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Videos with Q&A: Adam Fuller, Alex Atkins, John Papuchis on first scrimmage

Defensive coordinator Adam Fuller, offensive coordinator Alex Atkins and special teams coordinator John Papuchis discuss FSU's first scrimmage.

Defensive coordinator Adam Fuller

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(Starting to see what you want from the DL?) "The way we design practice, I think just to be able to set the foundation of fundamentals and the physicality necessary to play defense the way we want to play defense. I thought Thursday (practice), it felt like we were where we need to be from a physicality standpoint. It wasn't always perfect, but just the pad level, the aggressiveness, the knock-back and the fits. It's getting there and it's an everyday mindset. But in order to be the defense that we need to be, you want to see that stuff show up throughout practices and then carry over these opportunities. It's come in a lot of different ways. It's come with some additions, it's come with some improvement of guys, it's come with just maturity. We are taking the right steps right now."

(Greedy Vance) "His competitiveness, confidence. He's always been extremely quick and really ball-skilled and really confident around the ball. I think we felt that last year at the end of the year, he missed the bowl game when he got injured there. But coming on at the end of the season last year, he was playing really at a high level and I think we've seen that continue. He's put on some good size and I think it being year two in the system, year two with his teammates, we're seeing the real confidence in Greedy show up right now. He's playing extremely fast and I am proud of the steps he's taking."

(Duke Cooper's move to safety) "It's easy just to grab the narrative of Duke now plays safety and I get it because it is a change. But he's still a DB. He's taken some reps at nickel. He's actually taken some reps at corner this spring, too. I think Duke is a really good player. I think he's a great teammate and I think he had a really good freshman year, he was banged up and fought his butt off last year, lost more than he won, but, he's still the same person that we recruited and he's better than he was. I think the arrow is pointing up on him. He's extremely coachable. I think he's got a chance. He had a 1-on-1 that he could have been in a better position today. But he has taken strides through this spring from Tour of Duty, through practice. Duke is going to help us win games this year."

(Freshman DBs) "KJ and Quindarrius, look at what's happened over the last couple of years. Kevin Knowles came in and started as a true freshman. Duke Cooper came in and started as a true freshmen. Shyheim (Brown) did not play at all, for the most part, as a true freshman. Well as a redshirt freshman. he was one of our best defenders. Just because they come in, they're gonna get the opportunity to play early, but some of them grow differently. KJ Kirkland, he's got a chance to help us this season. There's gonna be a lot of development that needs to happen, a lot of experience that he needs to gain between now and August. But he's a really good mover, great kid, smart, is confident and has the ball skills and the movement and the tackling ability to be able to play safety for us. Quindarrius, he's made really good jumps from practice one, two, three to four and five. Today, there was some good, some bad but that's going to happen. We're gonna put him out there."

(Dennis Briggs) "I think his upside is still tremendous. That's a guy that has played really good football at different spurts throughout his career. Coming off that injury and us moving him positions, he did what was best for the team and I respect him for that. I think there's a legitimate NFL player in Dennis Briggs. I think he's an impactful piece of this team next year both on and off the field. I think Dennis has a lot left in that tank. and it's my job to make sure that we use him the right way. Sometimes you've got to do what you've got to do and you've got to put guys in a certain position to help the group. But I think there's gonna be a lot of emphasis on Dennis is a playmaker this year."

(Gilber Edmond) "I think he's taken some good strides early. He's still got a ways to go for him to play in the football that I know that's in him. If you just put him through a combine workout, you're gonna take him every time. He's got good football reactions. He's very hard on himself, which I respect. I think Gilber is the one that is far away from the ceiling. I still think he's going to help us win football games, but I think there's a lot of growth room for Gilber. The greatest thing is he wants it and he's not fighting it at all. We've seen flashes of an impactful edge player and I think Gilber has got a really bright future here at Florida State."

Offensive coordinator Alex Atkins

(Rodney Hill) "He’s comfortable. He was able to get a lot of reps. So when you see his confidence going, it’s because of his comfort level with the offense. He’s explosive. We knew he was explosive. Now you are kind of seeing him playing with a lot more confidence because he’s knowing what to do. He had a lot of explosive runs, he broke some tackles, he did a good job. I’m proud to see how far he has come. He has a chance to be special."

(the three QBs in the scrimmage, no Travis) "We didn’t hold anything back. They had the whole shebang out there and they had to operate. There were some times where we got to clean up some things. But I thought for the most part they managed well, handled all of the things that we were putting on their plate. And it was a lot. We didn’t hold back a lot. I was glad to see that they were able to kind of stay poised. Brock going live, he went live today. He had flying bullets at him and he handled it way better than I expected him too. He’s a high-energy (player). And I saw him calm. Once he got back there and really executed at a good level. I can’t wait to see his improvement. Scrimmage 1, you always start with that foundation. Now, I get to see, ‘Now what.’ That’s where we are. Now what. I can’t wait to see how far he goes with it."

(DL impact, OL had a few out) "They came out strong. We had trouble running between the tackles early. You go back and say, ‘Rodney Hill had a good day.’ He bounced some runs and made some plays, which helped a bunch in the run game. And then in the second half, you wear them down a little bit. That run game starts hitting a little bit better. I just think initially we got to do a better job of coming out and establishing the run in obvious situations — third-and-shorts, fourth-and-shorts and things like that where everybody in the stadium knows you’re running the ball. We got to be able to execute at a high level there and understand the expectations. And then again I dueled some guys, some older guys, I played them at a couple positions. That’s always a part of it. But that was definitely one thing we got to improve on early is establishing the run early in these scrimmages."

(OL nugget) "Continuity is not the focus at the moment. It’s more the improvement in the evaluation. But I think overall the things that we’re asking them to do, they’re giving a great attempt to do it. And that’s the fun part about practices. We’re not trying to find the best situation. We’re just trying to see how you handle the situation that you’re in at the moment. Which is good in building that improvement."

(TE) "The good thing about it is their flexibility. You got guys that can attach, play wide and play in the backfield. And then you got a guy that ran the ball a lot of times against really good competition. You have guys that have done a lot of things and can give us a lot of expansion where you can manipulate the personnel group, which is fun to do. Their versatility is what makes them different, whether it being catching, running, still being physical at the point of attack, being able to attach and still go vertical. Those things are what I’m excited to see from the group."

(Casey Roddick at C and G) "Casey is a grown man. He’s coming in with a purpose. He understands what he wants to do in his last go around. His focus is learning both positions because he wants to be able to help the line where when you have those injuries or things go down or things don’t go your way he’s able to play multiple positions to be able to keep the best five out there. And he understands that for the longevity because of what he wants to accomplish in the future. So it’s always good when you have a guy like that because you don’t have to explain it. He knows, ‘I know why you’re doing this. I love it. Give me opportunities to be able to learn it. Put me in some stressful situations.’ He wants that uncomfortableness."

Special teams coordinator/defensive ends coach John Papuchis

(what special teams is doing this spring) "The spring for us is really a big focus on fundamentals and technique. Similar to the first couple weeks of how fall camp works. We work two different phases. We worked our combat zone combat, which is essentially kickoff cover vs. kickoff return but in short areas. So it’s not the full cover of the field. But it’s the end of the play scenario. So for the coverage unit, obviously the goal is to get off the block when you don’t have time to run around the block. It’s the two-gap mentality: Get off the block and make the play. And then for the return unit, instead of the guys having to drop and get to their landmarks like you would on a kickoff return, the space is close so it’s really about finishing the blocks and using the fundamentals and techniques that we teach in terms of how you do that. So we were able to get that compete in. And the other thing that we do install because it does have the most schematic to it is our punt unit. We have installed punt. Today was the first time in a scrimmage setting that we were able to work that and we were able to work two groups in that and I thought we got some really good work there."

(with Mycah Pittman out, who is working on punt return) "I always try to look at these scenarios when guys get injured, how can you turn what is a negative for the player and for the team into a positive. And one of the things is other guys get reps. And so far we have gotten a lot of quality reps for Ja’Khi Douglas, for Winston Wright, for Dre’ Jacobs, for Azareye’h Thomas. Those guys are working back there. They’re getting a lot of opportunities, a lot of reps. They’re getting more comfortable with it. Obviously, you’d love to have a guy like Mycah and get him back as soon as we possibly can because he is so consistent and reliable but I think we are getting some really quality reps with those other guys now. We are creating reps as we go."

(assessment of the kickers, Ryan Fitzgerald and Tyler Keltner) "So far the competition has been really good. And the thing that I do like about the competition is that you can feel those two guys pushing each other but also what I’ve been proud to see from both of them is also supporting each other. Because you want the competitiveness within a team structure. When Tyler makes a kick, Ryan is the first one over there to say something positive to him. And then vice versa. There’s a couple different ways in which we grade it. One of them is that we chart. They all go through a kick chart. Each one of those kick charts, we keep track of, tally on a daily basis and then on a cumulative basis. And then they have their team reps with the full team. That’s in a separate category. All of those are graded and statistically we keep the records on how they went. And then at the end of practice they have the game-winning field-goal opportunities where they get to be out in front of the whole team and have an opportunity to kick a game-winning kick. And then you have the team scenarios in scrimmages that will be evaluated. So that’s a big piece of it, just the raw numbers of evaluating the kicks and the number of makes and how they do it. But there’s also the eye test that as a coach you evaluate to see who’s hitting the ball well. Because not all misses are the same. Not all makes are the same. There is that subjective piece to the evaluation. But I try to stick to the numbers as much as I can because we do want this to be an earned competition and not make a predetermined decision."

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