FSU Monday Practice Report

• The Seminoles worked out in shorts and helmets for ten periods on Monday evening, starting with special teams and individual position drills.

• Most of periods were spent with the offense and defense working against the scout teams.

• Senior linebacker Buster Davis moved into the ACC lead at 9.0 tackles per game, which ranks 32nd nationally.

• Florida State will be back on the practice Tuesday afternoon.

QUOTES
Head Coach Bobby Bowden (On practice):
"They were like you'd want them tonight. They practiced well, it was very spirited and that's what you want. Other than Derek Nicholson, everyone who played Thursday answered the bell tonight."

(On the possibility of moving running back Marcus Sims to linebacker):
"Right now we want him to stay there (at running back). Right now we've still got Dakota (Watson), (Kevin) McNeil and a few other freshmen right now that fit in. We'd have to be pretty desperate to do that."

(On the linebackers):
"What you do, you play your three there and if they stay healthy you're okay there. Then if one of the outsiders got hurt then it could be that Buster (Davis) would go over there."

(On playing Xavier Lee):
"We haven't decided anything on that yet, maybe by Thursday we might have a plan. We sure would like to get him in the game. You set a plan for him to go in at a certain time, but then you're backed up on your two-yard line and so. We could possibly have a set plan for it, but we won't decide until the end of the week."

"He's doing some good things. He's just a spring training behind, it's a shame he couldn't get through the entire spring training. There's no wondering what might happen had he gotten all 15 days of spring training. In my opinion, he's still catching up a bit. I watch him throw the ball everyday and I don't see the consistency I want yet, but it will come. When it does I'll feel a lot better about getting him in the game."

Quarterback Drew Weatherford
(On the Florida State Defense):
"They have lost a lot of people, so they don't have as much depth. In the fourth quarter, often times, they aren't going to be as fresh as they have been in the past. We are going to have to do what we did against N C State, and that is score early, but we're going to also need to score late, and that is something we weren't able to do. Coach Bowden sometimes talks about it doesn't really matter what happens in the first quarter, but really what happens in the fourth quarter. And we didn't get it done in the fourth quarter."

(On the last drive of the NC State game):
"I thought that was going to be a big drive, I felt really good about coming back onto the field. For whatever reason, we didn't execute when we got out there. That was really disappointing as an offense, to look so good on one drive and go 99 yards, then have all the confidence in the world and then not get it done when you come back on the field."

(On the 99 yard drive against NC State):
"The coaches called a lot of great plays, a bunch of play-action plays, especially the one on the goal line. We mixed up the run and the pass, and things really worked out. It seemed like the play calling matched up with the defense, and we played well."

Offensive Coordinator Jeff Bowden
(On the running game):
"I still don't feel that we ran the ball near as well as I would have liked us to, they did pretty much what we anticipated and brought a lot of zone blitz into our runs and had safeties rolled out, so there were some runs that once they got to the safeties, they just didn't have a chance. I think that what that did do for us, though, later in the game was setup some play-action passes for us that were pretty big coming off that goal line and then going into the end zone. In that regard, they worked well together. "

(On Drew Weatherford):
I would say it was a B-minus. I think he's been playing well, I don't think he's played as good as he can play yet. I sometimes feel like he's out there trying to play perfect ball, and maybe a little cautious, too cautious at times, and not being as aggressive as I would like him to be. The shame in the last game is that nobody will remember what he did do but you're going to remember that last pick, that's what stands out in your mind. But he did do some good things; I would just like to see him be more aggressive."

(On the offense as a whole):
"It goes back to our running game, and you wonder sometimes if we should spread out more often, but it was just not willing to do that. You don't make a commitment to something and then abandon it. Now, there will come a point with me even, that if we're not being productive enough and we're going to be more productive spread out, then I'll make that decision, but I wasn't ready to do it. You drop the tipped ball in the end zone, you get three instead of seven, you take the last drive of the game, we got a 65-yard drive working, which who knows if we don't have the interception, who knows what's going to happen."

Defensive Coordinator Mickey Andrews
(On the injuries):
"I guess it goes without question; injuries really put a toll on the defense, with all the people we've lost. You wake up filling one position and having to fill a void at another position. We've lost four of our top seven linebackers, we haven't lost our three starters on base, but we play a lot of 3-4 and we've lost two starting defensive backs. But, we just got to play through it. There's nothing we can do about it, just try to get better. You try to get your best eleven on the field. We may have to do something different with our pass-rush people, basically, we'll try to get better at fundamentals, try to simplify things a little bit for some changes that we make, try to eliminate bad plays during the Duke game."

(On giving up big plays):
"The bad thing that happened up there was we gave up three passes for more than 25 yards. I don't know how you defend it, where the pass was thrown, the wide receiver went up and got it, each one of them was highlight tape plays. I'm not sure one guy got anybody or had anybody that could have made either one of them. Give them credit, you got to put the ball where they can't defend it, and the guy goes up, positions himself, and outfights a defensive back for the play. We talk a lot about finishing plays, and certainly we didn't finish plays, both on the pass and the run. We had some missed tackles, had some people out of gaps, and that's usually how your long plays work and sure enough, that's what happened to us."

(On making big plays):
"We didn't make enough plays happen on defense. We got no turnovers, we did very well in the situation battle, first-and-ten - we won that, third-down defense - we won that, fourth-down defense - we won that, on the goal line. But we gave up enough plays with the help of missed tackles and missed assignments and just getting outfought for the ball. Plays that if you're going to be a great defense, you got to make those plays. And we certainly weren't a great defense up there."