way they turned their body out of a cut or where they focused their eyes. It's a smart approach because it eliminates the chance that every coach is focusing on the same thing. When I was watching them work one day, I thought to myself that it reminded me of how basketball or football officials work together -- they all have different areas to focus on during the same play. And when I asked offensive coordinator Kenny Dillingham about it, he made the same analogy. I obviously haven't watched every college coaching staff in the country, so I can't say how common that is. But I don't remember seeing it done quite so deliberately at any of the practices I've seen.
