Noles Return to Practice

After taking Sunday and Monday off and being forced inside Tuesday due to weather, the No. 10 Florida State football team finally got outside to practice Wednesday.

• Bobby Bowden said Graham Gano would likely open as the starter at punter. Anthony Houllis (rover) and Alex Boston (defensive end) also saw practice time and still have a chance to be in the starting lineup Monday.

• In 7-on-7 drills, Korey Mangum had an interception and Marcus Ball broke up a pass to lead the defense. For the offense, Greg Carr and Richard Goodman each had receptions of 30+ yards.

• The top defensive plays in 11-on-11 were tackles for loss by Lawrence Timmons and Buster Davis, and a pass break-up by Tony Carter.

• The offense got a 30-yard TD pass from Xavier Lee to Damon McDaniel in 11-on-11 along with a 10-yard pass from Drew Weatherford to Lorenzo Booker, who also had an eight-yard run.

• The No. 1 defense held the No. 2 offense out of the endzone on all three goalline attempts. The No. 1 offense scored once on three tries (a Weatherford quarterback sneak). Darius McClure ended the day with a goalline interception.

• FSU will returns to practice fields Thursday afternoon.


QUOTES

Head Coach Bobby Bowden

(On practice)

"Thank goodness we were able to get out today. If we hadn't, I'd say we were getting behind. We did goalline scrimmaging. Then we had pass skeleton. Most of it was thud. Got through the day, I don't think anybody got injured. (Alex) Boston came back and got some work, then came back out. (Anthony) Houllis got some work, (Charlie) Graham got some work. I can't tell how effective yet, but that is where we stand right now."

(On the possibility of Houllis and Boston starting against Miami)

"That is something that we probably won't decide until this weekend. We will see if they can get better. They got a little taste of it today and now are they going to go downhill from it or be able to keep improving? We'll keep our eye on the situation."

(On special teams)

"Kickoff returns, I think we will go with (Michael Ray) Garvin and (Joslin) Shaw. We will back them up with (Lorenzo) Booker and Antone (Smith). So we will see how these guys do. We'll have (Chris) Davis on punt return and (Graham) Gano will probably be the punter right now. When you watch them punt out there one day, one of them will get the best of it and the next day another one will. All of those are things by the third game you ought to be settled in on."

WR Chris Davis

(On Drew Weatherford working though last year's Miami game)

"I think he handled it pretty well for a first time starting in a big Miami-Florida State game. He did pretty well in my opinion. I think he handled it like an upperclassman. They had a good defense and we fought through it."

(On Weatherford's growth)

"He's more comfortable with the offense after having a whole season under his belt. A lot of big games, ACC Championship, Orange Bowl, just playing against the big teams and he has that now under his belt."

(How much playing time does it take to prepare for a big game?)

"I think it is like after the first play, you have to be ready for anything. We practice things so that there aren't any surprises. It depends on the person, everybody takes it differently."