Florida State coach Mike Norvell discusses the benefits of the bye week as well as preparations for Louisville and quarterback Malik Cunningham.
On Monday's practice:
"I thought today was a good work day, continuing to push for the consistency throughout practice. I thought we started well. Couple periods there in the middle, we have to be much sharper just in communication, pushing through some of the created adversity. But I did think we finished practice strong there at the end. That’s part of our growth and the things that we need to do, we’ve got to improve in every aspect and it’s from how we prepare, how we communicate, continuing to push the effort, continuing to push the physicality, and that has to show up on a daily basis."
On Louisville quarterback Malik Cunningham:
He’s such an electric player. He has a great arm, he can push the ball down the field. Very accurate in the vertical passing game. What he does with his feet, there’s few people out there that can do that. He’s played so much. He’s tough. You see times where he takes a lot of contact and there’s times that you just see him just pop up right up. And that speaks to who he is, the competitor that he is. He’s just a very dynamic football player with his arm and obviously with his legs.
On other Louisville offensive players:
You see their skill position, some new faces there. Guys that have good ball skills. The tight end, we’ve seen him before. He’s a really good football player. What he does in the run game, what he does in the passing game. Running back is very capable, hard runners. They have a very experienced offensive line that is returning, they are really good at what they do within their schemes. Big outside zone, nakeds, play-action shots. These guys, they run it well. They’ve had a few missed opportunities here early in the year. But it’s an offense that is very dangerous.
On adjusting the practice schedule:
"I gave the guys Friday and Saturday off intentionally. We came back Sunday, we had our normal Sunday practice. I wanted the guys to have two days off, back-to-back days off. We came back last night, treated it as a normal Sunday. Now obviously it’s a quicker turnaround today. I thought the guy handled that well. Puts us in position, tomorrow will be our Wednesday and we’ll continue to progress on with the week."
On if the added time off gave some players time to heal:
"I think so. There’s guys that have been a little banged up. Johnny (Wilson), coming off the game last week, didn’t do very much. I talked about a lot of the toughness that our guys put on display in being able to prepare themselves for the last game, guys like Maurice Smith, Johnny, Duke Cooper. It’s good to kind of have a little time for them to heal up. It was good. And like Darius Washington was one, he was available but I’m glad he didn’t necessarily have to play last week. You see the confidence starting to build with him as we’ve been moving forward. It was a good all in all week."
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