At long last, Florida State football game week is here.

The Seminoles took to their practice facility Tuesday morning for a full-pads practice, the first of two game-week practices that will be open to the media before Saturday’s 5 p.m. season opener against Duquesne.

As kickoff nears, the team is understandably doing more scout-team work to prepare for its first opponent. But there was also plenty of pitting the first-team offense and defense against each other Tuesday and it was quite a physical practice.

Nowhere did this lead to a more fun battle than out wide, where wide receiver Johnny Wilson and cornerback Azareye’h Thomas had quite an intense back-and-forth battle over the course of practice.

Continuing what has been quite a positive trend of late, Wilson had a very good practice to kick off game week. It began early in team drills and continued throughout practice. During the outdoor 11-on-11 portion, he came back towards a slightly underthrown ball and used his arms to reach back and snag it, turning what would have been an interception by Akeem Dent into a big-yardage reception. He also went up to snag a touchdown catch on the fourth-and-goal drill FSU uses to close out its first half of practice.

In 1-on-1, Wilson beat Thomas once on a downfield route and then also blew by Jarrian Jones for another sizable catch.

It does bear mentioning, however, that Thomas is probably the cornerback most physically equipped to go against Wilson at 6-foot-2. Although Wilson got the best of him once or twice Tuesday, Thomas covered Wilson well on a few occasions. It’s exactly the type of iron sharpening iron that has been lacking on the FSU practice fields the last few seasons.

While Thomas held his own against Wilson at times, redshirt freshman safety Shyheim Brown had the play of the day in 1-on-1s when he did well to stay with Mycah Pittman and took advantage of an underthrown pass, tipping it to himself before securing the interception while falling down. Brown also had a pair of pass breakups in 11-on-11 work, one of which was a dropped interception that would have been a touchdown but he dropped the ball after jumping the route.

Cornerback Renardo Green also had a good day in 11-on-11 work, sticking to the receivers he was assigned and coming away with a few pass breakups in quick succession. Jones and Kevin Knowles II had interceptions against the scout-team offense near the end of practice.

Jordan Travis was the most consistent quarterback on the day, but Tate Rodemaker improved as the day went on. After a slow start outside, he threw some dimes during the final portion of practice, including a perfect downfield throw to Malik McClain in stride for a big gain down the sideline.

FSU coach Mike Norvell said Monday that he expected the offensive line depth chart could see a few more shifts before Saturday’s game. How FSU used its offensive linemen Tuesday bears that out as the coaching staff definitely rotated through quite a few first- and second-team offensive linemen with the first-team unit over the course of practice.

Bryson Estes continues to produce winning reps day in and day out in 1-on-1 pass protection drills. Other standouts on offense in this drill Tuesday were Julian Armella and Jazston Turnetine. Fabien Lovett, Robert Cooper and Leonard Warner had nice days in this drill on defense.

Running back Treshaun Ward had an impactful day in multiple ways, breaking a few runs and catching passes out of the backfield. He was aided by a few impactful blocks, one by offensive lineman Jazston Turnetine 15 to 20 yards downfield on his biggest run and by tight end Markeston Douglas on a screen pass that allowed him to break the play wide open.

Chris Thomsen’s position coach from his playing days at TCU, Hugh Nall, was in attendance at Tuesday’s practice and was very impressed with how FSU looked today. He made the comment that it had been quite some time since he had been this excited to watch the Seminoles play. Nall played on the 1980 national championship team at Georgia and had stints as a college assistant at Georgia Southern, TCU, Auburn and Ole Miss.

FSU softball coach Lonni Alameda was also among the observers on Tuesday.

The Seminoles return to the practice field Wednesday morning for their final practice availability before the season begins.

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