Midway through the Wake Forest game two weeks ago, the Florida State coaching staff decided it needed a new left tackle.
So true freshman Darius Washington was called upon.
Before the Syracuse game this past Saturday, the Florida State coaching staff decided it wanted to go in a new direction at center.
So former walk-on Andrew Boselli was called upon.
Along with massive senior guard Cole Minshew, who missed the first half of this season while recovering from a neck injury, the Seminoles now have added three new starters to a line that was once again struggling to find any real consistency.
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It's early. The sample size is small. But so far, the Seminoles' coaches seem to like what they've seen from the new-look group up front.
"Coach [Randy] Clements has done a great job preparing those guys," FSU offensive coordinator Kendal Briles said before practice Tuesday. "What we were wanting, and we talked about it before, is guys that are hungry, that are passionate about playing hard. And those guys had a good week of practice and earned the right to go out there and go to work.
"So Coach Clements monitored them throughout the game, they were continuing to play well, and those guys need to continue to get better."
Briles admitted Washington. who didn't play a snap in FSU's first six games, was nervous when he got his first action against the Demon Deacons. But he added that the freshman didn't seem nearly as wide-eyed against the Orange on Saturday.
Washington, who has been praised by teammates for his work ethic, was back in the coaches' office at 9 p.m. on Monday watching film, according to Briles.
As for Boselli, a former scholarship player who came back as a walk-on in January after leaving the program for a year, the FSU offensive coordinator says he also has come quite a long way from the kid he first saw in the spring.
"He's a lot better," Briles said with a smile. "It took me a while to learn his name because he wasn't very good. And then he got into fall camp and started doing some good things. He had a good summer and got put on scholarship."
