Off and running: First preseason practice in the books for FSU Football
The Florida State football team held its first practice of the 2021 season on Saturday morning.
As you can imagine, being Tallahassee in August, it was plenty hot even with the early start.
"You know, you can do as much conditioning as you want," linebacker Amari Gainer said. "But football condition is different."
Gainer and the rest of the veteran Seminoles -- along with a few January enrollees who went through spring drills -- took part in the first practice of the day. The second session, scheduled to start at 12:45 p.m., will feature the freshmen, some backups and newcomers like Andrew Parchment.
*** Don't miss our exclusive FSU football coverage. 30-day Free Trial***
What stood out to the veterans after Day 1 was just how much more in sync they were on than they were this time a year ago.
As tight end Camren McDonald pointed out, this is the first time he's had the same offensive coordinator and the same offense for two straight years.
"The same terminology, the same verbiage," he said. "That can take you so much further in your game. Just being able to know that you're going to be running the same exact plays that you ran last year. But the only thing that's going to be different is you're going to be better at running those plays.
"Coach (Kenny) Dillingham showed us a cut-up yesterday of some mistakes that happened during the season, and us running that same play during the spring and getting a completely different result. Because everybody was assignment sound and everybody was doing their job."
*ALSO SEE: Saturday Updates from the practice fields (open to the media)
The practice on Saturday morning was 23 periods and featured plenty of 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 plays. The two quarterbacks during the early session were McKenzie Milton and Jordan Travis.
Redshirt freshmen Tate Rodemaker and Chubba Purdy will practice in the later session on Saturday afternoon. And head coach Mike Norvell will speak to the media following that practice.
The defense certainly seemed to win the veteran session on Saturday morning, but that's to be expected early on in fall camp.
"I feel like we're a lot more knowledgeable and a lot more experienced, too," Gainer said.
It showed.
But it's a long camp. And the offense had their moments -- with Milton and Travis both connecting on some nice throws.
*ALSO SEE: Warchant TV: Footage of FSU Football on first day of preseason practice
McDonald said the defense was really good on Saturday, but he liked what the offense did as well.
More than anything, he said, it was just good to be back out on the practice fields with his teammates. After a real offseason and a real summer.
"I feel like we had an incredible day," McDonald said. "Just guys flying around, hitting people, making plays. The offense and defense. I feel like we played great team football today."
--------------------------------------------------
Talk about this story with other Florida State football fans in the Tribal Council