The first few practices of Florida State's spring practice were a sort of feeling-out period for the Seminoles.

New coaches on both sides of the ball. Over 30 new players enrolled. New schemes to learn both on offense and defense.

Saturday's sixth practice of FSU's spring camp also served as the first scrimmage of spring. With that, it was a bit of a ramp-up in intensity and expectations for all involved as the team scrimmaged inside the indoor practice facility Saturday morning.

"I learned more today than probably the first five practices," FSU offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn said after the scrimmage was wrapped up. "That's normal in scrimmages. That's real football, which is exciting."

This spring has been different than the last few with Malzahn installing his new offense and new terminology while FSU defensive coordinator Tony White also installs his multiple 3-3-5 defense.

Saturday marked the first time that the players were alone on the field and the coaches (with the exception of head coach Mike Norvell) were on the sideline, getting a chance to see how they operate with less direct supervision.

"I think the biggest thing today was giving them a chance to get the coaches out of the way and everybody out on the field and just let them operate," White said. "For me being here as well is how do we operate on the sidelines? What does a headset sound like? What do the substitutions feel like? Are we correcting things on the sideline? How are we as coaches on game day right now? This was my first preview.

"There's gonna be a lot of things that are gonna get corrected. But again, we've got some really good coaches. It was fun to go out there with the guys and let them run around. There was plays made, there were plays missed, and so we're just gonna watch the tape, get the schematics right, but more importantly, making sure we operate the right way. Substitutions, things like that, especially with our guys going warp speed, got to fix things like that, the headset stuff. But otherwise, it was good to get out there and free flow a little bit."

Much of Malzahn's offense wants to be based in tempo and speed to create confusion on the other side of the ball. It's been a bit of an acclimation for the offense to get used to that this spring and has forced the defense to practice with a certain tempo that has proven to be a real challenge.

"We need to respond better at times," Malzahn said. "There were some good things, but for the most part, as a collective group we have to play faster. When you play faster, you have to be tough enough to execute."

Norvell added: "We want to continue to push our tempo. We want to continue to push pace. We had some ACC officials here so we were able to have some teachable moments of just making sure that we're putting ourselves in the best position not to allow drives to extend, or not to put ourselves in even more challenging situations due to negatives."

Malzahn's focus has been so much on trying to get the offense up to the speed that he's kept a more base install of the offense through the first two weeks.

"We have been slower to install, trying to develop a foundation and then trying to evaluate. I just want it to be where our guys don't have to think so much that they can evaluate, so they can play football," Malzahn said. "There's not a whole lot of scheming going on. It's more of installing your plays, trying to get really, really good at the foundation. Hopefully the second part of spring, we'll try to get a little fancier, but this is a base offense at this time."

In terms of defensive understanding, White has appreciated the extra work he's seen his players put in beyond the 20 hours of team activity each week to accelerate their comprehension of the defense and their roles within it.

"You see a lot of guys in the building. You see a lot of guys on their extra time coming up and hanging out in the building, doing 1-on-1 coaches' meetings. At any point in time, you'll see numerous guys up there bringing their lunch, trying to get extra film, extra classroom work," White said. "That right there tells me we're on the right path. Still got a long way to go, but whenever the players do that and buy in and find time to do the extra things like that, that tells me that you're reaching them in a way that it will have positive dividends later on."

Saturday also served as Malzahn and White's first time coaching their units against each other in a game-like setting after coaching alongside each other the last few months.

They both left Saturday's scrimmage not willing to divulge any intel, but quite impressed with what the opposing coordinator is bringing to the table.

"He knows his answers, he's really good..." Malzahn said of White. "They do a great job of disguising their coverages and all that. They did a really good job today."

"'He's one of the best in the country, period. I feel like if I can be prepared for that and what we go against every day, then chances are, we're gonna be just fine," White said of Malzahn and his offense. "I give him mad respect, just schematically-wise, what he's doing, but also like you feel the attitude over there. You feel an attitude. That's the thing that's hard to combat.

"Schematically, you can gain an advantage here and there with an extra guy, but when a team believes, when an offensive side or the defensive side, they believe they're better than you are, that's the thing that's hard to overcome. You can see that attitude that's starting to take shape over there with Tommy (Castellanos) and coach Malzahn and his staff. It's fun to watch. Iron sharpens iron."

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