Jax. practices conclude, scrimmage 2 up Saturday

JACKSONVILLE — Florida State held its 14th practice of the 2022 preseason on Friday morning on the campus of the University of North Florida. Coach Mike Norvell and his staff put their team through an hour-and-a-half workout under cloudy skies and humid conditions in shells.

The offensive and defensive skill positions spent a good portion of Friday's practice in 7-on-7 pass skeleton work, taking reps in an open-field (between the 40s), red zone (inside the 20) and goal-line situations.

In the open field portion of pass skeleton, FSU quarterbacks Jordan Travis, Tate Rodemaker and AJ Duffy combined to complete 6 of 9 passes. Rodemaker completed all three of his attempts while Travis also looked sharp, completing two of his three attempts with his incompletion resulting from a dropped pass.

In the red-zone and goal-line scenarios the Seminole signal-callers completed 7 of 18 passes.

Linebacker Amari Gainer had several reps where he applied tight coverage, which led to two incompletions. Gainer, nickel back Kevin Knowles and cornerback Sam McCall all were credited with interceptions. Cornerback Renardo Green also had a pass break up in the end zone.

Offensively, Brian Courteny had a touchdown catch in the red-zone period, Malik McClain also caught a touchdown in the red-zone period. Most of Friday's team 11-on-11 period focused on third-down and extra-long (10 yards or more to go) situations. The catch of the day came in this portion of practice when Kentron Poiter made a sliding catch near the sideline on a ball he had to work his way back to.

The team finished practice with an end-of-game, last-play scenario with the offense trying to score on a last-second pass play with the offense possessing the ball in plus territory.

Defensive end Jared Verse continued to stand out as he was responsible for disrupting several plays including making a sack coming of the right edge of the defense.

Redshirt freshman Bryson Estes got some reps at center on Friday. Estes played center in high school and is among the 5-6 options Norvell previously mentioned as the coaches look to build depth in the middle of the line.

"Bryson, that’s one of the things, his versatility, being able to play across the line at center and guard," FSU coach Mike Norvell said. "We’ve been able to work him. Thomas Shrader, coming off the injury, is somebody that we think has a good opportunity to do that. We have quality options to be able to continue to look as we’re building our depth at that position. It’s something important. I think Bryson is having a good camp. Just have to continue to work the consistency of it. You can definitely see him improving each day."

The Seminoles will head back to Tallahassee on Saturday where they will hold the final full contact scrimmage of the preseason at night inside Doak Campbell Stadium. The format for Saturday will have a different feel compared to last Saturday's scrimmage.

"First scrimmage, I like to create situations by putting the ball in a certain spot," Norvell said. "This will be more game-like. Flipping field position, sudden changes, all the things that can show up based off performance rather than a coach dictating where the ball is going to be. I look forward to tomorrow night. It’s going to be good."

Norvell said he is happy with the improvement through the first 14 practices of camp. "We’re really establishing the toughness," Norvell said. "It’s been a very physical camp. Intentionally. Guys are doing the work and they’re doing it at a high level."

There were several former FSU football players in attendance at Friday's practice. That list included: James Roberson, Todd Fordham, Leon Fowler, Sean Jackson, Warren Hart, Sebastian Janikowski, Corey Simon, Keith Southwood and Lonnie Pryor.

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