Florida State coordinators Alex Atkins, Adam Fuller and John Papuchis reflect on the win over Georgia Tech as well as look ahead to the Miami game.

What went into focus issues in first half of GT game?

"We always say we want to use timeouts for disasters in the first half. There's no need to run a bad play. On one of the plays, we probably would have been fine. Let's just do it right. We had a guy that didn't see the signal and then we had a play that was designed for a certain player and when we called that play, that player wasn't on the field. When he came on the field, he had to re-get the signal and that caused a timeout also. So you had two incidents where instead of doing something disastrous, that's what the timeouts are for."

Lawrance Toafili's response in a game where he fumbled twice

"As always, when you go through a season, he made mistakes that he hadn't made before. That's the biggest way to learn is failure. On one, I think he knew he was going to score before he caught the ball so he kind of went a little bit early because the look was what we wanted it to be. On the other one, we lost leverage on a block and as he was going down to the ground, he did that fumble routine where you're on your way down and try to catch yourself and the ball gets away from your body and the d-tackle poked it out from him. Those two instances were learning lessons and they were hard lessons to learn, too. When you look at a player that comes to the sideline after those deals, it's almost like they flash back to practice, drills, things like that and get a little more honed in, tightening up on their skills. If I know LT right, he'll learn those lessons and go forward from them."

Darius Washington filling in for Jazston Turnetine

"Darius has been that utility knife. He's jumping in there and started at center, threw his head in there at guard and jumped in at right tackle when Jaz went down. I've got a lot of faith in Darius. I know he can go out there and operate. There are some things I still stress to him about. We had a tough meeting about the things that have to get corrected that keep showing up. But overall, I trust Darius to go in at all five positions.

Reaction to Jordan Travis' tackle on fumble, what did you say to him?"

Jordan is a ballplayer, man. I told him, 'Way to walk him down.' Jordan is fast and he went and walked him and then he got up smiling. I think sometimes Jordan's toughness gets overlooked a little bit. Jordan is a tough dude, now. He threw himself in there on a block and tried to lead (the running back) one time, too. We showed that in the offensive (meeting) and I said I was going to put him in belly (dive play). Jordan is a tough guy. He's run a lot of inside runs for us. He's had a lot of big moments, took some big shots. We don't question his toughness at all. You want him to protect himself, but you also want him to be him. I'd rather him not have anything happen to him by tackling somebody, that's not the plan. But Jordan is tough, he's fast. He's still a ballplayer at the end of the day."

How close is the offense to where you want to see it?

"We don't look at it as the results go. More of the process of eliminating mistakes and do we have repetitive mistakes. If we're having repetitive mistakes, what is the cause of it, the why, do we need to change? Things like that because at the end, you still want to trust your personnel and the things they can do. I think as we grow, we should be getting better as we're getting more continuity and guys are getting healthier than we've been, guys are growing up, those guys that have been in the program. This offense can be special if we continue to clean up the mistakes and focus in on, not the result, the yards and all that is nice but more of playing our best and did I execute my best on that play, in that moment? Did I understand the situation? Were my eyes right? All of that. As long as we're focused on the details of those things, this thing can be special.

How has Jordan's personality changed over the last two years?"

Ownership. One of the easiest things as a player is to point the finger out or point it at me. I think there are some things that he cannot control, but he looks at the things he can control. He takes ownership, he's a competitor. He's always been that way. I think what Coach (Norvell) is referring to is we were on an 0-3 run and he didn't feel like he was playing his best ball. The results are tied into that, but he wanted to go play his best ball. He had a really good game. As he's getting older and more comfortable in the offense, he's just a competitor and he's taking ownership in everything that happens. At that position, there's a lot of weight on you so he wanted to go out and get himself better, practice harder, have that refocus. Jordan practices hard. I just think his focus was I need to be better than I've been."

Miami defensive versatility, do Hurricanes declare early or more trouble identifying?

"Defenses evolve. (Kevin) Steele has been in the game for a long time and done an excellent job, is known as an elite d-coordinator. He evolves with not only his personnel, but also things that give offenses trouble. If he sees something giving you trouble, he knows how to present that to you to make sure you've corrected it. He has some failsafe things he goes to whether you're giving up big runs or things like that. But overall, he adjusts to the scheme, he keeps up with the times and those guys play fast without questions. That's why he's had a lot of success on defense. He does a good job. As far as declaring early, most d-coordinators, they know what they want you to see and they know how you declare it. It's whether they want you to declare it early or not. He does a good job of dictating that. It will be a game where we'll have to be focused and have some changes post-snap and post-ID."

How did Jordan do with pre-snap adjustments vs. GT?

"Jordan understands the complete gameplan and he's also been in the offense for three years so he also understands what we like versus certain looks when we get the look. Within the package, he's given some leeway to be able to change and alter some things that he sees and he knows. No matter whether we have it in the plan or not, he has the ability to get to what he feels comfortable with. He'll ask questions, he's like a coach on the field. I think as he's feeling comfortable, you start to see a little bit more because of his comfort level in doing it. We had some looks that we thought they presented that we wanted to make sure we were in good plays. Just like the timeouts in the first half, we don't want to be in disastrous plays. We talk about we want to play fast, but we don't want to play rushed. We want to make sure we're putting them in the best position so if we're seeing something we don't like, Jordan has the ability to change it."

CJ Campbell's touchdown

"CJ, I'm going to talk about CJ's investment. I'm glad he scored a touchdown. You could see the relief and his excitement when he scored because he invests so much outside of the program. Whether it be in recruiting or helping teammates, he's what you want as a teammate. He's a great, great, great young man. Always positive, always upbeat. The injury he had, he couldn't wait to get back. He was still around on his scooter when he was hurt and in every meeting. Watching CJ get that payoff at the end and you saw his teammates on the sideline. That's what this team has been about. He's been investing for so long, it's just good to see him get paid."

Six receivers with multiple catches, spreading passing game around

"We have an unselfish offense, an unselfish group. Whoever's on, they're celebrating that person. It makes it hard to plan for because you never know who the feature is, per se. But it also lets those guys play together and be a group because they know their time is coming. When their time is coming, it's their time and when it's not, they're gonna support the guy that's making the play. Just that unselfishness that we've grown through the offense is paying off for us as we're moving forward and continues to need to get better because we've got a tough one this week."

Growth from offensive line, offense since last game at Miami two years ago

"I always talk about things in lessons. You can't avoid it. We can't simulate going down there and getting whooped like that. Now when it happens, you know that feeling, you know where it's at and you know it's always possible so to avoid that feeling, what kind of preparation is it going to take? Those are the best lessons you can teach. It's just like touching the stove when it's hot, those burnt fingers remind you every day of what can happen if you don't listen. As a team, I've already heard some murmurs about that happening from guys that were here on this team and knowing what steps they have to take to make sure that doesn't happen."

On TD pass to Lawrance, did you see a situation where he may be guarded by a defensive lineman?

"You never know. When you're calling the plays, there are certain things where you've seen a couple things on film where you could get that. But there are also some answers if you didn't get it. I think Jordan did a good job of recognizing what it was and he took it. He made a big-time pass because it was a matchup, but the guy covered him really well. It was a good ball down the sideline that was an us or nobody kind of deal and then Lawrance still had to make a guy miss to go score. I think it was just a big play, not only the protection but the back seeing the matchup and being able to stay on that line to give the quarterback room to throw the ball and also Jordan put that ball where it needed to be and Lawrance cutting that inside shoulder to go score. He had good ball security on that one, had it high and tight. I said, 'Yeah, he's thinking about it. That's good.' It's good to see him make that play."

What did last year's Miami win do for Jordan's confidence?"That was a tough game. They were playing some man coverage and things like that so Ja'Khi Douglas made a play to get us in position and then we made the play on fourth and 14 and we're at the one-yard line and then we got to third down. You get into that deal of what are you going to do if it gets to fourth down and things like that. We ran the quarterback sneak and got in. That game, of course, is a big game for our program. It's more of what we were coming from to get to that point. Because of what we had been through, to be able to win close games, because we had lost so many before and we started 0-4. Watching that progression, you talk about hard lessons learned, you know what that feels like, you know when it doesn't go the way you wanted it to go so when you get in those moments where is your mind going to go? Of course now, I think our players are probably far removed from that. That year was its own year, its own game. We want to make sure we prepare for this game. It's not the same game as last year and not the same team we're playing from last year and we're not the same team as we were last year. I do think Jordan's confidence is built through the lessons he's learned since he's been in this program."

Robert Scott's art, creative side. Atkins wore shoes with Scott's artwork

"That's why I love college football. A lot of times, the outside world can't separate professional ball from college ball. Rob is a young man who still goes to class, he loves drawing. He's a young man in college. He had missed a couple games and he was down about not playing because he's a competitor and it was something he couldn't overcome. So he had a little bit of time to be able to (customize some shoes for me) and I wanted to showcase he's a talented guy.. Being able to do that and market him in a different way outside of football, it's a great joy. If you ever get the chance to go look at his room, his whole wall is painted. He has sketchbooks. He does a phenomenal job. Any time you get a chance to display a player outside of a uniform, we want to take full advantage of that."

Easier to know players will be dialed in this week for rivalry game?

"It's going to be a physical game. The d-line we're about to face with those two interior guys they've got, those ends and how they play things, it's going to be a physical game. But the offensive line position, it's bring your pail. When you're going into a game, there's no looking to the sideline and tapping your helmet. You've got to strap up and go get it. But that's the mentality they know. Most of those guys have been playing the position their whole life so they understand when I'm out there, I'm out there. Whether it's the first play of the drive or the 17th play of the drive in the red zone on the one-yard line, you've still got to bring that same energy you had on play one and you have to refocus each time. That's why you watch our guys touch each otherbefore each play because it's that reset, one-play mentality. Forget what happened before, let's move onto the next play because they've got to be able to correct things on the field. If not, if we're talking about it, we just punted the ball. We don't want to talk about it. We want them to have to fix things out there and then when we come back, we have a conversation of what we have to do or things I'm seeing. That mentality has got to be established if you're going to be out there. Also, if you watch the sideline, our guys that have to go in if someone goes out, they're locked in because they have to learn the lessons of those guys on the field while they're not on the field. That guy has to be locked into that information because he can't go out there and make a mistake that we've already corrected. It's good to see the group buying into it. I haven't had many plays where I had to correct effort so that's a positive. I like where their minds are as far as preparing to play so many plays in a physical game."

Tatum Bethune, what has he brought besides his play?

"Passion. He loves practice. That's the first thing I noticed about Tatum when we got out there is he loves practice. He practices at a speed that makes us get better and makes us push because if you don't get over there, he's going to be in that backfield before you even touch him. I saw him in the game, a couple pressures where he gets back there quickly. He also has a mindset of development. We talk about that in recruiting where he may have all the hype and things like that, he may have all the potential in the world, but if they don't have the mindset of detailed improvement and daily strain and discipline, you're not going to ever get that finished product. It's always going to be that what if, what could. You have to make sure they have a development to say, 'I'm going to wake up early in the morning to make sure I get a meal. I'm going to make sure I get an extra lift in.' He has that. I love his preparation, how he prepares for each game."

FSU defense in the first half

"They came out and we had a pretty clean plan. We knew what we wanted to get done. The only question was going to be the quarterback situation. I think we were pretty up front with our guys of what it was going to be. And if it was this, it was going to be that. Our guys came out, they executed and were very business-like when we did it. I thought we showed good emotion in some of the stops but we came out there and we tackled good and we executed and we gave our team an opportunity to have a really good first half. And then we came out in the second half, got into a third-and-13, obviously you don’t want to start that way with a surprise onside kick. Third-and-13 and they get in a cluster (formation). Listen, I love our guys and I empower them. You want them to have, as you put your plans together and they line up in some of these condensed formations, there’s really multiple different things that can happen based off who lines up where. I do give a lot of credit to our players. They put a lot of time in and study and work. I empower them. It’s part of us growing as a defense. But obviously coming out of that second half and giving up that one big play on third-and-13 ain’t it. We gave up more yards on that play than we did in that half. But I’ll continue to trust our guys and continue to put them in those situations. Everything isn’t always going to be exactly how it’s going to be said because teams make adjustments and they have different plans. Our guys are learning that. When you give them power to make decisions and you give them the right information, and all of the great defenses that I’ve ever been a part of, you continue to grow that way. I do trust our guys and I know when we are in that position again we’ll have a better outcome."

Fabien Lovett’s presence, leadership

"Obviously we got Fabien back. Jared has been a little bit limited in practice. And he’s starting to get back. Even having Amari Gainer back, what that impacts in practice and the preparation going into games. I think that’s all part of it. (Fabien) was really impactful on some of the plays. He didn’t play a lot but if you break it down on point production per play, he’s as high as anybody we had."

Touchdown play in second half, what does empowering entail, is it patern matching?

"You really don’t do it, run fits, pressures. Sometimes you empower guys on certain pressures based off formations, splits and things like that or even things that check-with-mes, you give the linebackers some tools because sometimes things happen really quickly. They need to have the information so they can make those decisions. But anytime you're playing coverage, splits matter, who's where matters, and whether it's three over three, four over three, whether you bring a guy from inside or outside the box, whatever it all is. At the end of the day, everybody's got to see it the same, especially in the moment, and that was just something that we didn't see it the same when that play happened. It's a group of guys that I do trust and we’ll get it right."

How valuable is distributing reps, Jammie Robinson played 40 or so reps, a lot of guys banged up, but getting guys rest going into a rivalry game?

"Yeah, you don't really think about it as rest as you're going through the game as you see it as opportunity to get guys in the game. And sometimes guys don't want to come out. You play and you practice, this is such a preparation sport. You train six days for one opportunity, you only get 12 guaranteed. And so you want to make it where when you finally get to game day, your guys want those reps because that's the work that you put in. You want to go out there and showcase what you've done individually and collectively. And so we're getting to that point. But it was good to get guys in at the end of the game, but we got to stop people when those guys get in the game."

The linebackers bring a professional approach, particularly Tatum Bethune

"I think Tatum brought something to that group. But the guys that are playing right now, Kalen DeLoach, DJ Lundy, Brendan Gant, Amari (Gainer) is getting back, those are all guys that have been playing now for three years. They’ve been playing a long time. So they've been able to go through it and learn from their experiences while they've been here. And that's part of improvement. You go through things, whether it’s success or fail and you get better at things. Now Tatum just had a lot of experience, it just wasn't here. And so when you add him into that group, he came here for a reason because he wanted that competition. He wanted that experience, playing at a school like Florida State. And so we got his best when he got here because he had something and I think that’s just his mindset. Again, I've said this before, he comes from one of the best high school programs in the country, and that shows out. So to combine him with the guys that we had, I think that created that type of room."

Jammie Robinson was productive. It might have been the fastest he played. How do you evaluate how he played and was he playing at a higher speed?

"I don't think so. I think there's just certain times he got put in some situations that it was showcased. Playing safety in our defense, sometimes you've got roles that you do such a good job that the ball doesn’t come to you. I would think a lot of quarterbacks are aware of where he is because he showed the ability to go get the ball in the pass game. I think sometimes when the ball isn’t thrown your way, that's a compliment, but it stays, you got to stay on that because you don't want to create those opportunities. So I think Jammie had three picks during the week of practice, just trying to get those things in that way. But we involve him a little bit more in the run fits and the pressures because he is a good player, we’re trying to get him showcased and trying to make sure we put him in a position where he can make the plays that we know he's capable of. I thought he did a good job of that Saturday."

Watching Miami, they had a bunch of turnovers vs. Duke, QB uncertainty between Van Dyke and Garcia, how much do you watch of last year, how much of the recent games?

"With the change of staff and play caller, a lot of the film goes towards this year. And some of it goes towards that staff and the play callers from past years. Anything that would have come from our game last year against them was purely personnel study. Our guys against their guys. But from a scheme standpoint, it's all this year’s film."

Leonard Warner, that he stuck around and didn’t transfer, and had a big game vs. GT

"It was great. We give out defensive performance awards after games and Leonard received it this week. And just to see how far he's come. He was a starting linebacker three years ago. We moved him to defensive end because we thought that would be the best. He went from a starter to a backup, then he got hurt. He's traveled the long road. He bleeds garnet and gold. This place means a lot to him and to see him go out there and have success in an ACC game, it was good for him, it was good for our defense. But that's part of what football is so special. Guys like Leonard water. Guys like CJ (Campbell) scoring that touchdown. Those things, those are team-building moments. I was really happy for Leonard to have the success that he did on Saturday."

FSU is preparing as if Van Dyke is playing, but you don’t know if Garcia plays. And also, you just prepared for Sims last week but he didn’t play for GT

“That’s our profession. You can plan for this formation, when this happens, and it doesn't show up. And then you make a decision, do we carry this over the next week? Or do we just do away with it? Sometimes when you install calls, you want to make sure that you're using those week to week so that kids understand how important it is to prepare even though it's different. But with the quarterbacks you always have to prepare for all of it. Last week was last week, this week is a little bit different. Some coordinators are very specific to personnel. And so the offense will change. Sometimes just the skill set of the player will change what the result of the plays look like. Some quarterbacks, one-on-one throws, they have a certain relationship with receivers and the ball is going to come out the hand. Some kids are really conservative. Some guys in the zone-read game will constantly pull it. Some guys only pull it in the red zone. Some guys, if you give them one read, they'll go by the book. When we're preparing for different people, No. 1, you have to prepare for all of them because if it happens, that's what you needed to prepare for. But in this case, this week, really they play three guys. If Van Dyke plays, we know who he is. But what is he this year with this offense and with this play caller. We know what 13 is with Garcia because he started last week. We know what the Brown kid, 11 is, because they use him in roles. And then when you come to your players, we sit down on Tuesday morning, and I'll go through every position and these are the guys that are playing, these are the guys that are injured, this kid could be probable and if he plays this is how we're going to treat this guy, this is how we’re going to treat that guy. You’re very matter of fact when you tell your players, ‘Listen, we don't control how it's gonna look but if they show up, this is what it's going to be.’ I don't think you ever want to leave your players to speculate. Because we all go crazy. So I just tell them exactly what I think and what I know and trust myself about the facts and then give them that type of story.”

FSU didn’t want to give up a touchdown on the last drive, but how valuable is getting young guys playing time

“It would have been more valuable to get the stop. You get better through success and failure. Even to see a guy like Dante Anderson, who lost contain on the last play of the game. And it wasn't just his wrongdoing that allowed the ball to get in the end zone on a scramble. We should have made that play. But to see his frustration, what does that mean for Sunday's practice? What does that mean for his offseason? What does that mean for his growth? It's different for different people. If you fail, and I fail doing the same thing, we may react differently. Success, same way. There is nothing like getting out on that field on a Saturday and be able to taste what that is. And so anytime we have those opportunities you want to take advantage of it but we never want to let them score, that’s for sure.”

You don’t want to go into a rivalry game overconfident. But with Miami’s struggles does it give you an opportunity to dictate when an offense is vulnerable.

“That’s our job to make offenses vulnerable. This is one of the best rivalries in sports. As a kid growing up these uniforms, when you think of college football, these are two of the uniforms you think about playing. To have the opportunity to have an impact on what that result is going to be on Saturday night is humbling and it’s inspiring. Every game is important but this one obviously feels different because of what it is in a rivalry. We’re still going to prepare for whatever their offense has done over the last seven, eight, nine weeks with whoever is going to play out there. I’m just going to do the best to get this defense to go play our best.”

On onside kick and AZ Thomas' reluctance to field it initially

“His explanation was just that he didn’t think it was going to go 10 yards. He was going to go get it and he just hesitated for a second and that's the biggest thing is. Obviously you don't ever want anything like that to happen in this thing. You guys are at practice, you see us working on these things. You never want them to take place but, a young guy in a tough situation. We need to learn from it as a group and get better. Just from the standpoint of the real time, real game scenario and the understanding of, hey as the return unit, go attack the ball when you have the opportunity to do it. Obviously when you're on the coverage unit, you have to make sure it goes 10 yards. It's all those things, those split second decisions. Of course, they've been covered and they've been talked about but in the moment in real time. It was a good kick and good execution on their part but we got to do a better job. We have to be better, obviously not the way we wanted to start the second half. I think as a group all learn from it. And that's just part of the growth process.

On punt returns

“Mycah’s been very good for us. He's a confident guy and you can see on the first one that he got hit on right away like he wants the ball in his hands. He wants the opportunity to field all the kicks and return the kicks. It's something that's important to us as a program, because all that hidden yardage that goes into the fielding on the kicks. Mycah has done a fantastic job but also you go back and you look at some of those returns the guys who are blocking for him have done a really nice job. And as a returner it's like anything that you do in the sport. It is the ultimate team game and to be able to have success in the return game. That means there's another 10 guys who have bought into the idea of what their role and responsibility is and I thought that the putting pressure on the unit did a really nice job the other day. We had opportunities to field balls, we were able to execute. Obviously we had a couple of penalties that we got to get cleaned up. But even with the look that was provided we were able to force some poor kicks. And all in all we our job is to win in yardage and win the net punting battle. And I think our punt pressure team did a good job with that.”

On Leonard Warner

“With Leonard I've been impressed with his play because he continues to get better. I'm not surprised by it. A couple of years ago, that spring, I guess 2021, I did feel like he could be impactful for us at the defensive end spot. Obviously, that was a short-lived spring for him with the injury. But the thing about Leonard that I think is worth noting is last year even though he was recovering from injury, the way he handled himself was tremendously respectable from the standpoint of he sat in the meetings, he never missed one. He coached the young players, he helped teach the defensive scheme. He was very impactful as the guy that really had no scenario where he's going in. He signaled on the sideline in games. So just, his unselfish nature and the way he approached it, I thought it was commendable. To know what he was going to work in the offseason and into the fall, it is not surprising, but I'm glad that all the hard work is starting to pay off for him and he's having an opportunity to succeed because he’s earned it.”

On Ryan Fitzgerald

“With Ryan and this has always been our approach, we take it week by week and kick by kick with him. Even when he was struggling, and I know this has been well documented, he wasn't struggling at practice. It’s not like, it's like an epiphany of where he's making his kicks. But I do think he's gaining confidence. And we've had some sort of good situations that he's been able to. He’s had a lot of PAT, credit to our offense and then and he's had to end up half scenarios where he's had a chance to kick a field goal. And then a shorter one the other day. So, I think all of that when you combine it all like, he is starting to become more confident in everything is doing it. And he should be because he's a talented player that we believe in, that continues to work hard and grow. I don't think the tweak of his technique is as big of a deal because it's what he had always done anyway. He just kind of went back to home base, hit a little bit of a reset button, and he's back to hitting the ball solid. I expect him to have a good finish to the season.

On first-half DL performance

“In the first half and then into the third quarter, I thought that we did a nice job up front. We were able to create some pressure to create some disruptive plays in terms of in the pass game and then really able any interior run to do a good job there in terms of stopping the run. As the game rocked along, we had some younger guys come in, we were able to get those older guys out which was critical to us. But in those first three quarters the defensive front played well.”

On how valuable it is getting young guys into game

“The real time experience is valuable, and it's something that you like to be in a position where you can get some of those young guys opportunities. Obviously, that means we've done a pretty good job of putting the game in a position where we feel like it's time to give those guys opportunities. But you obviously want to end better than that. You don't like walking off the field with that kind of taste in your mouth, after what really defensively was a really good performance. It is valuable for those young players to learn and realize what they need to work on and what they need to grow from. Really it's interesting because when you break out with the scout teams like you're doing in college football, because of the size of your team, it's really probably the only sport I can think of where you're playing guys at the end of the game and aren’t really practicing with the defense throughout the course of the week. So, those guys went in there and did the very best they could do, with a very detailed package. They weren't really in the meetings and are not involved in the game planning part of it. But I think it's great to continue to get those guys opportunities for sure. as well.”

On Jared Verse regaining form

“Jared is getting healthier and I think part of that is just when as a team some of those injuries occur, we kind of had a rash of things happen early in the season. Knock on wood, things have kind of settled down from that standpoint a little bit here in the last couple of weeks. Jared continues to look better in practice. He's moving better. And I thought it was interesting, Coach Fuller made the table six or seven plays that he thought were good examples of what we would want to define as Seminole football. There was no coincidence of those six or seven plays he showed to the unit, Jared was in on all those plays. He does play with violence, he does play with a physicality. It just feels different to feel his presence when he's on the field. So, obviously getting him healthy for the back stretch of the season is going to be important for us and I think important for him because I know he wants to make sure that he continues to grow and progress in winter.”