Eventually, Mike Norvell said Thursday's Florida State practice was an overall good day of work.

But he didn't lead his post-practice press conference with the phrase as he normally does. Instead, he waited until he was already a few minutes in before saying it.

The FSU head coach certainly seemed a bit conflicted about his team's eighth practice of spring and the final tune-up before Saturday morning's second scrimmage of camp. There were things he liked on both sides of the ball, but not the level of consistency or edge he's been pushing hard for this offseason.

"Saw some good plays on both sides of the ball throughout the day, but it's one of those things where you find those times where maybe it's not quite the edge or not quite the attention to detail or focus that's necessary," Norvell said after Thursday's practice. "You've got to jump into that, and you've got to correct it. You got to push for the proper response and understand that you don't get second chances at it.

"I didn't think today was a bad practice. I just thought there were moments where we have to be better. That's as a football team, as the guys that are pushing and desiring to be leaders within groups, we've got to answer that call. I thought there were some examples of that today, but I still want more."

Accountability has been one of the biggest words Norvell has been pushing this offseason in the wake of the Seminoles' disastrous 2-10 2024 season. He's talked at length about the returning players who have risen to the occasion of holding teammates to a high standard and the transfer additions who have become instant leaders upon their arrivals on campus in January.

As FSU crossed the midway point of spring camp Thursday night, Norvell urged players to still give their all on the practice field each day, even if the regular season is almost five full months away.

"It's the ownership of the play. It's the ownership of the performance and what you're willing to give," Norvell said. "We talked a little bit after practice about respect. There's a respect of this program, of what things need to look like and what it needs to be. We have to earn it, and we have to earn it every single day. I've got to earn our players' respect. They've got to earn the coaches' respect. We get to earn respect with how we play and what we do. There's an appreciation for where we are and what we get to represent so that needs to be put on display even when you don't feel good, even when you might find yourself in a challenging circumstance."

Halfway through spring camp, FSU's receiver depth has been depleted a bit over the last few practices. Norvell said Thursday that sophomore Lawayne McCoy has missed some time with an injury. USC transfer Duce Robinson has also been sidelined over the last few practices due to an undisclosed injury, sources tell the Osceola.

These absences of expected contributors have forced younger, less-proven wide receivers up the pecking order. It sounds like these players didn't take the most advantage of that during Thursday's practice with a bit of a sloppy day.

"Today was really the first day where I thought there was a couple drops that were big-play opportunities," Norvell said. "We've got to eliminate those things that show up."

This was confirmed by 2026 four-star wide receiver/Ole Miss commit Zion Legree, who watched Thursday's practice.

"Everybody was on an average level today," Legree said of the receivers after watching the FSU practice. "It's a lot of people hurt and they got a lot of young guys out there right now. It's basically everybody getting back into it and trying to get the players back out there on the field."

It sounds like freshman Jayvan Boggs had a drop during Thursday's practice, which Norvell referred to as a play "he would love to have back in a situation." However, Norvell said he's still been impressed by Boggs on the whole in his first eight practices with the program.

"He's not a finished product right now, but you see the competition, you feel his presence. He's made some big plays here in the first eight practices..." Norvell said of Boggs. "I can see already he's not one that gets rattled. If he has a good play, a bad play, whatever it is, he wants to get coached, he wants to get better."

Norvell also mentioned true freshman Tae'Shaun Gelsey and redshirt freshman Camdon Frier, who is returning from injury, as younger receivers who have shown flashes so far this spring.

-- Even if they didn't have the most support on Thursday, Norvell liked what he saw leadership-wise from the QBs during the practice, saying "I see a quarterback group that's out there pushing to make people better. That's exciting to see."

He said all three QBs had some nice plays during Thursday's practice.

-- Norvell said there was a lot of situational work during Thursday's practice leading into the scrimmage on Saturday. He said the offense won the red-zone period while the defense responded with a win in a middle-eight scenario which simulates the end of a first half into the start of a second half.

-- We talked to RB Jaylin Lucas and DE/TE Amaree Williams (more on him Friday) after Thursday's practice. Lucas said that he feels 100% physically after missing the last 10 games of the 2024 season due to injury.

-- FSU is forced to scrimmage inside its indoor practice facility this spring because of the ongoing construction of the football operations facility as well as of Doak Campbell Stadium. As such, this somewhat limits what FSU can do in the scrimmage with only one field available at a time.

Norvell anticipates the construction will be in a better place by fall camp that those preseason scrimmages will be more game-like in nature.

"It's probably going to be more similar to what it was last week, putting guys in situations to try and get as much of a flow as possible," Norvell said.

This week's scrimmage will be the only practice availability of the spring that will be open to media members. The Osceola will be in attendance Saturday morning and have observations afterwards from the day's work.

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