After what he called an average practice Wednesday, Florida State head coach Mike Norvell was much happier with what he saw from his players Thursday morning.

“That looked like the team I know,” Norvell said.

He felt his team was going through the motions a bit Wednesday, but the intention with which the Seminoles took to the practice field Thursday was clear.

It was a balanced practice with intensity and playmaking throughout.

It started, somewhat familiarly, with the FSU offense taking over deep in its own end with about a minute left on the clock, simulating a situation similar to what the FSU defense faced at the end of Sunday’s LSU game.

While the defensive approach was different, the offense still managed to march down the field. FSU quarterback Jordan Travis hit Mycah Pittman for three completions, two of them first downs, and then hit Darion Williamson for an impressive vertical touchdown over Azareye’h Thomas near the sideline with two seconds left on the clock.

That was the start of what was an incredibly strong day of practice for Williamson, who ran a few different routes to easily beat Sam McCall and Jarrian Jones for three straight wins in 1-on-1 reps. Near the end of practice, he had a few astounding near-catches, going way up in the air to secure a high pass but proving unable to secure the ball.

Williamson’s only real issue on the day was a drop on a crossing route during red-zone work.

While the offense got the best of the defense in that opening one-minute drill, the first-team defense didn’t let the offense get much of anything accomplished during this red-zone portion.

Behind a variety of pressures rushing things, it wasn’t the offense’s best period.

Jarrian Jones had one particularly impressive pass breakup on a jump-ball fade in the end zone thrown to Malik McClain. Norvell talked to Travis afterwards about how he could have better placed the ball.

While the offense struggled in red-zone work, Travis had success much of the rest of the day. He had a few very impressive passes to McClain during 7-on-7 work, one over the middle and another perfectly dropped into the bucket down the sideline. Linebacker DJ Lundy also showed his improved instincts during this portion, identifying a running back screen and hustling over to make a diving PBU.

Renardo Green also had multiple PBUs during 1-on-1 reps. On one, he didn’t even turn his head and simply read McClain’s eyes for when the ball was coming, breaking the pass up without looking. On another, he laid out, coming away with a diving pass breakup to deny Kentron Poitier.

Late in the practice during 11-on-11 work, defensive tackle Malcolm Ray secured an interception in the backfield, leading to one of the bigger celebrations by FSU’s defense at practice in recent memory.

While we have seen FSU running backs coach David Johnson previously spray water guns at his punt returners to try to distract them from fielding punts, we saw a new wrinkle Thursday. This time, Johnson was throwing three tennis balls at his returners in an even more drastic attempt to test their focus.

With this being FSU’s first bye week, the team will have a few days off from practice to refresh and heal before returning on an accelerated timeline next week ahead of Friday’s game at Louisville.

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