Quote book and video: FSU's coordinators discuss win over BC, Wake

Florida State coordinators Alex Atkins, Adam Fuller and John Papuchis discuss the victory over Boston College as well as the game ahead against Wake Forest.

On Darius Washington and how he did starting at left tackle vs. BC

"Assignment-wise, Darius knows what to do. He’s played a lot of tackle here, started for two years. He’s played both tackles. I thought he did solidly, took him a while to get back in it. I think he only gave up the one pressure on a rollout. One time he had an outside zone, he missed the out call. Other than that I thought he played solid, consistent. He looked like his old self. I was proud of him for being able to execute like he did."

On Jordan Travis, pushing through the injury at Louisville and how he played

"Jordan’s toughness has always been on display from taking hits to taking shots to getting up and keep going. We were highly confident that he was going to play as long as he felt like he could. Jordan is a ballplayer. I’m going to sing his praise do the end. His toughness has been on display. Since I’ve known him he’s always been a tough guy to me."

On how FSU has had four different receivers lead the team in receiving through four games

"I think it’s just making the most of your opportunity. No, it’s not by design. We’re not saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to try to scheme up and do something different. It’s just a little bit of all of it. But those guys, when their number has been called, they’ve been able to make the plays they need to be successful. But I’m proud of that group overall. I always make a point of that group pushes each other. The best thing I see is whoever is having the success, you see the whole group swarm and be happy for them and almost beat them up on the sideline. As long as that energy is up, it’s a good room."

On the offense being set up well with a kickoff return for a touchdown and then an interception gives a short field before the first offensive snap

"Yeah, it always makes it a little bit easier as you start when you get those hidden yardage in the field position. When you get the ball in the first half, it’s more of a field position kind of play. If the defense goes three-and-out, they still are in that hidden yardage coming back on the second drive. But when you are able to take it all the way back and then get an interception, that hidden yardage goes quickly. And now you’re up 14 points before you even get midway through the first quarter. It kind of changes a little bit, momentum and things like that. But at the end, I’ve been in those where you start off like that and then that momentum kind of dies. You still got to execute and communicate when it all comes down to it."

On Mycah Pittman, how he plays, runs, blocks

"I think Mycah gets it because when you look at him in stature he’s not very tall and big. Johnny blocks well. They all do a good job. When you see Mycah, he’s a shorter guy but he’s a thick, rocked-up dude. He brought that mentality with him but it’s also the culture in the room the guys have created. With that position, if you have guys doing that part the ball will find them. And they bought into that process. That’s why you’re having different guys because the more you block the more that DB has to worry about that. The more he’s looking at you and you are slipping and making those big plays. Mycah is a tough dude. I see some coaches talking about him like he’s a little thick, running back-type body. I don’t know about that. He’s tough, man. He was one of our punish plays. We have these punisher plays each week that we show in the offensive meeting and he was one of them. He’s going to bring it. We have to protect him from himself a lot. He’s like that in practice too. We still need you to be able to do this on Saturday. Sometimes we have to limit him because he will never limit himself."

Elaborating on the punish plays

"It’s not the totality of the game it’s just plays where we are saying you are showing the attitude we want to play with on offense. Whether it be knock-down blocks, whether it be chasing a ball. It’s plays away from the ball that are made to show your buy-in, your intensity level that you are playing with. Now we do have some with ball in hand. We have had some guys that have made some big-time hits and ran through some guys with the ball. What is your intensity level when you don’t have the ball, when you’re away from the play. Or you’re direct contact, where this play doesn’t work without this block, this particular situation. Really highlighting guys that don’t get highlighted. Which is just as important as the play that’s made. So you want to make sure you’re addressing that because if it goes unspoken about, that’s not giving them praise and they don’t want to do it. We try to make sure we’re letting them know, ‘This is why we’re having success. Because of this attitude, this intensity and these things away from the football.’ "

On the reserve guys who played and those who impressed

"Those guys are doing what we expect them to do. We saw what Tate did, he got in there, he was cool, calm and collected. We got Rodney Hill, had a big run in there. He’s coming along. He’s going to be a special player, how explosive he is. We saw some young offensive linemen in there. Julian got in there at left tackle. Bryson Estes got in there. We had quite a few guys. We’re playing a lot of people. That’s one thing coach said. Even the guys that got in late, we’re still playing them a lot early in the game also. Anytime you can get those guys in, like every coach says, ‘You want to give them as much experience.’ But also Boston College still had their group in there, they still had their 1s. So you get some good work against good competition from a different jersey so it’s not the wide-eyed moment that are developing and earning that time."

On studying Wake’s slow-mesh offense or other offenses and what does he think

"We studied, even when I was in Charlotte, he was there and over the past they've had success on offense, quarterback is a really good player. So you kind of study and see what they're doing well. And I'll give him credit, just like most coaches, he adjusts to what he has, his personnel. And that's when you talk about being an offensive coach. Everybody has a scheme of what they do, but the scheme fits the players. I would say, yes, (Dave) Clawson does a good job on offense and they have a system that fits the players, they execute at a high level and they believe in it and they trust in it. So more about giving credit to doing something that fits the personnel that he has."

On what Wake does defensively and are they good at taking the run away

"Wake has always been sound. They play fast and consistent. Players don't second guess. They know exactly what they're doing. … They're known for sound (defense). They give the illusion of space but they're very multiple in the little tweaks that they have, whether it be a twist, whether it be a cover changeup, whether it be a pressure, they try to present it in the same package, make it look the same, which is what good defensive coordinators do where you can't get a tip or tendency on it. They’re sound, they're running 100 miles an hour. There's not a lot of hesitation on what they're doing, which allows them to play faster so you got to make sure you execute. Our details have to show up on the football (field). Making sure we're not missing because if you make a mistake and get behind, it can hurt you against those good, sound defenses. Last year we turned the ball over too many times, we gotta make sure the first thing we do is own the football. They present some challenges because it looks the same."

On Trey Benson saying it’s the first time in a while that he feels totally comfortable

"Very similar to (Jashaun) Corbin. Those guys have those injuries and they are coming back, they got to feel like themselves. Especially when (it’s) lower-body limbs and you're a running back and guys are attacking your legs. It's confidence in knowing ‘Ok, I'm alright. Once I get hit a couple of times and start feeling like myself and getting back in the groove.’ But his confidence has been growing since camp. It’s been going higher and higher and his ceiling is getting higher. And the more that does, he's getting more opportunities. We want to give him the ball more and keep building that confidence. So that was huge. I think he's back to his old self so it's gonna be fun to watch."

On Wake giving up a lot of yards to Clemson, but often the Wake player was right there and just missed making plays. How important is it for FSU receivers to make most of 1 on 1 chances?

That's pretty much every week. The game is about matchups. And you got to be careful because you might watch another team have success doing something but your personnel doesn't fit what they do or that's not what you do identity-wise. You have to still be you and do what the players can do, but also understand when their opportunity comes they can take advantage of it. So that's why we love college football because we look at it as this team vs. this team but it really is a matchup of what teams do well and are they going to be able to still do what they do well despite this team taking it away? So it's being creative in the aspect of finding what our players execute at a high level and making sure we put them in a position to still do what they're been doing, even though that other team might do something and kind of take that away. So how can we be creative and put our players in better position where they still understanding that it's not a total scheme change. Our receivers have shown they can make plays when it's necessary. And that's got us out of some tough binds. When you get behind the chains a couple of times in that game, we were able to make the big plays in the passing game where you still can kind of get those long drives. Our receivers’ mindset is they’re going make plays. So I've enjoyed having that.

On what he liked about what the defense did?

“I thought we went out there with a good mindset and I thought we executed. They have a good wide receiver; they have a veteran quarterback, and I thought our guys did exactly what we wanted them to do. We executed at a pretty high level, and I thought we tackled better, rushed the passer well. We want them to be aggressive with how we play, and we were. Our kids did a really good job of limiting them and helping get our team on top and off to a really fast start.”– on emergence of Patrick Payton“He did well. He impacted the quarterback four times in the game, an incredible one sack, but he was definitely impactful. We got to finish a few plays when he had them in his grasp. Patrick executes and he plays hard. He's a team player and cares a lot about his teammates. That year he had development, his redshirt year, he gained a lot of ground. We continue to try to gain more ground because his role has expanded partly because Jared (Verse) went down, but also because he deserved it. He's taking advantage of the last two weeks. So, it's going to keep going in that direction for him.”

On Omarion Cooper

"Duke is somebody I have a great amount of trust in because of how he works. “It was unfortunate towards the end of camp there. I think he’s more of himself. He had his best week of practice last week and on the third play of the game he was at the right place, at the right time and he made the play. And so, I think he's back to form. It's important because we're going to need it this week, for him to play at a really high level. I have no doubt that Dukes got all the confidence in the world. And it's been earned because of how he's gone about preparing. He's got a high standard for himself, and we need to pick a week out of him.”

On Wake’s offense and slow-developing plays

“Yeah, I mean, when the ball goes in there, if you really attack it, sometimes they pull it back and throw to a really good player running down the field. So that's part of why they do it. I know it sounds simple, but listen, they've been really good on offense for several years. Coach Clawson does a great job. And why are they really good? Well, they play at a really good tempo, so they keep it playing at their pace. They execute at a high level. They've had good perimeter players and they've had a quarterback who is deliberate to the point of one on ones. So not to break it down to simplicity but their tempo, their execution, their one-on-one matchup of how they play has been really favorable for them on offense and for the last couple years, and this year, really, nobody's really getting in their way enough. And so, we played against him one-time last year. That game didn't start off the way we wanted it. There were a lot of factors in that. It'll be a challenge, but I like our team."

On what the fourth quarter performance can do for confidence

“Yeah, I don't think they've ever lacked confidence. I think there are stretches we played really good and then there's been some stretches that we wish we could play better. But I think we had a complete game. I mean, start with the kickoff return. Then we went to the takeaway on the first series. Then our offense scored, and we stopped them again. I mean, that's part of playing good football, everybody plays off each other. Hopefully, it's all positive from all three levels to the team. But, you know, when the offense needs us, we've got to play at a high level and vice versa. So I think it was good to have a game like that. That was our plan. And it's always good when you stick to the plan.”

On Wake Forest and one on one matchups against Clemson

“When you watch the game against Clemson, right, and Clemson was being aggressive with throwing them and they were able to throw the ball. Well then once that happens, you get more help to the perimeter players, the next thing you know, the run game starts to open up. I think if you look at them statistically, yes there's more throwing yards, but typically unless it's an option offense, most offenses do have a little more total yards in the air than they do on the ground. But the really good offenses are productive in both ways. And there is a thing of taking what the defense gives you. I think that's what offense is trying to do nowadays. There are a number of advantages or space advantages that offense goes by, but sometimes in clutch moments or third downs like it doesn't matter what the book says, this is my matchup that I'm going to go with. I think you see that with Wake's offense a lot. You see it played by the book, and it starts with a quarterback that's been there for a long, long time. And he's played the same offense and they've been really successful. And so, there are numbers advantages, but it's not just that, right. I mean, anybody can line up and say, ‘Well, we're going to give him a four to box and everybody's going to back up.’ So, they're going to hand the ball off. Well, we're going to get the same box, everybody's going to come forward. They got to throw it. That does happen a lot. And that's probably well a lot of it starts. But then there's some ‘What is the leverage of the deep defenders? What is the leverage of the down defenders and how aggressive are they?’ I think I can get the ball to them if I'm the quarterback. ‘Where is my advantage from a personal standpoint? Coach said do this, but I know that this is going to happen. So I'm going to throw the one-on-one ball.’ Just to try to address what you said, that's kind of how a lot of this stuff plays out. My job is to be able to sit down to the defense and quick answers. This is what they're going to try to do. This is how we're going to stop it because it does come down to playing fast, playing aggressively and not hesitating, especially when tempo is a major factor. You don't want check to check to check because you don't have time to do all that. So, you want to be able to get your cleats in the ground, you want to be able to fall back when you're training. And so that comes with doing the things that you're comfortable doing against the things that are working there. So that's our plan here this week. We got to go play our best football game.”

On how much improved offense helps defense

“On the scoreboard you never see one side of the ball in the score. It says Florida State point total and tells you what you're going to do. And so, the better team you have the better you’re going to have a result. So, whether it's a kickoff return, whether it's a punt block, whether it's penalties, whether it's us running a football, whether it is throwing a football versus defending, and I think to have a good team, people play off of each other. I think that's what we're creating here. And that's what really good programs do. You're good at all aspects. There are some programs that just dominate on one side of the ball. There's a strength in that too, but I don't think you ever want a team that ‘we’re known for this. You want to be a team where they have a great offense, they have a great defense. These kids all collectively play in the kicking game and have an impact. And that's what we're building here.”

On Sam Hartman vs. other QBs faced this season

“I would say he's definitely the most confident and comfortable quarterback we played against. I mean, there's nothing that's going to happen out there that he's probably going to be confused. Now if you take away people and the timing, and you create pressure and all those things to create uncomfortability. I think that's all part of what you'd like to do. But if there's guys running behind your secondary, and he's got a pocket to throw the football, it's going to be a long day. And so you've got to find ways to disrupt timing. You've got to find ways that disrupt his comfortability in the pocket. You've got to find ways to rally to the football when maybe your numbers are put somewhere else. He's been really successful in our league. I know I've said that a couple times about a couple of quarterbacks we played against, but he has been, and the numbers prove it, and his success has proven. But I do like our team.”

On kickoff return for touchdown, Trey Benson

“I thought the guys did an excellent job of executing. There were some key blocks. Darion Williamson made a huge block on it, actually kind of took two. That wasn’t by design but kind of ran one guy into another. Brian Courtney, Wyatt Rector, really everybody. Mycah Pittman did a great job getting up and through, and then onto the kicker to really spring it. And then Trey ran through a tackle. So all those things have to happen, and it kind of goes back to what we’ve talked about in the past: all 11 guys doing their job and you’ve got to get the right kick. Everything has to play itself out perfectly. I thought there couldn’t have been a better way to start the game out, obviously. But you can kind of get a sense and feel that we had a really good of practice, our guys had a great understanding of their assignments and what they’re looking for and keys on the execution. And really as a unit, they did a tremendous job.”

On kickoff coverage on the final kickoff

“It's tremendous because special teams is really a reflection of your culture as a program because it’s the unit that guys, I’ve said this in the past but I think it’s worth reiterating, no one except for the actual specialists themselves were recruited to specifically play on the special teams units. They were recruiting to play a position offensively or defensively. A lot of the positions on the units aren’t really glamorous positions. It’s kind of your opportunity to give back to the team. We feel like it's the foundations of our fundamentals as a program. So your special teams units really are culture defining. And in reference to that last kickoff, you know when you get into a game where you have a comfortable lead in the fourth quarter and you still have your first group of guys guys who are asking to get in on the kickoff cover and then challenging each other who can be the first guy down, that just shows that, that the culture that we're trying to build is really resonating with the players and it's really taking over the team.”

On the kickoff return potentially leading to more

“I think with anything, success does breed some confidence. I think now that we’ve had an opportunity to feel what that’s like, it does breed a little more confidence. But each play is its own play, that’s something we’ve talked to our players about all the time. Whether it’s good or bad, we’ve got to move on. We’ve got to have a different approach this week, a different challenge, a different look as far as the coverage unit. We’re going to have to go out, put a great week of practice together and have an opportunity to put it together.”

On reaction to touchdown

“In the moment, you certainly are excited, and, you know I was fired up when you start seeing it play out and obviously it came right up our sidelines, so you kind of get to see it right in front of you. You’re excited for that opportunity and for that situation, but you're very quick to move on to the next thing because now we're gonna kick off and then we're gonna play defense, so I kind of switch hats a little bit and get ready for that. But you know looking back at it, especially after the game it was something that we've been working hard. You guys know, you're there all the time and we spend a lot of time and focus a lot of energy on our special teams in different ways throughout the course of this year. So far they've showed up and that part is gratifying, but more important from a team perspective, the more success that we have I feel like the more just trust in what we're trying to build is going to continue to grow.

On giving Benson a chance to return the kick

“He’s done a really good job at practice. Even coming out of fall camp, it was one of those things, it was a tough call, it was a call that went all the way up to the close of game time of that opening week. It was less to do with Sam and more to do with Trey, and ‘hey he’s looking good as a running back. He’s ready, he’s moving well, let’s see what he can do.’ We’ll see what it looks like moving forward, but it obviously provided a great spark there.”

On Patrick Payton

“Pat is a guy who’s very conscientious as a player. So when he does have an experience, whether it’s good or bad, he does learn from it. So the more game reps he gets, I’m not surprised you see improvement there. I think his confidence is starting to grow a little bit. Last game he obviously did well, but his practice was good. Like he had a really good week of practice. Those things tied together and he’s mature young man, I think we’re just starting to scratch the surface of what he can potentially look like. I do see his confidence growing, I do see improvement and it’s almost play-by-play or series-by-series as he gets more experience.”

On judging kickoff return ability in practice

“Certainly the game reps, that tells a whole different story because we don’t go live tackling the returners in practice. But you also get a sense for the speed in which how they hit things, the confidence that they display as they run the return, their ability to track the ball in the air because, I could be wrong about this, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct that this was really Trey's first return experience when he came here, and you know it takes a little bit of time to get that confidence of trapping the ball in the air and hitting it going forward the way we want we want it done. With the more reps, the better he's gotten, and I could just sense kind of in practice that he feels ready and confident for it, because obviously he's going through his own progression in terms of getting back healthy and getting confident in everything that he's doing, so now that he's had three or four games now under his belt like you could just see him starting to, well the game reflected it, but you could just see his confidence grow in everything he's doing and that showed up on that first kickoff as well.”

On play of Leonard Warner and Dennis Briggs

“Both those guys are veteran guys, they're mature, they work hard. I think they understand what it takes. Speaking first about Leonard, he's not going to be the flashy defensive end, that [has] a bunch of highlight sacks and all this stuff but, he's gritty, he's tough, he's physical, he's dependable, he's hard-working, he is older so he has that veteran leadership to him. He's important to the room, so I feel like he's continuing to get better as he gets more reps but I feel like he played well the other day. Really, the way I described Leonard is the same way you could describe Dennis. He comes to work every day, he's a hard worker, he's physical, he plays his role. Like, about a third of the snaps that he played total were at defensive end spot, the other snaps were inside. So whatever he's asked to do, he does it. And I think both of them played really pretty solid the other night.”

On Mycah Pittman as a punt returner

“ I think his decision making has been good and one of the things that as punt schemes evolve and you see it all over the country including with ours, teams do a lot of different things to try to keep it out of punt-returner’s hands. Whether it's formation or directional kicking and all the things that go into it. I think Mycah has done a nice job of fielding the balls that he could get to because our first key to success every week, not as a team but the first thing I talk about every Saturday morning is we got to own the ball and then right after that it's field all kicks. When I say that, it's field all kicks that are within reason for you to field and make good judgments and good decisions because we certainly would rather have the ball back than make a bad choice on trying to go chase the ball down that you can't get to. So I think Mycah's decisions have been good, I think he's a tough runner. I think one of the things that leads to success in the return game is the ability to break a tackle and he certainly possesses that ability. So I've been pleased with Micah so far and, you know, just like I say on kickoff return, when I said I don't think we're very far away, I also don't think we're very far away from him having the opportunity to pop a return as well.”

On Wake Forest’s slow mesh

“What they do is a little bit unique in terms of the mesh with the quarterback/running back and how long that quarterback is able to ride it out. I think the first challenge is make sure that you simulate that well in practice because it is unique and it’s certainly going to be unique to our scout-look team that provides the look. Second is you’ve got to be really disciplined with your eyes and having your ability to do your job, because they’re waiting for you to react. We’ll have different ways to change tempo, right? Whether it’s straight four-down rush or if we’re doing anything in a pressure. But first things first is do your job. I think that’s one of the keys of being able to execute against a well-disciplined offense.”

On Alex Mastromanno’s touchback

“I didn’t think it was possible. And that’s a shame for Alex from the standpoint that we had a little bit of communication error in terms of how we covered down on it. And Alex really hit the ball. Without the coverage, he almost had the ball roll out of bounds. So that’s one of the things we have to fix coming out of the game. Sometimes when you win, it’s easy more from the outside I’d imagine to kind of gloss over some things, but that was a critical error of game in terms of our communication from the 11 on the field and Alex kicked the ball well enough for that to not happen. We need to learn from that and make sure that never happens again.”

On the atmosphere in Doak

“It was an unbelievable atmosphere, it really was. It was loud. Like when we first hit the kickoff return to start the game, that was about as loud as I remember hearing a stadium at least in real time. I’m excited for our guys, especially the ones that have been here for a couple years, because they’ve been through their share of doubts. They have the opportunity and at this point now there are so many people who are excited about the games and the atmosphere that creates, try to eliminate all the distractions that you can, but you do like the fact that our guys have the opportunity to be on that stage in front of so many people there to watch them. It was a very cool experience and great environment.”

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