9/1/2022 football Edit

Practice Report: FSU football putting final LSU preparations in place

Curt Weiler • TheOsceola

Senior Writer

There won’t be any firm updates from Florida State football coach Mike Norvell on his injured players being available for the LSU matchup.

Norvell addressed the media for the final time before Sunday's game on Thursday afternoon, providing no real updates on potential starting center Maurice Smith, wide receiver Johnny Wilson and cornerback Omarion Cooper.

“Like what I've seen up to this point. Continue to see where it goes up to the game,” Norvell said on Smith, answering similarly when asked about Wilson and Cooper in a follow-up question.

The good news is that the updates as observed at Thursday’s practice seem to be positive. Smith was working a good bit, as was Wilson, who had an impressive big-play touchdown late in practice against the scout team and seemed to be moving quite well. Cooper also got some reps in after missing FSU’s first game of the season.

What any of it means for Sunday likely won’t be evident until the team takes the field for pregame warmups. But it’s hard not to see it as a positive.

As one would expect mere days before a big game, there was a heavy dose of scout-team work at Thursday’s practice. These units simulated what LSU’s offense and defense could try to do in the Caesar’s Superdome, with crowd noise once again pumped into FSU’s indoor practice facility accompanied by occasional shouts of “FINISH!” from Norvell.

The offense in particular was having a great deal of success against the scout team. Wide receiver Malik McClain had a pair of impressive touchdowns, one near each sideline. The better of the two was a contested catch through contact just before the end zone, with McClain making the catch and talking to the defender who couldn’t stop him from scoring on the way back to the line of scrimmage.

Kentron Poitier was another wideout who impressed with a few touchdown catches in 11-on-11 red-zone work.

In 1-on-1 work outside, safety Jammie Robinson had some good battles against wideout Mycah Pittman, with each claiming some wins. Pittman won the first rep, blowing by Robinson for a downfield catch and then juked in the end zone for another. But Robinson denied another downfield pass and also had one particularly impressive red zone rep where he ripped the ball out after Pittman had seemingly caught it for a touchdown.

After missing the Duquesne game, Ontaria Wilson had his second consecutive impressive practice this week. During 1-on-1s, he got separation for a big play on a perfectly thrown pass from Jordan Travis. Then, he dragged his foot to make an impressive catch in the corner of the end zone in goal-line 1-on-1s.

Speaking of Travis, it was a very good day for him. He moved the ball downfield well and made the correct decisions at a high rate throughout the 11-on-11 portions of pracitce. It’s the type of day he’ll likely need to have if FSU is going to pull the upset of LSU and it was a promising final practice availability before Sunday’s game in that regard.

While there will be no more practice coverage before the LSU game, the Osceola will be well-staffed in New Orleans this weekend, breaking down all aspects of a crucial game for the FSU football program.